WellSpan Philhaven Mental Health Awareness Training (WSPHMHAT) - The WellSpan Philhaven Mental Health Awareness Training program (WSPHMHAT) will seek to serve individuals ages 18 and over in Adams, Lancaster, Lebanon, and York counties, providing training in the evidence-based practices of Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) and Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR). The WSPHMHAT program will train 596 individuals in year one of the grant, 507 individuals in year two, and 287 individuals in year three for a total of 1,390 individuals during the three-year project period. Providing MHFA and QPR training is both an organizational priority for WellSpan Health and specialty for WellSpan Philhaven (WSPH), the 14th largest behavioral health provider in the country. WSPH has experience providing MHFA and QPR training to law enforcement and correctional officers, veterans, primary and secondary school educators, Pennsylvania State Senate political staff, corporations, local library staff, elder health care organizations, and faith-based communities. For the purpose of the MHAT grant program, training efforts will be focused on veterans’ advocates, correctional facility staff and others who exist at the intersection of the criminal justice system and the mental and behavioral health sphere, and social services providers. The individuals to be served include the approximately 1,207,000 residents of the aforementioned counties, a population where:
• An average of 36% of adults report experiencing 1 or more poor mental health days a month;
• An average of 18% of adults report having a depressive disorder;
• An average of 17% of adults report having an anxiety disorder;
• Many adults possess or have experienced risk factors that often contribute to or are associated with poor mental health such as poverty (10% average) and economic hardships (30.8%), obesity (30.3%), and poor health that limits normal activities (40.3%)
Focusing on the above described population, the WSPHMHAT program will seek to achieve three primary goals: 1) Increase the number of individuals in WellSpan Health’s (WSH) primary service area (Adams, Lebanon, Lancaster, and York counties) who are trained in QPR or MHFA (measured by the number of individuals trained and the number of trainings held); 2) Expand the capacity of WSPH’s mental Health Care Education training team (measured by the support of 1 FTE Mental Health Care Educator and the hiring and onboarding of a 0.5 FTE Administrative Assistant to provide direct project support); and 3) Increase awareness and understanding of mental health in WSH’s primary service area among those trained in MHFA and QPR by WSPH (measured by trainee responses to pre- and post-training surveys administered by WSPH).
