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Ninth grade students at Coffee County Schools Raider Academy will soon be trained in Teen Mental Health First Aid. The national program was designed to increase awareness and understanding of the mental health challenges facing teenagers.

School counselor Marisa Judkins said the program was first created for younger students and then it was expanded to include students in the ninth grade.

“The kids are talking to each other, they are not coming to adults,” she said. “It is great for us to see the signs, but if they don’t see the signs it has just created that barrier.”

Judkins said that The Teen Mental Health First Aid program will show students how to identify a mental health situation in a streamlined way so that they can connect with a helpful adult and hopefully prevent as many potential mental health crisis as possible.

Raider Academy Principal Angela Sellars said the opportunity came for all her faculty to be trained in the program, but they then learned the program was not yet available for ninth grade students.

“We have waited and waited and finally this year we are happy to report that we are offering it to our ninth-grade students,” she said. “We are hoping this is going to have a positive impact on the interactions with the kids, with each other, with the adults in the building. It is all part of the package. It takes this, it takes us honoring class time, honoring teachers time and working together to make all of this work to be successful.”

Taught in six sessions, students will begin the program in late September and conclude in early October.

Judkins said topics during the sessions range from describing what mental health challenges are, where they are on the spectrum and what appropriate mental health looks like and helping a friend in a mental health crisis.

At the end of the program, students will become certified in Teen Mental Health First Aid.

Sellars said she believes the Teen Mental Health First Aid program will help students know what a true mental health crisis is, what the next steps are and who they need to contact for help.