New York City is partnering with the National Council for Behavioral Health to promote mental health first aid training, and we wanted to share Yes! magazine’s story on it to raise awareness for this valuable training and the applications it has for clergy, police officers and others in a position to help. Here’s an excerpt from the story, and we hope you’ll click through to the full article with the link provided.
One in every four Americans experiences mental illness—a burden that carries heavy social, financial, and emotional costs. According to the World Health Organization, depression is the No. 1 cause of disability in the world. “More people are suffering and miss more time from work from depression compared to any other medical problem,” explains Bryan Gibb, Director of Public Education for the National Council for Behavioral Health. Untreated depression, he adds, is also the No. 1 cause of suicide—and at more than 40,000 U.S. suicides a year, “that’s 40,000 people who die from mental illness.”
And when that behavior is misunderstood, police interactions can lead to tragedy. Recent years have seen increased media attention to the problem. In 2014, Ezell Ford, who had been diagnosed with depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, was shot and killed by an officer in Los Angeles. That same year in Albuquerque, New Mexico, James Boyd, a mentally ill homeless man, was shot and killed by police. Such incidents underscore the need for better law enforcement training in recognizing and dealing with mental illness. “If an officer can recognize what they’re seeing may be a manifestation of mental illness, they can take a more appropriate action—which may not be arrest,” Coffey said.
New York City is partnering with the National Council for Behavioral Health to make such trainings accessible to entire communities. ThriveNYC, a public initiative launched in November 2015 and led by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, will provide $850 million in funding for mental health programs over the next four years. A key investment will be providing mental health first aid training to 250,000 people, beginning with first responders like police officers and firefighters. Because of the pervasiveness of mental illness (insured New Yorkers spend $17 billion a year on treating anxiety, depression, and addiction), proponents of the plan believe first aid for mental illness should be taken as seriously as for physical illnesses and injuries. The goal is to make mental health first aid as ubiquitous as regular first aid, such as CPR. Experienced bystanders can help prevent deaths, assess harmful situations, and seek appropriate medical treatment. The American Heart Association and The Red Cross train more than 20 million Americans each year for CPR.