Teen Mental Health First Aid

Every year AUSD teaches all 10th graders Teen Mental Health First Aid (tMHFA). This is a 3 day course that teachers teens how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental health and substance use challenges among friends and peers. Four years ago (coming out of the pandemic) AUSD had six staff trained in delivering tMHFA, but in 2025 the District only had three trained staff. Jody McCarthy, AUSD Coordinator for Student Support Services, applied for an AEF Teacher Mini Grant to be able to train two additional staff members to assist with training the 750 sophomores in the District.

Upon receiving the grant funding, Jodi McCarthy wrote:

"Over the past 4 years, we had several students come to us grateful for the training in Teen Mental Health First Aid. It empowered them to talk about mental health with friends, and help refer their friends to a trusted adult who could intervene and provide needed assistance. Teens talk to teens - we know this. Giving them tools to reach out to someone when they or their friend is in crisis is invaluable. By training roughly 750 sophomores every year we have been able to reach a total of about 3,000 students with mental health support.

Thank you SO MUCH for awarding us this Mini Grant to help support our work with Teen Mental Health First Aid (tMHFA). This spring alone, the District Office team is training sophomores in tMHFA in 22 different sections of 10th grade English at Alameda High, Encinal High, and ASTI.

The material is incredibly important. Even though we are stretched thin, we are unwilling to give up on delivering the curriculum because we firmly believe in its impact.

Below are some pictures of the training in action! This is day two of the three-day training. Students are teaching each other how to apply the tMHFA Action Plan to different crisis situations.

Again – and I cannot express enough gratitude – THANK YOU SO MUCH for helping to support out youth’s mental health. Every single person at AEF is a hero!"