News

Empowering Mental Health: New Grantees Convene to Exchange Best Practices and Insights

December 11, 2023

The Paso del Norte Health Foundation is proud to announce the recipients of ten grants collectively surpassing $1 million under the Disease Prevention and Management Priority Area Mental Health and Emotional Well-being Initiative. Aligned with our commitment to fostering emotional well-being, reducing stigma, and enhancing access to timely treatment, these grants aim to cultivate community support and inclusivity, ultimately diminishing social isolation and fostering a culture of support and acceptance. Earlier this month, our newest grantees convened at the Health Foundation for an enlightening exchange of best practices related to their programs and services. The gathering provided a platform for learning and sharing insights to enhance their initiatives.

Dr. Sarah Martin, Associate Professor, Division Director, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Medical Director of the El Paso Hub of the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium at Texas Tech, and Jillian Longway, MSN, RN, ARNP, CPNP-PC, PMHS, DNP-Candidate from the Department of Psychiatry at Texas Tech, gave the keynote presentation, titled “The Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium: Improving Access to Mental Health Care for the Children and Adolescents of Texas,” which shed light on groundbreaking efforts to enhance mental healthcare accessibility for young Texans. This collaborative session underscored the importance of knowledge exchange and collective efforts to address the mental health needs of our community’s children and adolescents. We are grateful for the expertise shared and look forward to continued collaboration among our grantees in advancing impactful initiatives for the well-being of our youth.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of El Paso - $80,117.95
Equitable Approaches to Build Community Mental Health Resilience
To bring mental health awareness, reduce stigma, and negative bias by implementing Youth and Teen Mental Health First Aid training staff, mentors, parents, guardians, students, board members, and community partners in the greater El Paso area.

Centro Caritativo para atencion de Enfermos de Sida A. C. - $95,000.00
PLENA-MENTE
To bring mental health awareness and reduce stigma by delivering Psychological First Aid training to teachers, administrative staff, counselors, and social workers in eight secondary schools in the southeastern part of Ciudad Juárez, MX.

Comision de Salud Fronteriza Mexico-Estados Unidos - $144,901.56
Comisin
To strengthen the behavioral health system of care collaborative, provide evidence-based training in programs such as the Collaborative Evaluation and Control of Suicidal Tendencies Model (CAMS), and promote policies aimed at improving the emotional well-being of the community in Ciudad Juárez.

El Paso Center for Children, Inc - $43,967.00
Strong Families Community Change Initiative
To conduct parent educational workshops aimed to increase parental resilience, social connections, knowledge of parenting and child development, and social and emotional competence of children, known as Parent Cafés in zip codes 79930, 79915, 79835, 79838, and 79902, in El Paso, TX.

Families and Youth, Inc. - $169,041.00
Local Collaborative 3 (LC3)
To improve the mental health and substance use systems of care through action teams working on specific policy, program, and practice improvements to achieve an ideal behavioral health system of care through the Local Collaborative 3’s (LC3) in Doña Ana County.

Family Services of El Paso, Inc - $207,805.68
People Empower El Paso (PEEP) Project
To provide National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) evidence-based programs and to strengthen NAMI El Paso as a central mental health peer support, advocacy, and education provider in El Paso County.

New Mexico State University Foundation, Inc. - $66,225.64
Autism PEERS
To implement the Autism Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS) for at least 32 teens or young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder, their parents, or guardians in southern New Mexico.

Paso del Norte Children’s Development Center - $68,750.00
Help Me Grow El Paso: Neurodevelopmental Workforce Capacity Building
To address the urgent local workforce needs in neurodevelopmental disabilities by training emerging professionals to address holistic and cultural needs while engaging in cross-discipline collaborative care through a pilot program in El Paso, TX.

Texas A&M University – $97,845.00
Colonias Project Cares
To reduce mental health stigma by improving emotional well-being and access to care through connectivity strategies for El Paso and Hudspeth Counties.

The University of Texas at El Paso - $55,379.00
Pensamientos y Platicas: A Mental Health Engagement Program
To provide a community-grounded mental health engagement program called Pensamientos y Platicas, designed to support social connection, reduce mental health stigma, and remove barriers to seeking and accessing care to 100 participants in El Paso, TX.

We commend all grantees for their innovative approaches to advancing mental health and emotional well-being in our region. For more information, contact Sandra Day, Associate Program Officer, at sday@pdnfoundation.org, 915-218-2617.