In September 2018, Â鶹TV was awarded a 3-year grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) with the purpose of providing Youth Mental Health First Aid training to a handful of employees. Staff from Â鶹TV’s Youth & Family Services team, along with several of the organization’s Management Team, was selected to carry out the project for the next three years.
The training, which took place over a three day period, January 23-25, 2019, will enable the selected Â鶹TV staff to become certified Youth Mental Health First Aid Instructors. As a result, staff will then provide mental health education to adults who work closely with youth in the community. These trainings will teach community members how to identify and support potential mental illness and/or crisis situations they may encounter on a daily basis. The training was a natural fit for Â鶹TV’s Youth & Family Services program which aims to intervene at an early age in order to prevent further mental health issues later in life.
The Â鶹TV staff members working on this grant are thrilled to be able to share this knowledge with the community and hope that it can be another opportunity to decrease the stigma surrounding mental health.