Addressing the mental health needs of individuals is critically important. Half of all mental illnesses begin by age 14 and three-quarters by mid-20s. Left unaddressed, mental health issues can lead to serious consequences for a young person’s well-being, including increased risk of dropping out of school or experiencing homelessness. Tragically, suicide is the second leading cause of death for 15 to 24 year-olds. Through support and partnership with the Illinois Association for Behavioral Health (IABH), the Great Lakes MHTTC committed to conducting a Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) Training Initiative to provide training to adults who work with youth on how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders.

The New England MHTTC Person-Centered Recovery Planning (PCRP) Learning Collaborative project is a multi-agency learning collaborative to provide intense training, TA, and implementation support around the practice of PCRP. It began with a series of introductory webinars in December 2019 and was scheduled to conclude in December 2020; however, supports will be extended for 3 months due to significant project disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Primary faculty are Dr. Janis Tondora of the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health and Dr. Dan Wartenberg of Newport Mental Health.

A comprehensive needs assessment was conducted across the Southeast region in 2019 to identify top priority areas for which state leaders wanted to receive trainings and technical assistance. School mental health was among the top priority areas identified. The Southeast MHTTC, in collaboration with the National Center for School Mental Health, implemented the School Mental Health Regional Learning Community to engage the region’s school mental health leaders in advancing comprehensive school-based mental health systems.

The Central East MHTTC, in collaboration with the Annapolis Coalition on the Behavioral Health Workforce and the Community Behavioral Health Association of Maryland, invited organizations to apply to participate in a Workforce Recruitment and Retention Collaborative. This project educated community-based behavioral health providers in Maryland on the multiple factors contributing to the crisis in the recruitment and retention of behavioral staff. The collaborative assisted providers to identify factors influencing their ability to recruit and retain staff and develop individualized action plans. It also provided technical assistance and allowed providers to share progress and receive feedback from members of the Collaborative.

In many schools in the Pacific Northwest, as is the case across the country, school mental health (when available) is often parallel or siloed from existing social, emotional, and behavioral initiatives, creating inefficiencies and inequities, as well as disconnections and delays for students receiving support. To address these issues, the Northwest MHTTC implemented the Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF) Demonstration Project, which aims to impact student achievement and attainment, increase identification and impact on students with internalizing behaviors, improve wellness, and reduce rates of student discipline problems and related impact of trauma, opioid and substance misuse, suicide prevention, depression, and/or anxiety.