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MDCH Awards Mental Health First Aid Funding to Two Michigan Organizations
January 09, 2014
LANSING – The Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) today announced the awardees of the Mental Health First Aid Grant. The grant will support two Michigan organizations who demonstrated interest and ability to provide Mental Health First Aid training in Michigan. MDCH originally announced the Request for Proposals to bidders on Oct. 7, 2013.
“Governor Snyder has called upon the MDCH to take a close look at mental health services in Michigan,” said James K. Haveman, Director of the MDCH. “Mental Health First Aid training is an evidence-based and internationally recognized program that will do just that – greatly increase the understanding of mental health issues, and in turn, improve the recognition and appropriate treatment of mental health issues for our residents.”
The West/Central Collaborative has been awarded $468,800 to serve Clinton, Eaton, Ingham, Kalamazoo, Kent, Muskegon, Genesee, Saginaw counties, and the city of Battle Creek during the grant period which runs through Sept. 30. Training and Treatment Innovations, Inc. has been awarded $500,734 to serve Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties also through Sept. 30. With this funding, these two organizations will begin making Mental Health First Aid a common training statewide in an effort to reduce stigma, improve mental health literacy, and greatly empower the individuals serviced throughout our many systems in Michigan.
This grant is closely in line with Governor Snyder’s call for attention to the improvement of the mental health system in Michigan. Mental Health First Aid training will improve communities’ ability to recognize the signs of mental illness and drive those individuals into appropriate care and treatment.
With the awards made, MDCH will now finalize the programmatic reporting requirements of the organizations to monitor the progress that is made. MDCH expects to increase the number of individuals trained in Michigan with the hopes that Mental Health First Aid will become a common training statewide, just as regular first aid trainings are.
MDCH chose vendors who demonstrated the ability to deliver training in urban regions of the state including Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Kalamazoo, Clinton, Eaton, Ingham, Genesee, Saginaw, Battle Creek, Kent, and Muskegon counties. This training applies to community members and organizations, education systems, law enforcement, faith communities, healthcare, and parents.
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