Mental Health First Aid

For years, students at schools across the state and country have been trained to offer first aid.

Now the same can be said for students at Medford High School, but instead of helping to bandage wounds, students will be able to help their classmates and peers during mental health crises.

United Way of Steele County Executive Director Annettee Duncan has been teaching Youth Mental Health First Aid. The program trains both teens and adults, who then work together to help students with mental health issues. 

This month, all ninth graders at Medford High School can say they were trained in teen Mental Health First Aid, a program designed to show teens “how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental health and substance use challenges among their friends and peers.”

“The ninth graders in health class at Medford School are the first in Steele County to go through the Teen Mental Health First Aid training,” Duncan said.

Need identified

In 2022, the United Way of Steele County received grant funding to conduct a gap analysis in the community, to identify areas which could be improved on in the community.

Teen mental health was one of the areas identified, Duncan said.

“We knew that we were going to take the lead,” she said. “What can we do, what is in our ability and our control to be able to help, because the reality is that I can’t manufacture mental health therapists…I can’t go and make more of them come into our community, I can’t fill all those open spots, but what we can do is help provide resources, we can connect people to resources, and we can do some training that is evidence based and can help individuals maybe not get to that crisis situation.”

With an interest in schools wanting adults and students to be trained, Duncan pursued a grant and recently became a facilitator, allowing her to teach the classes.

Medford High School Principal Jen Ford said, like most other schools in the county, Medford has “seen an increase in mental health issues in teens.”

“The goal of having our 9th graders receive this program was to equip them with some knowledge of what those issues look like in themselves and their classmates, as well as what the appropriate steps are to get help when needed,” Ford wrote in an email. “This is an additional layer in services to students and compliments the other services provided by our school counselor and social workers. Additionally, we had our high school teaching staff and many of the district paras take the training as well, so that we have as many people in the building as possible who can help students.”

Adult training

As part of the program, a percentage of the adults in the schools need to be trained in Youth Mental Health First Aid before students can be taught.

The idea, Duncan said, is to ensure students have support when helping peers. They never want a youth to feel “they have to figure this out on their own; they're trained just like the adults are trained.”

Before training students in Medford, Duncan said about 50 staff members were trained.

By the end of April, all the paraprofessionals in Owatonna Public Schools will be trained, with the goal of training students as part of Thriving Minds, a student-led organization at Owatonna High School, this year.

BP, Ellendale

Going into next school year, Duncan said, more training will take place in Blooming Prairie and Ellendale schools.

“The goal is to have at least a group trained in each of the school districts,” Duncan said.

Since Ellendale is part of a consolidated district and doesn’t have a high school in Steele County, the training will provide teachers with more tools to help students.

The program doesn’t allow middle school students to be trained.

“The Youth Mental Health First Aid will help the elementary school teachers better help address the mental health needs of its elementary school students,” Duncan said.

Duncan said the program is important, and is evidence based. She also said more facilitators are needed.

There are so few facilitators, Duncan said, she needed to have someone come from the Twin Cities to conduct the training at Owatonna Public Schools for staff training this spring.

“It's worth it, and it's important, and it's one of our priorities at United Way, so we're going to keep doing it,” Duncan said.