Project Description:

Overview

The Virginia Action Coalition aimed to promote mental health awareness by convening nurses and behavioral health professionals to discuss opportunities for removing barriers to equitable, quality mental health care throughout the state, along with developing resources and toolkits. The Action Coalition developed a plan to work with community organizations on a program for reducing mental health stigma in economically disadvantaged schools in the state which they will implement in the future.

Summary of completed project

The Virginia Action Coalition was able to strengthen partnerships with cross-sector organizations to advance mental health awareness and training. Through these partnerships, they hosted a roundtable focused on mental health and the criminal justice system, and they created a webinar series on maternal mental health. Nurses, including school nurses, were sponsored to attend conferences and trainings on mental health, leading to a train-the-trainer model being executed for additional trainings in school-related settings. Additionally, discussions were had with Richmond Public Schools about developing an age-appropriate mental health program for kindergarten-12 students.

Outcomes

The Virginia Action Coalition partnered with the Commonwealth Attorney and the City of Richmond Police Department to host the 2020 Mental Health Roundtable Meeting, a convening of stakeholders to discuss reframing the lens on public safety and root causes of crime.

In partnership with the Virginia Neonatal Perinatal Collaboration, a five-part webinar series on maternal mental health was released, including one during Black Maternal Health Week centered on Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (PMAD) within the Black community.

Twelve nurses were sponsored to attend the Mind Matters: Improving Mental Healthcare Delivery Across Settings conference, and one school nurse attended the Mental Health First Aid Instructor Training, Youth Module.