Webb County Mental Health Awareness Training Project - Serving Children and Adults in Need Inc. (SCAN), is proposing to continue to operate the Webb County Mental health Awareness Training Project in Webb County Texas which has Laredo as its seat of government and is situated along the Texas-Mexico border. The purpose of this project is to train 2,250 individuals in Webb County to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental disorders, particularly serious mental illness and or serious emotional disturbances; strengthen and expand linkages with schools and or community-based mental health agencies to refer individuals with the signs or symptoms of mental illness to appropriate services; train emergency services personnel, veterans, law enforcement, fire department personnel, and others to identify persons with a mental disorder and employ crisis de-escalation techniques; and educate individuals about resources that are available in the community for individuals with mental health disorders. The population of focus consists of public, youth, with serious emotional disturbances and adults with serious mental health disorders and veterans/armed forces personnel and their families. The persons to be trained are school personnel; law enforcement and emergency services personnel; families, caregivers, service providers; caregivers of youth with serious emotional disturbance; primary care and specialty providers; general practitioners; colleges and universities; and others. The goals of the project are to: 1) Implement in-person evidence-based mental health awareness training that includes recognition of the signs and symptoms of mental illness and identification of resources available in the community for individuals with a mental illness; 2) Develop community capacity for mental health awareness training and coordination of resources for adults and youth identifies with serious mental illness/emotional disturbances; 3) Foster trauma-informed systems of care that acknowledge the impact of trauma exposure on first responders, educators, law enforcement, health professionals, school personnel, and veterans and armed forces personnel and their families; 4) Have trainees demonstrate increased knowledge and skills post-training; 5) Expand SCAN's training capacity to deliver evidence-based practices with a high degree of fidelity that honor the population's cultural and linguistic needs; and 6) Collect data regularly throughout the project to gauge training outcomes, allow for timely reporting, and guide program improvement. SCAN has selected Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), Youth Mental health First Aid (YMHFA), and teen Mental Health first Aid (tMHFA) as the evidence-based practices for this project. these EBP's will allow SCAN to deliver trainings that provide participants with the skills to help and individual experiencing a mental health challenge or crisis. SCAN will reconvene its Mental Health First Aid Advisory Group composed of local stakeholders and develop a new strategic plan to address the training priorities of Webb County. In order to provide ongoing support and skill development, SCAN will schedule quarterly consultation to help trainees appropriately link individuals they identify with SMI or SED with appropriate services.
