Youth Mental Health First Aid
September 30, 2019
Date: September 30, 2019
Time: 9:00-5:00
Location: North Georgia RESA
Cost: $0
Target Audience: K-12 Administrators, Teachers, Support Staff
Led by: Taelor Moran and Brenda Munoz
Youth Mental Health First Aid is an 8-hour public education program that:
- introduces participants to the unique risk factors and warning signs of mental health concerns in adolescents
- builds understanding of the importance of early intervention
- teaches individuals how to help an adolescent experiencing a mental health challenge
- uses role-playing and simulations to demonstrate how to assess a mental health crisis
- teaches participants how to select interventions and provide initial help
- teaches participants how to connect young people to mental health clinicians
What will participants learn?
The course teaches participants the risk factors and warning signs of a variety of mental health challenges common among adolescents, including anxiety, depression, psychosis, eating disorders, AD/HD, disruptive behavior disorders, and substance use disorder. Partcipants DO NOT learn to diagnose, nor how to provide any therapy or counseling-rather, participants learn to support a youth developing signs and sympotms of a mental illness or in an emotional crisis by applying a core five-step action plan:
- Assess for risk of suicide or harm
- Listen nonjudgementally
- Give reassurance and information
- Encourage appropriate professional help
- Encourage self-help and other support strategies
This session will be led by Taelor Moran and Bren Munoz
Taelor Moran, an AmeriCorps Member serving as a YMHFA Instructor on behalf of the Center for Leadership in Disability. Taelor is involved in teaching the YMHFA course all over the state of Georgia, inputting YMHFA data, various Project AWARE projects, assisting with the PEERs Program, and assisting with a Children with Special Healthcare Needs course offered at Emory’s School of Public Health. She has a BS in Biological Anthropology from Kennesaw State University. Before her start at GSU’s CLD, she worked as a transcriptionist at Emory’s Brain Center. Taelor is an active photographer for events in her community.
Brenda Liz (Bren) Muñoz is the Bilingual Program/Project Associate at the Center for Leadership in Disability, School of Public Health at Georgia State University. She co-leads the Latino Community of Practice initiative that aims at providing culturally and linguistically responsive services, opportunities and supports for Hispanic/Latino families with children, youth and adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). She also is a certified bilingual trainer for the Adult and Youth Mental Health First Aid curriculums.