Friday, May 9, 2025
5/9/2025
Central Florida Pathways to Awareness, Support & Services (CPASS) - The Central Florida Pathways to Awareness, Support and Services (CPASS) Project is a partnership between the University of Central Florida (UCF), law enforcement/emergency services, and behavioral health (BH) agencies to coordinate, strengthen, and expand efforts to provide Mental Health First Aid (Y/MHFA) training, community-based mental health intervention options, and BH education/outreach to law enforcement officers/first responders in six counties in Central Florida. The population of focus is youth and young adults who experience mental health, suicide, substance abuse, or other crisis-related issues. Project goals (measureable objectives) aim to (1) enhance mental health literacy to law enforcement officers/first responders via delivery of mental health awareness training and de-escalation strategies, Y/MHFA (Objectives: create a training and evaluation plan to implement and evaluate Y/MHFA; develop MOUs with existing instructors; recruit new Y/MHFA instructors; develop MOUs with community partners for training; conduct Y/MHFA trainings, provide TA for new/existing instructors; evaluate Y/MHFA training); (2) Raise public awareness about mental illness and treatment via the promotion and distribution of help-seeking resources and educational materials (Objectives: develop a community outreach and engagement plan; participate in community events/forums; disseminate training manuals, promotional materials, and educational/help-seeking resources); (3) Improve coordination of BH services (including screening, assessment, treatment) via the adoption of referral pathway protocols for law enforcement officers/first responders (Objectives: develop an identification/screening and referral plan; develop MOUs with BH providers to facilitate treatment linkage to services for referring first aiders; promote, train, and disseminate de-escalation strategies and identification/screening and referral plan pathways; assess the number of at-risk youth/young adults referred to BH/supportive services); (4) Strengthen the collaboration of local and state partnerships to promote and coordinate delivery of mental health awareness training, de-escalation strategies, and other BH initiatives aimed to identify at-risk youth and keep them connected to care (Objectives: establish MOUs to implement trainings in diverse areas; promote project at community advisory committee meetings/events). Over the life of the grant, we will certify 10 Y/MHFA instructors who will train 2,000 Y/MHFA first aiders (YR1: 500 first aiders/5 instructors; YR2: 650 first aiders/5 instructors; YR3: 850 first aiders) and disseminate 9,000 help-seeking resources/mental health educational materials at 52 events and 80 trainings (YR1: 2,000 resources/12 events/20 trainings; YR2: 3,150 resources/18 events/26 trainings; YR3: 3,850 resources/22events/34 trainings). The collection of performance measures, evaluation efforts, and continuous QA checks will be conducted by the UCF.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).