Tuesday, April 23, 2024
4/23/2024
Project Abstract Summary: Project Support: Mental Health Awareness Training for First Responders is training for first responders - public safety, fire, and EMS personnel - across Alabama to respond to adults with serious mental illness. The project strives to train first responders in Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental health disorders, particularly serious mental illness (SMI), and to provide those experiencing mental health illnesses with appropriate resources. Goal 1: Train first responders who interact with adults to recognize signs and symptoms of mental illness, with the following two objectives: (a) Increase the number of MHFA trainers by four in Year 1 and by two each subsequent year, and (b) Train 2,240 unduplicated first responders in MHFA across the five years. Goal 2: Increase the knowledge of first responders, who interact with adults with signs and symptoms of mental illness, on the available behavioral health resources, with the following two objectives: (a) 90% of first responders surveyed will report an increase in mental health literacy, from pretest to posttest; and (b) Develop and promote a web-based information hub on available behavioral health resources in Year 1. Goal 3: Strengthen referral system to community mental health services to refer adults with signs or symptoms of mental illness, with the following two objectives: (a) By February 1, 2022, project partners will have established pathways for first responders who are trained in MHFA to refer adults with signs and symptoms of mental illness with whom they interact to community mental health services; and (b) By the end of the project, 50% of first responders trained in MHFA will report making a referral to a community mental health service. The unduplicated number of individuals who will be served annually is 320 during Year 1 and 480 each subsequent year for a total of 2,240 first responders over the five year project period.
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