The Community Foundation provided the Madison County Rural Health Council with a $10,000 grant from our Madison County Rural Poverty Fund to host the second year of its Teen Mental Health First Aid (TMHFA) training program.
Written by: Jamie Hagenbuch, PROGRAM MANAGER, MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID, MADISON COUNTY RURAL HEALTH COUNCIL
Madison County Rural Health Council (MCRHC), with the support of the Central New York Community Foundation, has been impacting teen and youth mental health within our rural communities through promoting resiliency within our community members. MCRHC offers multiple Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) curriculums for adults working in the fields of fire/EMS, higher education, public safety, and for teens and youth, ensuring our organization is serving and meeting the needs of our community.
There is an overall lack of resources and available mental health professionals in our rural area, and we believe community education is crucial. Being located in a rural part of Central New York, our MCRHC team has been able to establish strong partnerships within 16 school districts and several youth serving organizations across Broome, Chenango, Madison, Otsego and Onondaga counties. Since the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year we have trained more than 2,330 teens in the Teen Mental Health First Aid (TMHFA) curriculum. The TMHFA curriculum teaches teens in grades 9-12, or between the ages 14-18, how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental health and substance use challenges among their friends and peers.
By implementing an initiative of this scale, our team has successfully overcome significant challenges, including securing support and buy-in from the community, school administration, and team members, as well as navigating scheduling complexities and establishing organizational best practices. Before we can implement TMHFA within any school district or youth serving organization, we have to train a percentage of the staff in the Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) curriculum.
YMHFA is designed to equip parents, family members, caregivers, teachers, school staff, neighbors, health and human services workers, and other concerned citizens with the skills to support adolescents aged 12-18 who are facing mental health or addiction challenges or are in crisis. To date, we have trained nearly 800 individuals across New York state in the YMHFA curriculum.
Because of our collaborative work, MCRHC received an honorable mention at the 2023 Organization of the Year at the 2024 Mental Health First Aid Summit held in St. Louis Missouri this past April. As a small organization this was an absolute honor to be recognized for impacting more than 3,000 lives throughout all our curriculums.
This work could not have been possible without the support of the Central New York Community Foundation who provided us with a grant from its Madison County Rural Poverty Fund to become certified TMHFA trainers. The support and funding assisted our team with getting the teen program off the ground. A phrase we use often within our work is “it takes one person to save a life” and providing our individuals with MHFA is empowering them to do just that.
