Friday, November 22, 2024
11/22/2024
St. Petersburg College (SPC) and the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay (CFTB) are partnering to launch Addressing Crisis Today in Tampa Bay (ACT-TB), which will expand current efforts to raise awareness of the prevalence of mental health issues in the community, through the training of school personnel, first responders, health care workers, veterans’ organizations, faith-based organizations and other non-profits to be certified in Mental Health First Aid (MHFA). The goals of this initiative are to increase the capacity of direct service providers to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illness, support the compilation of information on mental health services and referrals across Tampa Bay, and increase access to and use of referral and mental health resources. Through targeted outreach, individuals to be trained will include those working with populations vulnerable to mental health challenges. Through MHFA training, individuals who have high interactions with the public will learn to identify mental health issues, be better prepared and know how to respond when faced with individuals in potential mental health crisis situations. With a goal of helping MHFA become as common as CPR, ACT-TB will engage a consortium of community partners to develop a regional approach to mental health support for the broader Tampa Bay community. The consortium will develop mechanisms for tracking referrals to mental health service providers, and develop shared goals for establishing centralized resources and monitoring regional mental health benchmarks. Funding will support training to certify 16 additional MHFA instructors, and, approximately 4,750 individuals (average of 950 per year) will be trained in MHFA. The primary outcome will be at least 80% of participants will demonstrate increased knowledge of signs and symptoms of mental illnesses, and increased confidence in being able to respond to an individual in distress, as demonstrated through pre- and post- course evaluations. Funding will also support consortium strategic planning sessions, the development of centralized resources, and a full-time Mental Health Awareness Training Coordinator to coordinate training, develop materials and conduct additional outreach.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
