Columbia, SC — LRADAC has been awarded a five-year federal grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to implement an innovative Mental Health First Aid training program in Lexington as well as Orangeburg, Calhoun, and Bamberg Counties. The grant will support the implementation of Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), an evidence-based program to increase community members’ ability to identify, understand, and respond to signs and symptoms of mental health and substance misuse challenges. Across the nation, MHFA has been taught to over 2.5 million people.
“Mental Health First Aid provides training on how to be helpful to someone experiencing a mental health or substance-misuse related crisis,” said LRADAC’s Dr. Pam Imm, who will serve as project director. “The program is like traditional First Aid training to help someone in a medical crisis but, in this case, participants learn risk factors and warning signs for mental health and addiction concerns, strategies for how to help someone in both crisis and non-crisis situations, and where to turn for help.”
“Ideally, LRADAC would like to make Mental Health First Aid as common as CPR and this is a step in the right direction,” said Dr. Imm.
For more information on Mental Health First Aid or how to schedule a free training session for your organization, please contact Dr. Pam Imm at pimm@lradac.org or call 803-603-3896.
