In a large-scale crisis, mental health professionals cannot be everywhere at once. Teachers, nurses, emergency personnel, social workers, community leaders, and other frontline professionals may be among the first people to encounter someone in distress.
PreAct builds local capacity by equipping these professionals with practical skills they can use in real-world situations. During the Belize pilot, the team trained more than 200 local stakeholders across healthcare, emergency response, education, and community leadership.
Training focused on Psychological First Aid, recognition of acute stress, trauma-informed communication, and grief support. Rather than turning non-specialists into clinicians, the goal was to help participants recognize distress, provide appropriate initial support, and understand when and how to connect people with additional care.
This approach extends mental health preparedness reach beyond specialized services. By strengthening the people and networks already embedded in a community, PreAct helps create a broader, more responsive system of support.
For PreAct, preparedness means ensuring the knowledge and skills needed to respond to psychological distress are already present when a crisis occurs.