Baptist Health – Adult Mental Health First Aid

Overview

Nonprofit hospitals in Jacksonville, Fla., are teaming up to offer mental health first aid training throughout their community.

“We collaborate with the other local health systems to collectively conduct our community needs assessment,” explains Hugh Greene, president and chief executive officer of Baptist Health. “Mental health has emerged as a top priority, due to the lack of access and the stigma that surrounds the idea of seeking treatment.”

Baptist Health, Brooks Rehabilitation, Mayo Clinic Florida, St. Vincent’s HealthCare, and UF Health Jacksonville have collaborated to develop a free community program that Greene calls “CPR for mental health.”

“Our hope is that after participating in this eight-hour, evidence-based course, an everyday citizen can recognize when someone is in a mental health crisis, help direct them to services, and create a conversation around mental health issues in our community,” he says.

While many first responders have committed to participating, the program is for anyone.

“Some studies say that one in five people has a form of mental illness – others say it could be as many as one in four,” says Melanie Patz, vice president of community investment and impact. “So every one of us regularly comes into contact with someone and has an opportunity to help if needed.”

Impact

The program was just launched in January 2017; already, approximately 1,000 people have been trained in mental health first aid.

“One of our partners, UF Health, is conducting an evaluation with those who have been trained to see if they’ve utilized the skills they learned,” Patz says. “We’re also partnering with the local Mental Health America affiliate on a community-wide evaluation of the program. Another partner, Mayo Clinic Florida, is working with the sheriff’s office to measure how the training has impacted services they provide to the community.”

Lessons Learned

One big takeaway from this project, Greene says, is learning how effective it has been to collaborate with other organizations.

“When you have five hospital CEOs supporting and promoting this program, along with the community health director, the sheriff, and other community leaders, the impact is so much greater,” Greene explains. “I believe very strongly that one of the problems in our industry is that it can seem like we’re more interested in competing with each other than serving the public. We’ve demonstrated that we are unified in this effort, and people have responded very positively. And I can’t help but think that the collaborative approach improves the community dialogue around these issues. You can get momentum that might not otherwise occur if it was just one organization’s program.”

Future Goals

The course is conducted at the five participating hospitals, as well as other community locations in the five-county area, such as city halls. Organizations can also request to have the program conducted for their employees on site. The goal is to train 10,000 people in the next three years.

“We can tailor the program to their needs,” Patz says. “Our goal is to make this accessible to as many people as possible. If an eight-hour program won’t work at your organization, we can break it into two four-hour sessions or some other format that works for you.”

Contact: Hugh Greene
President/Chief Executive Officer
Telephone: 904-202-4011
Email: hugh.greene@bmcjax.com