The Green on the Scene Mental Health Awareness Training (GS MHAT) program through Volunteer Behavioral Health Care System (VBH) seeks to educate and inform first responder personnel and arm them with the tools they need to respond to individuals presenting for service (or within their ranks) with symptoms and behaviors that may indicate someone is dealing with a mental illness.
VBH intends to provide this training to create a comprehensive mental health awareness program serving firefighters, Emergency Medical Service (EMS) staff, paramedics, dispatchers, corrections, public safety personnel, and other relevant first responders who are “on the scene” first when responding in DeKalb, Overton, Putnam, Smith, Sumner, and White counties in Tennessee’s upper Cumberland Plateau and Highland regions. VBH will train 160 First Aiders and 4 Instructors in Year One and 240 First Aiders and 8 Instructors Years Two-Five for a total of 1120 First Aiders and 36 Instructors trained in Mental Health First Aid (MHFA). Personnel in participating counties will improve (as measured by self-report questionnaire and REDCap survey responses) in their capacity to recognize, evaluate, and identify effective responses to mental health issues and crises they encounter. This will enable the community to refer to needed care in the least restrictive, and thereby lowest cost setting.
Response to mental health emergencies in communities is a public health issue that requires continuous collaboration between community behavioral health entities and first responders. We need not look farther than our local and national nightly news to know that significant interventions are needed for meaningful change. Aside from the criminalization of mental illness, other alternatives such as emergency departments (ED) are often not prepared to adequately manage mental health emergencies for those with Serious Mental Illness (SMI), Severe Emotional Disturbance (SED), and/or substance abuse issues, especially in rural settings.
Additionally, first responders such as Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and fire personnel are embedded within their communities and the general public. They regularly encounter those who may be experiencing mental health issues, are undiagnosed, or who are in need of services and appropriate resources. They also have their own stigmas and mental health concerns within the peer community of first responders who experience repeated trauma and vicarious trauma through their work.