Tuesday, May 13, 2025
5/13/2025
Mental Health Awareness Training (MHAT) - The Right Place Inc., in Anniston Alabama since 2012, will implement the SAMHSA funded Mental Health Awareness Training (MHAT) Project to train individuals, law enforcement, fire services, veterans, schools, and community providers using the evidence-based Mental Health First Aid course to increase awareness, establish referral and linkages to mental health providers, and educate about available mental health resources. Using the community-friendly Mental Health First Aid training course will allow those trained to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental disorders, particularly serious mental illness (SMI) and serious emotional disturbance (SED), plus the ability to use crisis de-escalation techniques while going about their daily workplace and home life. The increased awareness provided by the MHAT Project will train community gate-keepers, social service agencies and homelessness providers, law enforcement, fire services, schools, emergency first responders, and veterans and their families to have greater awareness about mental illness and will prepare them to respond appropriately and safely in crisis situations. A primary goal of the MHAT Project will be to increase referrals to experienced and competent mental health services and primary care providers in our community. These professionals will be partners with the Project and can provide assessment, further referral for treatment or supportive services as needed. The Right Place MHAT staff will collaborate with all persons trained in Mental Health First Aid to document the number of referrals made by trained individuals. The MHAT Project will provide six, Mental Health First Aid trainings annually, training 150 persons per year, and over 750 individuals through the 5-year program. The Right Place serves 8 rural counties of N.E. Alabama and is located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains - training and awareness outreach will focus on the five most populous counties of Calhoun (pop. 117,253), Cleburne (pop 14,885), Etowah (pop104,311), Cherokee (pop 26,056), and DeKalb (pop. 70,977) Census 2012. Committed partners for the recruitment, outreach, and marketing of the project are in place and will contribute to the projects’ success. Project staff will also provide guest speakers, health fairs, awareness events, distribution of mental health educational brochures, and community opportunities to reach an additional 600 persons annually through mental health awareness outreach activities. As an objective of the program, MHAT will create a community resource directory to be shared annually with all partners and interested persons, especially those serving veterans and rural residents. Staff will update and revise the resource directory as new partners are trained and added to the list of mental health related providers and services in our targeted counties. The staff of The Right Place Inc. have a combined 75+ years of expertise providing community level interventions, prevention and awareness programming, data collection and grants management. The program evaluation, data collection, reporting, and performance measurement will be conducted according to SAMHSA guidelines and requirements.
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).