Strategic Prevention Partnerships MHAT - Strategic Prevention Partnerships’ Mental Health Awareness Project will provide mental health awareness training in Newport County, Rhode Island (population 82,888), provide resources to those receiving training to refer target populations to mental health care and strengthen current efforts to ensure mental health concerns are addressed quickly. The populations of focus for this mental health awareness project are veterans, military personnel, and their families and our Spanish speaking community members. Our focus populations will be reached through the schools, faith organizations, law enforcement and organizations that specifically serve them. To meet the Mental Health Awareness Training goals, SPP will take a three prong approach to impact our target populations: 1) Mental Health First Aid training; 2) Give an Hour®’s Campaign to Change Direction; and 3) No Wrong Door System of Care. Mental Health First Aid (MHFA): SPP will provide MHFA training to military personnel and families in Newport County and to individuals/organizations that impact those families particularly schools, faith organizations and law enforcement. MHFA training will include Newport’s Spanish-speaking residents within the highly concentrated public housing neighborhoods. Recognized nationally as an evidence-based program, MHFA is a skills-based training course that teaches participants about mental health and substance-use issues, how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illness and substance use disorders. Campaign to Change Direction: To complement MHFA training, SPP will implement Campaign to Change Direction. Change Direction teaches the Five Signs of Emotional Suffering so that participants can identify someone’s suffering. SPP will use the Five Signs framework for community presentations, particularly in schools and faith organizations. Change Direction materials are available in multiple languages and will be distributed in English and Spanish. No Wrong Door System of Care: NWD was launched to help close mental health service gaps in the county. NWD is developing a software system that will improve the communication and referral tracking between all eight behavioral healthcare providers to ensure vulnerable individuals do not “fall through the cracks.” Through NWD, resource materials will be distributed to potential mental health clients. Information detailing where and how to access services will be distributed in the community particularly through the schools, faith organizations, military establishment, and the North End. We anticipate providing training to 1,740 people in Mental Health First Aid and 10,640 in Campaign to Change Direction over the course of the five-year project; approximately 2,476 individuals per year.
