Mental Health Awareness Training Grant - MiREMS
Michigan Rural EMS Network (MiREMS)
Nonprofits
Healthcare Industry
Organizations Involved
Occupations Impacted
Emergency Medical Technicians; Paramedics
Workforce Development Focus
Improving the quality of healthcare workforce
Workforce Issue Addressed
Training current healthcare professionals in new techniques or practices; Training current healthcare professionals in SDOH, implicit bias, or on other subjects that will help professionals provide more culturally-competent and/or patient-centered care
Description
The Michigan Rural EMS Network (MiREMS) received a grant from SAMHSA to train 2,930 rural first responder personnel from EMS, fire, and police departments in three in-person, evidence-based mental health awareness training programs in Michigan's rural counties over a 5-year period. The three training programs are 1) a Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Continuing Education program from MDHHS, 2) Stress First Aid and 3) Joint Training Programs that bring mental health professionals and first responders together for shared learning and coordination of services. The two goals of the grant are to 1) increase the number of first responders trained to recognize the signs and symptoms of serious mental illness (SMI) and/or serious emotional disturbances (SED) and 2) improve collaborative relationships with community-based mental health agencies to better coordinate services between first responders and mental health services.