Tag Archives: MHFA

Members of Peninsula Temple Sholom Become Mental Health First Aiders

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Adult members of Peninsula Temple Sholom (PTS) eagerly arrived to our 2-day Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) training. A total of 16 participants, most of which were parents, were trained to recognize the warning signs and risk factors indicating when a youth is suffering from a mental health issue. Participants were very grateful for the training and thanked facilitators, Mike and Karin, for such an informative two days. Due to the great turn out and interest of the participants, the Office of Diversity and Equity (ODE), plans to bring another YMHFA for the Peninsula Temple Sholom teachers in the near future.

1 in 5 youth will experience a mental health challenge in their lifetime. YMHFA is an 8-hour public education training program designed for any adult or student peer working with or assisting young people, ages 12-24. In 2013, San Mateo County BHRS partnered with the County Office of Education to begin offering this training to all schools throughout the county. Classroom teachers, school site administrators, school office personnel, coaches, bus drivers, afterschool providers, parents, teacher’s aides, school health aides, yard duty staff, crossing guards, peers and other school personnel are strongly encouraged to become Youth Mental Health First Aiders.

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For more information about YMHFA, visit http://smchealth.org/bhrs/ode/CommunityEd#YMHFA or contact Natalie Andrade at nandrade@smcgov.org or 650-372-8548

 

Community Legal Services in EPA Staff Trained as Mental Health First Aiders

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Attorneys, immigration advocates, and office managers from Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto became Mental Health First Aiders in February and are now trained to provide help to those experiencing a mental health problem or challenge.

Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto provides transformative legal services to diverse and disadvantaged communities in San Mateo County to support individuals and communities affected by immigration, employment, housing, and consumer law.

For more on Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto, go to http://www.clsepa.org/

CLSEPA blog

Mental Health First Aid is a FREE 8-hour certification course that teaches community members how to recognize and appropriately respond to an individual experiencing an emotional or behavioral health challenge, including depression, anxiety, psychosis, and substance abuse. Mental Health First Aid is provided by the Office of Diversity and Equity, BHRS and supported by funds through MHSA (Prop. 63)

If you would like to host a training or are interested in attending, please contact Natalie Andrade at nandrade@smcgov.org or 650-372-8548

 

BHRS Training Update

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This BHRS training update provides information on upcoming BHRS trainings, updates on the rescheduling of WRAP and ASIST, DSM 5 training follow-up, reminder to pre-register for all BHRS trainings, reminder to complete spirituality survey, and information about outside trainings.

UPCOMING BHRS TRAININGS

2-23-16: SMMC Grand Rounds–Bridging Spirituality Within Clinical Practice Panel Discussion.  This training is sponsored by the BHRS Spirituality Initiative (12:15pm-1:30pm in Room 100, 225 37th Avenue, San Mateo)

2-25-16: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia Training (registration is full)

2-25-16 and 2-26-16: ASAM training (application period has ended)

3-3-16: Native American Mental Health Training (register on LMS www.smcgov.org/lms or contact kwestrick@smcgov.org  if you do not have an LMS account)

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Mental Health First Aid Training Offered to Older Adult Caregivers and Volunteers

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Older adult caregivers, volunteers and community members crowded the room in San Mateo for the Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training course held in Spanish, prompting training coordinators to plan for a future training in the coming months.   Thirty-four individuals (pictured above), most of whom caregivers and volunteers, were certified in Mental Health First Aid during the mid-November training. The training marked the second course in 2015 offered in collaboration with Aging and Older Adult Services to In-Home Support Services (IHSS) Registry caregivers. Also in attendance were volunteers from Peninsula Family Services.

The course was taught by BHRS staff members Hector Moncada, Supervising Mental Health Clinician, and Gloria Gutierrez, Clinician, both of whom are very active in the Latino community. Mental Health First Aid is provided by the Office of Diversity and Equity.

MHFA is a FREE 8-hour certification course that teaches community members how to recognize and appropriately respond to an individual experiencing an emotional or behavioral health challenge, including depression, anxiety, psychosis, and substance abuse. If you would like to host a training or are interested in attending, please contact Natalie Andrade at nandrade@smcgov.org

 

 

SPECIAL FEATURE #4: PROMOTING POSITIVE MENTAL HEALTH OUTCOMES – Mental Health First Aid

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The Office of Diversity and Equity (ODE) Youth and Adult Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) program is a groundbreaking free program that trains participants to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders and learn a 5-step action plan to help an individual in crisis connect with appropriate professional, peer, social, and self-help care.

Since it’s inception, over 1400 individuals have been certified in MHFA … “We’ve trained everyone from teenagers, law enforcement, parents, teachers to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental health and learn appropriate ways on how to connect someone to help,” says former coordinator, Lauren Getuiza.

In October 2013, ODE partnered with the San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE) to begin offering Youth MHFA in schools, successfully training 917 individuals during 51 trainings countywide. At 6 month follow up, more than three-quarters (77%) of respondents reported having been in a situation at least once since their participation in the course, in which YMHFA was relevant. And of these:

  • 97% report that they applied YMHFA
  • 91% report that they felt they were effective in applying YMHFA

Enjoy this short video clip and visit ODE’s Community Education webpage to learn more about the Adult and Youth MHFA and other Community Education programs.

Once a week I am sharing BHRS Office of Diversity and Equity (ODE) prevention programs through a series of short video clips created by the California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA), funded by the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA). Check out our previous blog posts and come back next week for Special Feature #5 – The Health Ambassador Program!

Seeking Interns for the Office of Diversity and Equity

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Office of Diversity and Equity Internship Program
Applications Due Wednesday, August 12 9AM PST

About the Office of Diversity & Equity
The San Mateo County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services (BHRS) Office of Diversity and Equity(ODE) is dedicated to addressing health disparities, health inequities and stigma in the areas of mental health and substance use, and supporting wellness and recovery among underserved, unserved, and inappropriately served communities in San Mateo County. ODE works to achieve these goals by promoting cultural competence and cultural humility, which are rooted in principles of social justice. To learn more about ODE’s work, visit http://smchealth.org/bhrs/ODE.

About the Internship Program
The ODE Internship Program is designed to provide work opportunities and practical learning experience for undergraduate college and graduate students in order to enhance their academic preparation and expose them to public service at the county level. For the 2015-2016 internship programs, we are looking to hire 4 interns. All interns will have the opportunity to participate in a Health Equity Initiative and intern in one of the four areas:

1. Workforce, Education & Training | Stigma

2. Workforce, Education & Training | Suicide Prevention

3. Mental Health First Aid | Digital Storytelling

4. Parent Project | Health Ambassador Program

For more details and application, visit http://smchealth.org/sites/default/files/docs/AAS/ODEInternshipApplication20152016.pdf.

Congregation at St. Andrew Catholic Church certified in Mental Health First Aid

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On May 16th, twenty-two community members were certified in Mental Health First Aid through collaboration between the Filipino Mental Health Initiative (FMHI) and the Office of Diversity and Equity (BHRS ODE). The training day began with a prayer and message by Father Piers Lahey, a priest at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Daly City. He shared the following message with the audience:

God, we come before You remembering all those whose lives have been touched by mental illnesses. We give thanks for the people who have given of their time and talents to help those who are dealing with mental illnesses – in their own lives, or in the lives of their families and friends. We give thanks for the improvement in medication and treatment programs that have enabled persons with mental illnesses to live productive lives. We pray that our society would do everything possible to make early diagnosis and treatment a standard procedure. We pray that stigma be removed, so that both those who are unwell, and their families, get the appropriate help as soon as symptoms appear. Guide each of us, and help us, as we endeavor to bring help and hope to all whose lives have been touched by mental health issues. Amen.

Father Lahey shared his lived experience of depression and credited his recovery and treatment to psychologists, counselors and prayer. Through community education programs such as Mental Health First Aid, our hope is that stigma related to mental health and substance abuse is decreased and our community empathy and education will be increased. We want to sincerely thank FMHI and St. Andrew’s Church of Daly City for a poignant and meaningful training of mental health education and the idea that mental health recovery can be stronger and more impactful with professional help and spirituality.

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First Lady Michelle Obama Discusses the Importance of Mental Health First Aid

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First Lady Michelle Obama recently attended a Mental Health First Aid training and discussed ways we can contribute to societal changes for mental health literacy. By reaching out, showing each other compassion and learning warning signs of mental health crisis, we can provide hope and offer help to those in need. By doing so, the First Lady stated that we can, “change the story of Mental Health in America [and] together, change direction.”

For more on the Change Direction campaign and the First Lady’s video please visit: http://www.changedirection.org/

To read a full article on the First Lady’s views and experience taking the Mental Health First Aid training, please visit: http://www.thenationalcouncil.org/press-releases/first-lady-mental-health-first-aid-really-gives-skills-need-identify-ultimately-help-someone-need/

For local MHFA trainings in San Mateo County, please contact: Lauren Getuiza, Office of Diversity and Equity, 650-372-8548 or c_lgetuiza@smcgov.org

ODE Hosts First Youth Mental Health First Aid Instructor Summit

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On January 28, 2015, the Office of Diversity and Equity (ODE) hosted the first Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) Instructor Summit. A total of 14 YMHFA Instructors were present for the 2.5 hour event. School personnel, community-based organization employees, community members, San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE) staff, San Mateo Medical Center and Behavioral Health and Recovery Services staff comprised the instructor group.

Topics discussed included the unique partnership between ODE and SMCOE to provide free, 8-hour YMHFA trainings to school personnel and other youth-serving adults of our county through Measure A tax funds; highlights and outcomes reports of the program since the kickoff in October 2013; continual instructor support from ODE staff; and ways to strengthen the community of instructors not only in San Mateo County, but neighboring counties as well.

Presentations were provided on topics of Non-Suicidal Self Injury, Cultural Humility as well as SMCOE’s work on the Coalition for Safe Schools and Communities. ODE plans on hosting Instructor Summit meetings on an annual basis to support, inspire and thank instructors for their efforts. Through these meetings, ODE will offer continual learning and support for instructors to facilitate trainings confidently while taking a culturally humble approach and furthering the vital work in reducing stigma related to mental health and substance abuse.

For more information about this Summit or YMHFA, please contact Lauren Getuiza at c_lgetuiza@smcgov.org or 650-372-8548.

Recipe for a Healthy Community

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As the year comes to a close, let us reflect upon all of the amazing work that is being done to reach our communities who live with mental health and substance abuse challenges. The National Council for Behavioral Health created a recipe for creating a healthy community. This recipe can serve as a reflection of resources we have as well as a vision towards goals to achieve for the New Year. As a community of service providers, San Mateo County has a pantry full of necessary ingredients to create a healthier community. With dedicated collaborations and effective programming, we can certainly create a healthy dose of Wellness.

Happy Holidays!

Recipe

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