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An Evaluation of Youth Mental Health First Aid Training in School Settings

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Abstract

Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) is a training program designed to help adults working with children and adolescents identify and respond to youth who are experiencing mental health problems or are in crisis. YMHFA is being implemented in a number of educational, child welfare, and juvenile justice settings across the country with little evidence of its effectiveness. As part of a broader mental health program implemented in five schools in a southeastern county in the USA, YMHFA was provided to school personnel over a 2-year period. This study presents the results of a pretest/posttest evaluation of the YMHFA training. In general, results provide preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of the YMHFA training. More specifically, results highlight the importance of YMHFA training for personnel who have never received mental health training/education and for those who do not have experience working with vulnerable youth populations.

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Acknowledgements

This project was funded by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ, Award # 2014-CK-BX-0014) to Drs. Childs and Gryglewicz. The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or policies of NIJ; nor does mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the US Government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, College of Health and Public Affairs, University of Central Florida, 12805 Pegasus Drive, HPA 1, Orlando, FL, 32816, USA

    Kim Gryglewicz

  2. Department of Criminal Justice, College of Health and Public Affairs, University of Central Florida, 12805 Pegasus Drive, HPA 1, Orlando, FL, 32816, USA

    Kristina K. Childs & Melanie F. P. Soderstrom

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  1. Kim Gryglewicz
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  2. Kristina K. Childs
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Correspondence to Kim Gryglewicz.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Gryglewicz, K., Childs, K.K. & Soderstrom, M.F.P. An Evaluation of Youth Mental Health First Aid Training in School Settings. School Mental Health 10, 48–60 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-018-9246-7

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