Training Opportunity Limited time

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There is a training opportunity available to us at no cost made available through the McHenry County Mental Health Board. As prospective school social workers, this training is of particular relevance since it is intended to focus on adolescence. As described, it is intended to address mental health challenges and provide a plan to assist adolescents in crisis or with mental health needs. While I am entering my third and final year of my graduate program, I am still overwhelmed at the prospect of having an adolescent in distress before me. We have learned a lot over the past two years, I believe this training can give us straightforward steps to help mitigate a crisis and provide us with consistent information being made available to the communities in which we work.

When considering the School Social Work Practice Model, I see this opportunity as maximizing access to to school-based and community-based resources. It is a means of promoting the continuum of service. This training is available to anyone in the community and therefore can provide a consistent response from those willing to learn. We know that suicide among adolescents has warning signs. This training will equip us and community members with the ability to identify those signs and provide us with easily recognizable steps to help. I believe this could be identified as the application part of evidence based practice. It is a program developed in Australia and brought to the United States in 2007 (SAMHSA, 2012). As a result of the needs of the community and available resources, this is a way to provide first response care to adolescents with mental health concerns.

Reference:

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (May, 2012). Mental Health first aid. Retrieved from    http://legacy.nreppadmin.net/ViewIntervention.aspx?id=321