Chester County Suicide Prevention

Mental health first aid is a skills-based training course that teaches participants to identify, understand and respond to mental health and substance use challenges. This eight-hour evidence based public education program introduces participants to risk factors and warning signs of mental illness and suicide. Participants receive a three-year certification as mental health first aiders by the national council for mental wellbeing. The task force offers this program free to community members through a partnership with the county office of mental health which underwrites the expenses.

The overall goal of this project is to expand current efforts of suicide prevention in chester county to include a more comprehensive public health approach which will address lethal means and suicide prevention. This will be done through a combination of education, outreach, and collaboration around lethal means education and suicide prevention. This approach will include enhancement of existing evidence-based programming, implementation of new evidence-based programming, and outreach to targeted audiences in the county. The expected outcome of this project is an increase in education and awareness around lethal means and suicide to further prevent suicide and the impact suicide has on the community