How New York Is Expanding Mental Health First Aid

In this episode of The State of Mental Wellbeing, host Mohini Venkatesh chats with Katie Oldakowski of the Mental Health Association in New York State and Tramaine EL-Amin of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing about practical ways to expand mental health education in your community. 

How can your community turn Mental Health First Aid from training into a movement? Mohini, Katie and Tramaine explore Mental Health First Aid, New York’s statewide approach to mental wellbeing, the power of local champions and partnerships, and a new implementation road map designed to help communities scale sustainable, evidence-informed change. They examine New York’s statewide Teen Mental Health First Aid initiative for 10th graders and share how trusted local voices strengthen training. 

Listeners will learn: 

• How states can start small, build partnerships, learn from setbacks and embed MHFA into a larger public health strategy 

• New York’s Teen MHFA campaign, which aims to reach approximately 186,000 10th-grade students over five years 

• About the forthcoming Humana-funded Communitywide MHFA Implementation Road Map 

Katie Oldakowski is the senior director of training and programs at the Mental Health Association in New York State (MHANYS), where she leads statewide mental health initiatives focused on literacy, policy and advocacy.  

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