AMHP is providing Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) Certification Training in communities across the country.
MHFA is an evidence-based program which introduces participants to risk factors and warning signs of common mental health illnesses like anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, and addiction.
It uses role-playing and simulations to demonstrate how to assess a mental health crisis; select interventions and provide initial help; and connect persons to professional, peer, social, and self-help care.
The training is appropriate for a wide variety of audiences, including but not limited to: community leaders, clergy, parents, youth directors, law enforcement personnel, educators, and medical providers.
Lena Ismail is a community health educator specializing in mental health. She was an Assistant Director at the University of Chicago for six years where she implemented public health initiatives on campus. Lena has a Master in Public Health and is a certified Community Health Education Specialist. She has been a Mental Health First Aid trainer since 2015 and has trained over 250 attendees.
Named the 2015 Hometown Hero in Education, Abeda Khanam is a science teacher with the New York City Department of Education. Abeda is also a chaplain with the New York State Chaplain Task Force. She is a parental engagement columnist and advocate in the areas of family values, social justice, and mental health. She teaches Mental Health First Aid to her fellow New Yorkers, with the goal of creating robust families and resilient communities.
Kameelah Waheed Wilkerson is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with 20 years in the mental health field. Kameelah currently works as the Director of Clinical Compliance with a large Los Angeles County non-profit child welfare organization passionately ensuring quality of care and services to youth and their families.
Kameelah's passion lies in mental health literacy for our communities at large and specifically the Muslim community. Kameelah is a frequently requested speaker/facilitator in the areas of mental health and spirituality. Speaking and training engagements have included workshops and panels for The African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, Islamic Relief of North America, The Muslim Family Foundation and multiple Mosques across Los Angeles and Orange County. Kameelah has also served on various boards of spiritual organizations and utilizes her position on the board to address issues of well-being, working toward the ultimate goal of promoting wholeness and integration of the spiritual, emotional and social self.
Kameelah’s ultimate goal continues to be demystifying mental illness and mental health services within the Black and Muslim communities by training all of the Muslim leaders in Los Angeles County in Mental Health First Aid and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training in order to equip them to confidently and competently respond to community members who present with mental health challenges.
Dr. Omar Shareef was certified in Adult Mental Health First Aid in July 2016 and has conducted 16 trainings for the Muslim and other faith communities in New York. He is a graduate of St. George's University School of Medicine, where he earned both his MD and MBA degrees. He is currently a 2nd year PGY2 psychiatry resident physician at Nassau University Medical Center in New York. He is affiliated with the Khalil Center where he is pursuing training in islamically-integrated psychotherapy, and also serves as the President of Muslims Thrive, a NY-based Muslim mental health organization. He likes to incorporate actual Muslim-based patient case studies and examples from his clinical experiences to help enrich his MHFA trainings, and uses his training in psychiatry to help give more in depth discussions of the MHFA curriculum.
Yasmin Irfani is an instructor for Adult and Youth Mental Health First Aid with American Muslim Health Professionals. She is also the Youth Programs Director at National Alliance on Mental Illness-San Fernando Valley (NAMI-SFV). Yasmin received her M.S in Counseling, with an emphasis in College Counseling and Student Services from California State University, Northridge (CSUN) in 2019. In the past couple of years, she has helped over 1,500 adults become certified in Mental Health First Aid and QPR trainings, both as an instructor and coordinator. Her mission is to help our Muslim community feel less alone in their mental health challenges, by creating safe and courageous spaces to be vulnerable.
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