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Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) is an early intervention public education program that teaches adults how to:
- Recognize the signs and symptoms of potential mental health challenges in youths,
- Listen to youths experiencing mental health challenges non-judgmentally,
- Give the youth reassurance, and
- Refer the youth to appropriate professional support and services.
In the United States, approximately 50 percent of the population will meet the criteria for a mental health disorder in their lifetime. Many of these disorders appear during adolescence. As Vivek H. Murthy, Surgeon General of the United States, stated in the Office of the Surgeon General’s 2021 Advisory, “The challenges today’s generation of young people face are unprecedented and uniquely hard to navigate. And the effect these challenges have had on their mental health is devastating.”
In response to our nation’s youth mental health crisis, and in partnership with the Prebys Foundation’s Youth Mental Health Innovation and Scaling Initiative, Girl Scouts San Diego offered Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) training to adults in San Diego for free from 2024-2026. This certification course teaches adults how to identify, understand and respond to signs and symptoms of mental health or substance use challenges in youth. The program has now concluded.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will YMHFA teach me to diagnose mental health issues or provide therapy
for youth? 
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