Tuesday, May 13, 2025
5/13/2025
Mental Health Awareness Training for Healthy US-MX Border Communities - The Mental Health Awareness Training for Healthy US-MX Border Communities Project aims to enhance the capacity of high-risk Hispanic communities in the El Paso, TX on the US-MX border to respond to individuals with mental disorders, particularly Serious Mental Illness (SMI) and/or Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED) by providing evidence-based education and training, and establishing/expanding linkages to care through a minority campus community coordinated response. The University of Texas at El Paso - the major regional Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) with 90% of 25,000+ students residing in the community and, commuting to campus everyday- will partner with Aliviane Inc., the region's major behavioral health service provider( with almost 50 years of experience) to utilize their unique connection and access to the high-SMI/SED-risk local Hispanic communities to enhance regional capacity to respond to individuals with mental disorders. The population of focus includes minority (Hispanic) college students, veteran students and families, first-generation college - going, people with disabilities, (im)migrant students, LGBTQ, homeless students attending UTEP and, their interpersonal family and community networks. Project goals are to (i) train individuals who most frequently interact with at-risk populations including first responders, particularly ALL tiers of campus law enforcement, veteran service providers and counselors to recognize the signs and symptoms of SMI and/or SED and respond safely, to identify individuals with mental illness and, to employ crisis de-escalation techniques (N=150); (2) Establish and/or expand linkages with community based and campus based organizations to create a coordinated response to refer individuals with SMI and /SED in a timely manner; (3) educate the El Paso, TX communities (campus and interpersonal community networks) about resources available in community and campus to safely respond to individuals with mental illness in a timely, sensitive, and culturally appropriate manner and (4) To conduct formative and summative evaluation related to advancing project goals. The measurable objectives of this project are: (i) to train 59 campus law enforcement (ALL tiers: officers, dispatch/first responders and administrators) in Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), and providing referrals from 09/30/18 - 09/29/21, (ii) to train at least 91 individuals including campus personnel, first responders, veteran peers/service providers, sexual assault advocates/prevention specialists , student affairs direct service providers, personnel/health professionals in contact with at-risk individuals/populations) in community and on campus from 09/30/18- 09/29/21 (iii) to develop referral system protocol for tracking outcomes related to individuals reached by trainees, (iv) to make an updated mental health resource directory available via social media by 03/2019 to 50 trainees per year, 25,000+ UTEP students and, El Paso county residents (850,000+) while linking all project social media to stakeholder organizations' social medial by program year 2 and, (iv) to conduct process and outcome evaluation Government and performance Results (GPRA) Modernization Act 2010 related data, and local assessment from 09/30/18- 09/29/21.
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).