When done right, first aid quickly identifies a problem and triages patients so the more urgent cases get treated first and followed up on. Now, with federal aid, that same strategy will apply聽to the pressing problem of veterans’聽mental health.
A — and the use of existing funds — may soon make more resources available to help identify vets who need help with depression or other mental illness through the National Council for Behavioral Health’s “.”
NCBH estimates that less than 50 percent of veterans who need mental health care actually seek and receive treatment.
鈥淭he one thing we don鈥檛 learn to identify are mental health injuries. If you had a hole in your chest, you wouldn’t walk around with that. This is the same thing,鈥 said , which is teaming up with NCBH.
Training programs like the one supported by NCBH are designed to educate people on the front lines聽about how to identify early warning signs and how to refer people for necessary treatment.
NCBH and other mental health advocates are seeking part of the at least $15 million allocated to train first responders, which include police, nurses and college administrators,聽to聽identify聽the warning signs of mental illness among veterans, teaching “de-escalation” techniques and referring people at risk to mental health care providers. The president’s budget could provide another $5 million for these grants.
Numerous states have聽considered similar聽legislation.聽For instance,聽the Mental Health First Aid Act of Illinois was signed into law last year and gives state agencies power to administer mental health first aid. 聽In , MHFA is now a requirement for teacher training and certification, and 聽last year approved funding聽for this training. Similar assistance was approved last year by lawmakers in Virginia, Maryland and Nebraska.
NCBH estimates that it costs about $150 dollars to train one person to act as a mental health first responder, and the group already works with states to implement training programs. About 150,000 people have been trained in mental health first aid since 2008.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had the support of some extraordinary policy makers on [Capitol]聽Hill. 鈥 We鈥檙e grateful to them, but now we need their help to move mental health first aid for the military,鈥 said Linda Rosenberg, president and CEO of the NCBH.
