•  
  •  
 

Abstract

This promising practice describes a statewide effort to address the surging youth mental health crisis through the provision of Youth Mental Health First Aid trainings in West Virginia Public Schools. Youth Mental Health First Aid is an evidence-based training for adults who work with youth. This interactive training increases participants’ awareness of signs and symptoms of mental health challenges, adolescent development, the prevalence of mental health challenges among youth, and the steps they should take to ensure students with mental health challenges receive timely referral to mental health professionals. This intervention has proven highly effective in rural schools in West Virginia based on survey data and participant testimonials. In this article, we describe our work and offer implications for rural schools.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Included in

Education Commons

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.