Health department seeks MOU with Hackensack Meridian medical school and final SAMHSA grant year for mental health training

Paul Kate, director of disease prevention at the Department of Health and Human Services, presented Resolution 25-631 seeking council approval for a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Hackensack Meridian Medical School to place interns to support clinical efforts.

Separately, Paul Bellenboyer, the city’s health officer, presented acceptance of the final year of a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grant worth $125,000 to continue mental-health-first-aid training. Bellenboyer said the city has run the program for six years and in that span has trained roughly 5,000 people through two grants; in the current grant year the department had trained 1,368 people through the third quarter. He said staff have trained 32 mental-health-first-aid instructors and prioritized training for city HHS staff, Department of Recreation and Youth Development staff, and Jersey City police officers.

Bellenboyer described the standard course as an eight-hour Mental Health First Aid training that typically issues certification for three years through the National Council for Mental Well-being’s Mental Health First Aid program (mentalhealthfirstaid.org).

Council members asked about program length and administration; department staff said classes are offered both in person and online, that applications are open to the public, and that the program has connected people earlier to services. No final roll-call votes on the MOU or the grant acceptance are recorded in the provided transcript excerpt.

(Ending) Staff said they would proceed with grant acceptance steps and finalize the MOU language as required; council acknowledged the program’s broad reach and requested no additional action in the excerpt provided.