SCAN-LISD AWARE Project - Summary: SCAN, Inc. in conjunction with the Laredo Independent School District (LISD) will implement the SCAN-LISD AWARE Project in Laredo, Webb County, Texas. This project will increase SCAN's ability to foster mental health awareness and resiliency among youth and their families by implementing a three-tiered public health model, which includes evidence-based universal and secondary prevention and tertiary intervention strategies. Project Name: SCAN-LISD AWARE Project. Population to be served: Laredo ISD students and their family members and employees of the school district. Statement of the Problem: Webb County has been designated as a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) for mental health services. Youth and their families face significant barriers to mental health identification and treatment, since there are great shortages of mental health professionals including psychiatrists, psychologists, and licensed counselors. Since 1990, Webb County has been designated as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA). Great quantities of illicit drugs are smuggled into the area from Mexico, making these drugs easily available and very affordable. Severe poverty, limited resources, and unique social and political issues make residents of this areas of Texas very vulnerable to substance use and misuse. Webb County has very limited mental health and substance use prevention/intervention resources available, and there is a dire need to enhance the local infrastructure to ensure that school-aged youth and their families are provided with increased access to evidence-based prevention and intervention services. Moreover, adults who work with school-aged youth need ongoing and coordinated workforce capacity building training focused on fostering mental health awareness and prevention. Strategies/Interventions: The project's Advisory Board, consisting of SCAN, LISD, the State Education Agency, the State Mental Health Agency, and other key collaborative partners will guide the development and implementation of the project. The Advisory Board will meet in an ongoing manner; conduct a needs assessment; develop an implementation plan based on a three-tiered public health model; develop a sustainability plan; and provide a variety of evidence-based and culturally appropriate prevention and intervention services and activities to meet the comprehensive needs of the target population; and monitor and evaluate the project in an ongoing manner. Project Goals & Objectives: The overarching goal is to develop a sustainable infrastructure for the provision of school-based mental health programs and services that target mental health, substance use, and co-occurring disorders among students in the Laredo Independent School District. The primary objectives include: *establish and maintain an Advisory Board that meets in an ongoing manner: *assemble a specialized team made to conduct a detail needs assessment and generate a formal report: *develop an implementation based on the needs assessment that includes a three-tiered public health model; *implement the plan to ensure that students are provided with access to evidence-based universal and secondary prevention strategies and tertiary intervention strategies; *provide student' parents and other adult caregivers with access to universal prevention strategies; *provide school employees with access to Mental Health First Aid and Psychological First Aid for Schools training; *develop a plan to sustain the project after federal funding ends; and *integrate the project with the Webb County Community Coalition to help create awareness of the project and enhance efforts to link students to community resources. Persons to be Served: Annually, 16,000 students and family members will receive universal prevention, 3,200 students and 500 employees secondary prevention, and 200 students tertiary intervention. Overall, an estimated 15,600 unduplicated students and employees will receive services.
