Healthy Harford Receives Grant from Friends R Family Foundation for Suicide Prevention

From University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health:

Healthy Harford has received a $5,000 grant from the Friends R Family Foundation to promote suicide prevention in Harford County.

In partnership with University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health (UM UCH), Harford County Government and Harford County Sheriff’s Office, Healthy Harford hosts eight-hour Mental Health First Aid training courses throughout the county. The grant from Friends R Family Foundation will be used to train an additional 330 people in suicide prevention in the coming year.

Mental Health First Aid training is an evidence-based national program that teaches people how to help someone who is struggling with a behavioral health issue such as mental illness and substance use disorders. It is a five-step action plan designed to offer initial help to people with the signs and symptoms of a mental illness or in a crisis, and connect them with the appropriate support.

The program has been taught over the past four months at UM UCH in Bel Air and at UM Harford Memorial Hospital (UM HMH) in Havre de Grace. It is designed so anyone, such as caring citizens, first responders, students, teachers, leaders of faith communities and human resources professionals, can learn how to identify, understand and respond.

Thanks to the grant from the Friends R Family Foundation, Mental Health First Aid will be offered six times in 2016—February 10 at UM HMH; March 17 at UM UCH; April 19 at UM HMH; June 16 at UM UCH; September 14 at UM HMH; and November 17 at UM UCH.

“We are so grateful to the Friends R Family Foundation for helping us to provide the Mental Health First Aid training to more members of our community,” said Sharon Lipford, executive director of Healthy Harford. “Behavioral health is such an important topic today, and offering this type of training will help us save lives in Harford County.”

Healthy Harford is a nonprofit that inspires and empowers healthy people, healthy families and healthy communities. It was founded in 1993 by community leaders from the Harford County Health Department, Harford County Government and University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health, with the goal of making Harford County the healthiest community in Maryland.