The Mental Health Task Force was established on the plateau in June 2011.  The need for addressing mental health concerns came from the feedback received from community members who attended the Health Summits offered by Rainier Foothills Wellness Foundation. Feedback from the summits has resulted in many initiatives lead by the Foundation with the Mental Health Task Force the Foundation’s latest initiative.  The Mental Health Task Force is a volunteer group representing community leaders, the youth center, the senior center, mental health professionals, health care providers, individuals and business professionals working together at the local level to address mental health concerns. Currently this group of active volunteers is addressing the following initiatives:

1. Seeking ways to provide community awareness and education regarding mental health issues, especially as it pertains to their part of the community (schools, health care providers, police, churches, etc.).
2. Seeking and facilitating additional services that might be brought into the community to address mental health issues.
3. Researching and even requesting appropriate grants and funding sources.

YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID

Youth Mental Health First Aid is designed to teach parents, family members, caregivers, teachers, school staff, peers, neighbors, health and human services workers, and other caring citizens how to help an adolescent (age 12-18) who is experiencing a mental health or addictions challenge or is in crisis. Youth Mental Health First Aid is primarily designed for adults who regularly interact with young people.

What does QPR mean?

• Q – Question
• P – Persuade
• R – Refer

The 3 simple steps anyone can learn to help save a life from suicide.
Just as people trained in CPR and the Heimlich Maneuver help save thousands of lives each year, people trained in QPR learn how to recognize the warning signs of a suicide crisis and how to question, persuade, and refer someone to help. Each year thousands of Americans, like you, are saying “Yes” to saving the life of a friend, colleague, sibling, or neighbor.
QPR can be learned in our Gatekeeper course in as little as one hour.

What is a Gatekeeper?

According to the Surgeon General’s National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (2001), a gatekeeper is someone in a position to recognize a crisis and the warning signs that someone may be contemplating suicide.
Gatekeepers can be anyone, but include parents, friends, neighbors, teachers, ministers, doctors, nurses, office supervisors, squad leaders, foremen, police officers, advisors, caseworkers, firefighters, and many others who are strategically positioned to recognize and refer someone at risk of suicide.
As a QPR-trained Gatekeeper you will learn to:

• Recognize the warning signs of suicide
• Know how to offer hope
• Know how to get help and save a life

Join us at our free classes to learn more: NAMI F2F and Crisis Intervention Training

NAMI (National Alliance for Mental Illness) Family-to-Family

…is a free, 12-session education program for family, partners, friends and significant others of adults living with mental illness. The course is designed to help all family members understand and support their loved one living with mental illness, while maintaining their own well-being. The course includes information on illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression and other mental health conditions. Thousands of families describe the program as life-changing. The program is taught by trained teachers who are also family members and know what it is like to have a loved one living with mental illness. The class is open to all families living on the Enumclaw/Buckley Plateau.

Participant Perspectives

“This course overall was the single most, without a doubt, helpful and informative thing ever offered in all my years searching for answers… It has helped me to understand better and communicate more effectively with my brother.”
“The course has helped me to realize that my son is still inside the body that is often times hidden by the mental illness and that I am not alone in this.”

Classes are available, free of charge, and offered twice a year. Please register here.

What Is CIT?

A Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) program is a model for community policing that brings together law enforcement, mental health providers, hospital emergency departments and individuals with mental illness and their families to improve responses to people in crisis. CIT programs enhance communication, identify mental health resources for assisting people in crisis and ensure that officers get the training and support that they need.
To date Rainier Foothills Wellness Foundation has trained over 175 local first responders, police, and park rangers.

• Communication techniques with Aggressive, Mentally Ill and Emotionally Disturbed Individuals
• Verbal de-escalation training for police, fire, hospital staff and corrections
• Learn skills to quickly establish communication & minimize risk of violence
• Learn skills to recognize patterns of behaviors & strategies to improve cooperation
• Learn strategies that enhance physical control techniques if needed

The next CIT Training will be in early 2017, look for save the date coming soon.

Mental Health First Aid Classes

Just as CPR helps you assist an individual having a heart attack, even if you have no clinical training, Mental Health First Aid helps you assist someone experiencing a mental health related crisis. In the Mental Health First Aid course, you learn risk factors and warning signs for mental health and addiction concerns, strategies for how to help someone in both crisis and non-crisis situations, and where to turn for help.

Adult Mental Health First Aid

The adult Mental Health First Aid course is appropriate for anyone 18 years and older who wants to learn how to help a person who may be experiencing a mental health related crisis or problem. Topics covered include anxiety, depression, psychosis, and addictions.

Community Building Mental Health Grant

In June of 2014 the Foundation was awarded a three year $182,000 dollar grant from Catholic Health Initiatives and Franciscan Health Systems to further the efforts of improving mental health in our communities. The grant has three main goals that were founded on the needs identified from the Mental Health Summit.

1. Improve community members’ access to locally available mental health treatment and support services.
2. Build mental health literacy and skills among providers and community members who work with people experiencing mental health problems.
3. Increase mental health literacy, knowledge of mental health resources and gatekeeper skills among the broader community. Gatekeepers are people in the community who are able to assist people in distress to access appropriate professional services.

Work to achieve these goals began in September of 2014.