In December 2019, Integral Care received a $523,413 grant from St. David’s Foundation to provide Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training to 1,500 Central Texans annually for the next two years. MHFA is an evidence-based training that builds mental health literacy by teaching participants how to identify warning signs and symptoms of mental illness and apply a 5-step action plan to help individuals experiencing a mental health crisis.

St. David’s Foundation has supported Integral Care’s MHFA program since 2017. In 2018, Integral Care worked collaboratively with Bluebonnet Trails Community Services to provide MHFA training to 2,022 individuals in Travis, Williamson, and Bastrop Counties; last year, 2,059 individuals accessed MHFA training through Integral Care’s program.

Over the last several years, Integral Care has provided MHFA training to diverse audiences, including faith communities, nonprofit organizations, government agencies and departments, elected officials, and institutes of higher education. For this grant term, we plan to expand our outreach to focus on the private sector, increasing our community’s capacity to respond to a mental health crisis anywhere Central Texans live, learn, work, and play.

With a diverse corps of Mental Health First Aiders, we can reduce barriers to mental health care access throughout Central Texas. Building mental health literacy across our community – from nonprofit professionals and educators to business leaders and elected officials – helps to ensure that people living with mental illness and/or substance use disorder can get connected to the services they need.