Everybody experiences mental health issues in different ways. Some common signs of distress may include: not acting like they normally do, a loss of interest in the things they used to enjoy, talking about feelings of hopelessness, being more reckless, or isolating from family and friends.
Current research shows that 1 in 5 teens/young adults (15 – 24 yrs old) live with a mental health condition and that 64% of youth with major depression do not receive any mental health treatment. According to the United Health Foundation, teen suicide is one of Colorado’s primary challenges in addressing children’s health.
Yet, we believe there is hope and help for our students.
Part of that hope is bringing an amazing training called Youth Mental Health First Aid to those on the front lines with our students—our teachers, coaches, administrators, and school employees. Practical and helpful training that gives them the tools to address this issue head on.
Pulpit Rock committed part of its Christmas Offering to bring this Youth Mental Health First Aid Training from Education for a Lifetime to local schools.
And it has already begun!
Recently, Pulpit Rock collaborated with Education for a Lifetime and Pikes Peak Suicide Prevention to provide at no-cost the Youth Mental Health First Aid [YMHFA] training to 150 staff members of Doherty High School, including teachers, coaches, security guards, janitors, principals, and parents.
This training is a wide-spread, well-respected, evidence-based program that teaches how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders. In this 8-hour training, Doherty staff and parents were trained with the skills they need to reach out and provide initial support to students, de-escalate crisis situations safely, and initiate timely referrals to mental health and substance use disorders resources available. The teachers were beyond grateful for this training. By resourcing and equipping these amazing teachers we hope to continue to reduce and eliminate teen suicide in our community!
Training all of the entire school in one day is a significant task. This couldn’t have happened without the assistance of many including YMHFA instructors from surrounding districts (D11, D12, D20 & D49). This was such a great picture of how collaboration should look like — the entire community gathering together to bring support and hope through practical provision.
This truly could not have happened without Pulpit Rock’s heart to love our community!
This training is a wide-spread, well-respected, evidence-based program that teaches how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders. In this 8-hour training, Doherty staff and parents were trained with the skills they need to reach out and provide initial support to students, de-escalate crisis situations safely, and initiate timely referrals to mental health and substance use disorders resources available.
The teachers were beyond grateful for this training. By resourcing and equipping these amazing teachers we hope to continue to reduce and eliminate teen suicide in our community!
Training all of the entire school in one day is a significant task. This couldn’t have happened without the assistance of many including YMHFA instructors from surrounding districts (D11, D12, D20 & D49).
This was such a great picture of how collaboration should look like — the entire community gathering together to bring support and hope through practical provision.
This truly could not have happened without Pulpit Rock’s heart to love our community!
