Article archive / September 2020
Originally published: . Volume 11, No. 9. Source pages: 12.
Earlier this year, Louisiana Tech’s Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Department provided Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training for more than 160 teachers within the University’s College of Education and for other educators in the local community, reported Tom Soto from LaTech News.
Dr. Ida Chauvin, Associate Professor for the Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, applied for and received a grant to cover the training materials, manuals, and resources necessary for each participant’s training. Lagniappe Ladies, a women’s philanthropic network that provides funding for numerous University-wide projects and programs, helped to fund the program.
Trainers help teachers build the important skills needed to assess children, and also to give essentials support if the youngsters demonstrated signs of developing a mental health disorder or substance abuse issue. Educators also learned how to connect the children with the appropriate care. MHFA serves as a national, evidence-based program to teach the skills for identifying, understanding, and responding to the signs of mental and emotional disorders and substance abuse problems.
Through the training, School teachers and administrators can can develop a common language regarding mental wellness. They can expand the network of emotional support available to the children. beyond existing counseling staff. By way of the MHFA training, participants learn warning signs and risk factors. They can become familiar with the various health challenges common among youth, including ADD/ADHA, anxiety, depression, disruptive behavior disorders, eating disorders, psychosis, or substance use orders.
According to Soto, "In Lincoln Parish, 18.4 percent of sixth graders, 25.5 percent of eighth graders, and 26.5 percent of 10th graders scored high enough on the 2014 Louisiana Caring Communities Youth Survey (CCYS) to be considered in need of mental health treatment; each of those percentages is higher than the state average at these grade levels. According to CCYS results, 10.0 percent of sixth graders, 21.8 percent of eighth graders, and 31.1 percent of 10th graders reported that they had considered attempting suicide in the past year."
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