NEWTOWN – As teachers head back to school this year, the Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation sponsored an eight-hour training in youth mental health first aid, an internationally recognized program in helping those who need assistance get the professional help required.
Individuals trained in the model report greater confidence in helping others, greater likelihood of advising people to seek professional help, and decreased stigmatizing attitudes.
“As part of our public input process we heard repeatedly from teachers and school personnel that they wanted to be better equipped to recognize and respond to mental health concerns among their students”, said Jennifer Barahona, Executive Director of the Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation. “Teachers and other school staff have their eyes and ears on our children the majority of the day and we wanted to support and empower them,” Barahona said.
About 600 school staff completed the first part of the training before school started this week. The remaining six hours of the training will be completed at a professional development day in November.
“An enormous thank you to the Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation for funding a professional development opportunity for all staff for all students. This type of opportunity – Mental Health First Aid – will allow our teaching staff to fully understand best strategies for a wide range of learners. I am pleased and proud of the partnership with the Community Foundation,” said Schools Superintendent Joseph Erardi Jr.
“Dr. Erardi was an enthusiastic partner from the beginning and the Wheeler Clinic did an outstanding job organizing this incredible effort”, said Barahona.
Wheeler received a grant award from the Foundation to organize and conduct the trainings.
“This is a remarkable training initiative that involved the recruitment and coordination of 18 certified Youth Mental Health First Aid trainers statewide who led 24 small group sessions of approximately 25 participants each over the first three training days. It is extremely gratifying to partner in providing this evidence-based training curriculum to the Newtown school administrators, teachers, paraprofessionals and staff,” said Judith Stonger, Vice President of Prevention, Wellness and Recovery at Wheeler.
Once fully trained, the school staff will join the 4,500 people in Connecticut and 250,000 across the United States who have been trained in Mental Health First Aid.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled that in less than two months this went from being a dream to reality,” Barahona said. “There isn’t another school district in the country that we are aware of which has been able to train their entire staff at one time. To me, this speaks volumes about how committed this community is to the health and well-being of students in the district.”
Trainings will also be offered throughout the community for those interested in being certified in either adult or youth menthal health first aid.
For more information, visit www.nshcf.org.
###