UMSL teacher candidates earn mental health first aid certification during grant-funded training session
The College of Education and the Missouri Institute of Mental Health collaborated to host the day-long event, which was attended by 125 education students.
The College of Education and the Missouri Institute of Mental Health teamed up to host a day-long training session to promote mental health awareness on February 23rd. During the event, 125 teacher candidates from the College of Education will work with mental health professionals and educators to earn certification in mental health first aid. (Photo courtesy of Burk Krohe)
More than 100 future teachers milled around five classrooms in the Social Sciences and Business Building, discussing and recording signs and symptoms of common mental health issues on large pieces of paper posted on the walls.
The “Gallery Walk” exercise was part of a day-long mental health awareness training session held at the University of Missouri-St. Louis on February 23rd. Lewis.
During the event, 125 College of Education teacher candidates worked with mental health professionals and educators to earn certification in Mental Health First Aid. Mental Health First Aid is an international, evidence-based program operated in the United States by the National Council on Mental Welfare. Missouri Department of Mental Health.
The College of Education and the Missouri Mental Health Institute collaborated to host the training session, which was financially supported by a $200,000 grant for mental health awareness training from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
“Our goal for the next three years with this grant is to train approximately 1,600 in-service teachers across Missouri,” said Amy Bartels, MIMH’s Mental Health First Aid Project Manager. “Currently, he has four schools participating in the UM System and is actively recruiting other teaching schools throughout Missouri.”
The amount of time educators spend with youth on a daily basis puts them in a unique position to intervene in mental health crisis and non-crisis situations.
This idea led Rachel Taub, director of mental health first aid at MIMH, and Emily Oliveira, director of the Center for Counseling and Social Advocacy and clinical associate professor of counseling in the College of Education, to create a grant for mental health seminars. We decided to cooperate by making a financial proposal. Intended for future teachers in early 2021.
Initially, the grant was not funded, but the pair were eventually able to find the resources and begin their first mental health first aid training in November 2021. Since then, Taube and Oliveira have received federal funding from SAMHSA to support their work.
This certification session will focus specifically on 'Youth Mental Health First Aid', a course aimed at helping adults, such as parents and teachers, recognize the signs and symptoms of mental health problems in young people. I did. This course provides an overview of typical adolescent development and introduces common mental health challenges among young people and topics such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and substance use.
“We truly hope that people take away the tools to be successful when working with young people experiencing mental health challenges and crises,” Youth Mental Health First Aid said instructor Heather Craig. “So we're talking about a plan of action, providing initial help, listening to someone without judgment, and making sure that people have the tools to support young people in crisis. We're talking about what it's like to make sure you have that.”
Craig said it's important for teachers to have these tools because students are not immune to mental health issues either.
“I think our kids are probably facing a lot more than we were growing up,” Craig said. “It's really important that all adults are consciously aware of the fact that children are going through a lot. This is important to have in every teacher's toolkit.”
Jacob Brown said he learned a lot of new information and enjoyed how the day was divided between lectures and activities. Brown is pursuing a teaching certification through his “Teach in 12” program, which allows post-baccalaureate students interested in teaching to earn a certification in 12 to 15 months, and will continue to pursue a master's degree. I plan to continue studying towards obtaining this certification.
He plans to teach in an elementary school and said this training will support his work in the classroom.
“It has made me more conscious of what to ask of my students in case they are going through something that they need to tell me about,” he says. I did.
Emily Frick, Emily Giljum, and Sarah Mullins are working together in the same group to pursue a bachelor's degree in education.
“We have touched on a variety of things that may be important and helpful not only in teaching our students, but also in our future education,” Frick said.
For example, Mullins pointed to increasing educators' awareness of the language they use every day in the classroom. Giljum added that building relationships is important to being effective as a teacher, and mental health training can help teachers show support for their students.
“How do you have that conversation? That's what we're talking about today,” Mullins said. “If you want to talk to someone who doesn't know how to express their emotions or whose brain isn't fully developed yet, you need to help guide them.”
