Lake County Mental Health First Aid Project - The Lake County Health Department and Community Health Center (LCHD/CHC) will expand and improve a county-wide, Youth and Adult Mental Health First Aid training campaign. The project will reduce stigma and increase awareness of mental health disorders while creating a large group of community members who are trained to identify and address mental health disorders among individuals in their communities.
Project Name: Lake County Mental Health First Aid
Population to Be Served: The project will train Lake County community members including law enforcement, teachers, coaches, faith community leaders, military members, veterans, military families and mental health/related workforce professionals. These trainees will use Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) skills to identify and address mental health issues in their communities including referring individuals to behavioral health services. The project will target diverse populations including, in particular, traditionally underserved Hispanic and African-American populations. Anyone may take the classes, so there are no clinical targets for participants, though they will be trained to identify and assist people struggling with behavioral health issues.
Strategies/Interventions: The Lake County Mental Health First Aid project will take a train-the- trainer approach to creating a broad network of MHFA trainees. A total of 150 individuals will be trained as trainers in five years. These trainers will then be expected to provide at least three workshops in their communities. Utilization of MHFA tactics and referrals to mental health services will be tracked via monthly reporting by trainees.
Project Goals/ Measurable Objectives: The Lake County Mental Health First Aid project has four measurable objectives for the project: Goal 1: Recruit 150 individuals to serve as MHFA trainers (30 per year); Goal 2: Train at least 1,454 people from the mental health workforce in MHFA (206 in year 1; 312 each year 2-5); Goal 3: Train at least 2,181 community members in MHFA (309 in year 1; 468 each year 2-5); Goal 4: Identify at least 3,500 referrals that were made to mental health services by individuals who received Mental Health First Aid training (500 in year one, 750 each year 2-5).
Mental Health First Aid Participant goals: By year 5, LCHD/CHC aims to train a total of 3,635 people in Mental Health First Aid. These individuals will refer at least 3,500 individuals to behavioral health services.
