After counselors at an after-school program in Coatesville, Pennsylvania heard students speak of suicide, they were able to to prevent the situation from going any further by using the training they recently attained through a program called Mental Health First Aid. The program gives people techniques that allow them to help people developing a mental illness or crisis. There are over 500,000 people throughout the nation that have completed the training, and over 900 of those people work in the public and are community members in Chester County.

The National Council for Behavioral Health launched a campaign in January to train over a million people in its program. Their aim is to make this certain training just as common as training for CPR or routine first aid. Congress gave the Mental Health First Aid program $15 million in December to move forward in making all of this happen. Each version of the training is tailored to specific age groups because each group may encounter a situation differently. In 2011 and 2013, the Pennsylvania Youth Survey showed there was a high depression rate among youths in the Coatesville area compared to the rest of the state. This realization caused the Brandywine Health Foundation to bring the program to the Coatesville area. The training is eight hours long and teaches the acronym “ALGEE”: Assess for risk of suicide or harm, listen non-judgmentally, give reassurance and information, encourage appropriate professional help, encourage self-help and other support strategies. These tactics are for various situations such as when a person experiences a traumatic event, has a panic attack, or has hallucinations. According to the Coatesville area, the program seems to be having a positive effect and they hope more areas will take initiative and make the same decision.