Funded by a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Mental Health Awareness Training (MHAT) grant, the Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs (CSBMHP), the Ohio Mental Health Network for School Success (OMHNSS), a cadre of Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) instructors, referral agencies throughout Ohio, and the Discovery Center for Evaluation, Research, and Professional Learning are partnering in a proposed initiative entitled Youth Aid Ohio: Mental Health Training, Resources, Referrals.

This initiative is providing YMHFA training to school personnel (e.g., educators, administrators, school support staff, school resource officers), behavioral health providers (e.g., behavior specialists, social workers, counselors), youth-serving organization staff (e.g., mentors, coaches, tutors), and parents and family members so they can recognize signs and symptoms of mental health concerns among school-age youth in pre-kindergarten through grade 12, and refer those youth to services, as appropriate.

YMHFA will be delivered throughout each of the regions of the OMHNSS, providing opportunities for adults throughout the entire state of Ohio to participate. The goal of the proposed project is to raise awareness of mental health needs among school aged youth and to build statewide and local capacity of the behavioral health workforce to develop integrated, comprehensive, data-driven strategic plans that will prevent, delay the onset, mitigate the seriousness of mental health and behavioral health problems, and ensure that youth have access to timely and effective services