Teen Mental Health First Aid

A Promising Program for Henderson Teens

Exciting things are happening at Henderson’s own Central Academy! In January, the school became the first high school in the state of Kentucky to provide Teen Mental Health First Aid for their students. Teen Mental Health First Aid, brought to Henderson by River Valley Behavioral Health, aims to train students to be more aware of mental health and substance abuse issues and how they present in their peers. 

Teen Mental Health First Aid, or tMHFA, originated in Australia and is an evidence-based program for helping teenagers deal with mental health complications that often arise. This course teaches young people in grades 10-12, or ages 15-18, how to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental health and substance use challenges in their friends and peers. tMHFA gives young people the skills to have supportive conversations with their friends and how to get help from a responsible and trusted adult. The first cohort will graduate with their certificates in March after they complete several trainings on important topics relating to mental health and substance abuse. 

Mattea Meadows, transition age youth coordinator for River Valley Behavioral Health and The Port, and Karyleen Irizarry, senior director of community health and forensics for River Valley Behavioral Health, are the primary reasons that this program has come to Henderson. The two attended a young mental health first aid training and Karyleen informed Mattea of a similar program for teenagers, which the two found themselves very excited about. Mattea wanted to give a shout out to River Valley Behavioral Health, specifically to Dr. Lionel Phelps and CEO Dr. Wanda Figueroa-Peralta for helping to make the training possible and for being so dedicated to bringing this training to Henderson. The two also wanted to give credit to Central Academy. “It’s been evident to me since day one that Central really prioritizes mental health with their students. They told me first that they wanted this training in their school and were very excited about it. It takes a lot of time to do these things away from instruction, and all of their staff got trained but only 10% had to be trained for the program to work. It was really cool of them, and they have been so welcoming.” 

Mattea and Karyleen have great hopes for the program to grow. “Our hope would be that one day, the teachers can get certified as trainers to be able to train others on this program. We can only train 30 people at a time and for this program to be in a school, everyone in the grade level has to be certified. We would need many more trainers to be able to implement this program throughout all of the Henderson County Schools. We talked with Yvonne Hall with the schools, and she is very excited about it and wants to find a way to get this training into the community through different groups.”

“We are also providing this training at The Port for free,” according to Mattea. She also stated that they want this training to be available at other youth service organizations throughout the community. “There are specifics to the trainings, and they can only be done in certain ways. One of the specifics is that the trainings have to be provided at a school or a youth service organization. We can’t just openly offer the trainings because it involved teens,” stated Karyleen. “There are only three trainers in the state of Kentucky that can teach this program and currently Mattea and I are the only ones in the area that can offer it.” 

The implementation of this program took a lot of footwork, but Mattea and Karyleen are thrilled to offer it. “It’s about the kids. We’re pushing the movement so much because this training helps teens to know and learn about what to say to someone else that is coming to them with a mental health challenge,” affirmed Karyleen. “We want the community to know that within the diversity of life and the things going on in the community, there are ways that we can help bridge the gaps of information and resources and awareness of the different elements that come into play in the life of someone going through a mental health or a substance use challenge, and there are ways that we can help. We’ve had trainings for youth and adults and now its time for teens to learn and grow from these trainings. We believe as an organization that it is vital and important for the community to have this awareness, and that this is a positive change in the community. It can be a neighbor or a grandchild or cousin… anyone can have a mental health problem. It is not specific to race or gender or anything, and it can happen to anyone at any point. The more we are aware of these things the better we are at helping these people when they most need it.”

Mattea and Karyleen encourage others involved in youth serving organizations to reach out to become trainers, especially if teenagers are in the populations they serve. “Young people are talking to one another first, and if you think back to when you were a young person that’s probably what you did, too,” stated Mattea. “Training teens to talk with their peers allows them to feel encouraged to talk about their problems and to be open and honest with the people in their lives that care about them. Karyleen and I can both attest to the passion that these young people have. They want to help and sometimes they just don’t know how to help, so we know that there will be so much impact on empowering young people in our community to really go to action and to be equipped with skills that are research based that will help them. I truly believe that this program can save lives.”

Thank you, Mattea and Karyleen, for all of your help in bringing such an amazing program to Henderson!