Course Objective
- Describe a public health approach to address the primary barriers (such as lack of knowledge and stigma) to mental health and treatment for individuals who experience mental health challenges or illness.
- List resources and tools to increase mental health literacy.
Date: April 20, 2016
Presenter:
John Richter, MPA
Public Policy Director
Mental Health Association in New York State, Inc.
Mental illness, including emotional and behavioral disorders, presents us with an enormous challenge in our present day. In particular, the impact of untreated mental illness can have deleterious effects on those individuals, their families, and communities. This webinar presents the current problem of mental illness and the delay and failure to get treatment or maintain recovery, the resulting damage this can cause, the barriers people experience to getting help, how public health can address these issues, and ways to foster mental health literacy. The webinar provides an overview on several trainings including: Mental Health First Aid, a first-responder style training that can provide public health professionals with the skills and knowledge to navigate mental health emergency contexts, and safeTALK, a suicide prevention training that teaches people how to become a suicide-alert helper. It also reviews educational curriculum that can be implemented to improve mental health among students.
