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Advocacy

State Policy

Since 2013, 28 states have made Mental Health First Aid a priority by enacting policies that allocate funding for trainings, require certification standards for public sector employees and establish statewide mental health training programs and mandates.

To truly address the scale of the mental health and substance use challenges facing every state, we need to train millions of people in Mental Health First Aid every year nationwide. That is why we are calling on state and local policymakers to establish pathways for their constituents to access Mental Health First Aid trainings by enacting policies that will:

  1. Establish clear and comprehensive training objectives.
  2. Target the training needs of specific populations.
  3. Provide funding for sustained training.
  4. Mandate training for public sector employees who engage directly with vulnerable populations, including youth.
  5. Ensure Mental Health First Aid is included as an option to satisfy professional development credits.

Read the Mental Health First Aid Policy Handbook for more information, and learn more about what you can do to take action in your state to urge policymakers to prioritize making mental health awareness programs like MHFA available everywhere.

2022 Policy Handbook

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Together, we can #BeTheDifference and urge policymakers around the country to make mental wellbeing a priority by increasing funding for programs like Mental Health First Aid.

Sign up today to receive advocacy alerts from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing and Mental Health First Aid USA and help us create change nationwide:

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Learn More

  • Learn about the Project AWARE Mental Health First Aid grants for state and local education agencies to develop and support school-based mental health programs and services.
  • Learn more about funding allocated from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act for Project AWARE, including a list of awardees announced 1/9/23.
  • Learn about the Biden-Harris Administration’s Mental Health Unity Agenda, including a commitment to train providers and professionals to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illness and addiction, through programs like MHFA.

 

  • Mental Health First Aid training has taught the officer to ask his charges, “What happened?” instead of, “What’s wrong with you?”” –Officer Orlando Singleton
  • So many people are out there wishing for something better, hoping that help will show up. That’s what Mental Health First Aid is – it is help to get people connected to care and ultimately to get them to a better place.” –Tousha Paxton-Barnes, U.S. Army Veteran
  • I wish that every corrections officer could receive Mental Health First Aid training. I believe that our corrections system would be better because of it – the inmates would benefit, the officers would benefit and ultimately our communities would benefit.” –Lt. Virgil Meyer, Lieutenant, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
  • As adults, we sometimes forget how hard it was being an adolescent. When we see a kid who is just miserable at school, we might think they choose to be that way – or that it’s just part of adolescence. But in fact, they might be in a mental health crisis, one they certainly did not choose and do not want. When a teacher says “how can I be helpful,” that is a powerful question. ” –Alyssa Fruchtenicht, School-Based Mental Health Counselor
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