By Idaho Business Review Staff

The Speedy Foundation (TSF) and FACES Family Justice Center held a Mental Health First Aidtraining July 13 for staff members, including law enforcement, medical providers, prosecuting attorneys, victim advocates, and community resource professionals.

FACES identified MHFA training as a critical need for the center’s mission.

By Shannon Camp, KTVB

In just five short years, The Speedy Foundation, like its namesake, has taken off. Helping to create Idaho's first suicide prevention hotline, and teaching mental health education to hundreds of people in Utah, Idaho and now right here in Speedy's hometown of Boise.

“It’s very much like first aid, it’s very much like CPR,” said Decker. “But you’re more likely to come across someone who is having a mental health crisis than you are to someone who is having a heart attack.”

The foundation has teamed up with FACES, a center for victims of abuse, sexual assault, and domestic violence. Together they are teaching mental health first aid in the Treasure Valley.

“How to help someone when you recognize these signs and how to just be a resource, how to listen, how to reach out for help where to reach out for help,” said Decker.

The goal is to give hope to those who need it, while honoring the man who gave hope to so many.

“I’d like to see no suicides is what I’d like to see,” said FACES COO Jean Fisher. “I think we have a lot of reason to be hopeful. I think we finally have resources to make that happen, to make that a reality.”

“To take that tragedy and our feelings of loss, it’s very easy to transition it into something that is hopeful, into eliminating the pain that we felt and the pain that he felt for anyone else,” said Decker.

The Speedy Foundation and FACES plan to host more mental health first aid courses in Boise and across the state.

By Leslie Tillotson, KUTV2

SALT LAKE CITY -- Knowing CPR or the Heimlich maneuver may save a life, but what if you come in contact with someone suffering a mental or emotional crisis? Would you know what to do? Fortunately, Optum and The Speedy Foundation have teamed up to provide free mental health first aid training.

Major life changes such as a breakup, loss of job, or the death of a loved one can trigger situational depression. Those are times someone might be having some difficulty. So check-in, be straightforward, and if they're struggling, ask tough questions.

"Don't be afraid to ask the real question that you want to know. 'Are you thinking about killing yourself?'" emphasizes Flood.

By Danica Lawrence, Fox13

SALT LAKE CITY – Research shows roughly one in four people deal with mental health issues in Utah, and a new class is providing people the "first aid" lessons they need to help loved ones who are suffering.

“These classes provide an amazing bridge to understanding what mental health is, the various levels of it, and how you can start talking to somebody,” said Katie Flood of The Speedy Foundation.

Experts say mental health is a subject that's been scary to talk about in the past but isn't so easy to avoid anymore. Suicide is a major health problem in Utah and a leading cause of preventable death.

By Marjorie Cortez, Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — As inner-city service missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Don and Julie Stewart's assignment to the Rio Grande Branch near many of the city's homeless services providers carried a steep learning curve.

"We're constantly dealing with mental illness and not knowing how to deal with it, how to handle it, how to recognize it or the right things to do or the wrong things," Don Stewart said.

To help inform and guide their efforts, the Stewarts are enrolled in a Mental Health First Aid class where they are learning to recognize signs of mental health crises and suicide and to develop an action plan to help someone in crisis.

The Stewarts say the training is so valuable, they've enrolled in the eight-hour class for a second time.

"This class was a game changer for us. It was like, 'OK help us understand,' because we were not addressing the mental heath issues. We were, 'Let's get you back to work. Let's get you housed. Let's get you out of the shelter,' and people were just coming right back to the shelter," Julie Stewart said.

The training is provided free of charge in a partnership between The Speedy Foundation, which was formed in honor of three-time Olympian Jeret "Speedy" Peterson, who died by suicide in July 2011, and Optum, which manages Salt Lake County's mental health and substance use services under contract with the county's Division of Behavioral Health Services.