Big Sandy Schools will be making a “Mental Health First Aid for Youth” available to the community on January 23 and 24 from 4 to 7 pm both nights. The Monday and Tuesday trainings are part 1 and part 2 of a 6 hour course that will cover a wide range of issues to help equip parents and anyone who works with young people.

I spoke with Diana Keane who organized the training. She explained that, “This is a training that is open to the public for adults (18 and older) to help youth with mental health. It covers a wide range of mental health issues for youth including suicide ideation. All adults are welcome, especially those with youth in their life or families. Youth workers, parents, and other interested adults would find lots of helpful information. As we know, mental health is so important and having a community who is trained to help our youth will be invaluable for our students (and ultimately community’s) wellbeing.”

The training will be a useful tool for those helping young people navigate the challenges of adolescence. “Anyone who has spent time with youth knows that our kids have difficulty and struggle. Struggle is part of growing up and part of living, and sometimes that struggle can affect our mental health. We as adults have a lot of power to make it more difficult or to make it easier in how we come along-side and respond to those around us. This training provides strategies to be helpful to students who are struggling. Even if you don’t think your child is struggling, it will give you good information to identify difficulties in the future and give you good tools to help. Anyone who comes to this training will come away with good information and good tools to use right away with the youth in your life.”

The presenter for the training is Lisa Stroh. “Lisa Stroh is a school psychologist who is a certified Mental Health First Aid trainer. She has a passion for providing these training for our communities free of charge through grants she has received.”

Diana explained that this training is part of a larger initiative that has been a focus this year. “All of the school staff was trained in Mental Health First Aid at the beginning of the school year. Mr. Schrock has made mental health training a priority which I really appreciate. He has helped set this training up for our community. We are hoping to continue offering this sort of training for our community.”

When I asked Diana about cost or RSVP, she replied: “Just come! We will have RSVP info on the posters but RSVP is not necessary. It will be at the High School Library, Monday, Jan. 23 and Tuesday, Jan. 24 4:00-7:00 both nights. It is a six hour training that will provide participants with a mental health reference book as well as a certificate of completion for Mental Health First Aid for Youth. A light dinner will also be provided. This training is provided free of charge thanks to our trainer, Lisa Stroh with help from the Chouteau County Health Dept. and Big Sandy Schools.”