The Sentinel Mental Health & Awareness Training was developed by the Northern Lights Council last year, which includes a 15-minute video-based training for youth and adults. We are offering a "Train the Trainer" course on this on April 26.

The purpose of the training is the following:

• Give participants a better grasp on the importance of mental health and wellness.
• Arm participants with specific coping skills and strategies to manage both common and acute anxiety and depression.
• Equip participants with effective reporting tools to help with any necessary intervention up to and including the prevention of suicide.

An important component of this training is the Sentinel Mental Health app that is available on both ios and android platforms that can be downloaded from both the Google Play Store and the Apple Store. Simply type: “Sentinel Mental Wellness”

The app provides immediate direct links to various, appropriate intervention and reporting services. The app also includes the training video as well as a way to register and be sent recognition for completing the Training. We wanted the training to be easily accessible and easy to share. The recognition is a small 1 inch Sentinel pin.

The Northern Lights Council currently serves over 1,500 Scouts-BSA members (ages 10 – 18). We plan to launch the training with this group. However, we will also make the training and the app available to other youth serving entities and agencies including sports teams, churches and civic youth groups, etc. Depression, anxiety and suicide are community problems. The Sentinel Mental Health, Wellness, and Preparedness Training is a community wide solution.