The MAD HOPE Youth Suicide Prevention and Mental Well-Being Program’s goal is to equip young people with knowledge and skills to help themselves or others in a mental health crisis, including suicidal crises. Historically, MAD HOPE was an acronym for Making A Difference- Helping Other People Everywhere; it is more commonly just called “MAD HOPE”. We recognize that youth are the “eyes and ears of their peers”, meaning that they will likely recognize when a fellow young person is struggling before the adults do. Therefore, our three hour training, offered free of cost in middle and high school classrooms, teaches them what to look out for, resources available for help, and brief intervention skills to help a peer connect with a trusted adult for help. We discuss both mental health generally and suicide specifically. In addition, the MAD HOPE training goes upstream to discuss protective factors including managing feelings, managing stress, building resilience, healthy coping skills, and the importance of connection, as well as helping students identify existing trusted adults in their lives they could turn to.

The MAD HOPE training curriculum is a gatekeeper model one time training that utilizes best practices in suicide prevention and sources national suicide prevention organizations for material and to stay abreast of best practices. The MAD HOPE training is adapted to the youth audience through considering accessibility in concepts and language, teaching concepts through interactive activities when appropriate, utilizing multimedia elements, and incorporating discussion where appropriate to respect the young participants as the experts in the youth experience. The MAD HOPE curriculum is scripted and followed to fidelity in each training, and is updated yearly in reference to changes in prevention, suicide prevention, and to reflect findings from our evaluation data to increase efficacy.