DMH Offering Mental Health First Aid Training

May 23, 2019 (Jackson, Miss.) – The Mississippi Department of Mental Health is currently offering Youth Mental Health First Aid Training through a federal grant available through the next three years.  The training is available for parents, educators, families, and other professionals who regularly interact with young people how to help a young person who may be experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.

Youth Mental Health First Aid is an 8 hour training, designed to teach parents, family members, caregivers, teachers, school staff, peers, neighbors, health and human services workers, and other caring citizens how to help an adolescent (age 12-18) who is experiencing a mental health or addictions challenge or is in crisis.

Youth Mental Health First Aid is primarily designed for adults who regularly interact with young people. The course introduces common mental health challenges for youth, reviews typical adolescent development, and teaches a 5-step action plan for how to help young people in both crisis and non-crisis situations.

Topics covered include anxiety, depression, substance use, disorders in which psychosis may occur, disruptive behavior disorders (including AD/HD), and eating disorders.

DMH is able to offer the training to school district employees, school resource officers, parents and caregivers due to a federal grant from the Substance Abuse Services and Mental Health Administration. The Mental Health Awareness Training grant is a three-year grant SAMHSA awarded to DMH that allows the agency to provide this training at no cost to these groups.  The training is scheduled for the following cities and dates. Click the image below for a PDF that contains links to location and registration information.

A multi-disciplinary group gathered in early 2019 at the DMH Central Office in Jackson to become certified as instructors in Youth Mental Health First Aid, kicking off the Mental Health Awareness Training grant’s first efforts. As instructors, they will be training hopefully hundreds of Mississippi teachers, school employees, and school resource officers in the Youth Mental Health First Aid curriculum throughout the next three years.

DMH will be working with these instructors, as well as current instructors at Community Mental Health Centers across Mississippi, to offer these trainings and make sure participants are aware of the mental health resources in their areas.

Training classes must have at least five participants, with no more than 30 in any single class.

The training has also been approved for eight hours of continuing education credit for school resource officers by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety and for .08 hours of continuing education units for educators by Jackson State University’s School of Lifelong Learning. While the cost of the training is covered through the grant, continuing education credits will be the responsibility of the participants.

For more information or to request a training, contact the Department of Mental Health at 601-359-1288.