Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital & Tampa Bay Rays Partner for Mental Health Awareness Month

Orlando, FL (May 24, 2024) – For the second year, Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital is teaming up with the Tampa Bay Rays to raise mental health awareness by offering a full-day mental health first aid training course to their employees. The training will help participants recognize the common signs and symptoms of mental health and substance use challenges, as well as how to interact with a person in crisis. The mental health first aid training course is designed for participants who have little or no medical training but may be able to provide initial support to someone experiencing a mental health crisis. The course is also available to community members, free of charge periodically throughout the year.

Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital and The Rays will promote the classes and mental health awareness overall at the Rays vs Royals game on Friday May 24^th by handing out special wristbands which feature the national mental health crisis line’s phone number.

“By equipping local employees and residents with mental health support resources, we’re making an important investment in the health of our community,” said Senior Director Sara Osborne, Orlando Health Community Benefit. “This course not only helps address a critical need, but it also empowers participants and fosters an approach of empathy and resilience that will spread even beyond our area. We’re especially excited to offer the training course during Mental Health Awareness Month.”

The evidence-based, early-intervention course is administered by the National Council for Mental Wellbeing and uses community-specific scenarios, activities and videos. The course also teaches participants how to provide initial support until those in need are connected with appropriate professional help. Participants are directed to call the crisis line 988 or 911 for emergency situations.

The program began as a result of Orlando Health Community Benefit’s Community Health Needs Assessment, which identified mental health as a crucial need in St. Petersburg.

The classes are free and open to the community, and participants must be 18 or older. Space is limited. Those interested can register here.

About Orlando Health

Orlando Health, headquartered in Orlando, Florida, is a private, not-for-profit healthcare organization with $9.6 billion of assets under management that serves the southeastern United States and Puerto Rico.

Founded more than 100 years ago, the healthcare system is recognized around the world for Central Florida’s only pediatric and adult Level I Trauma program as well as the only state-accredited Level II Adult Trauma Center in Pinellas County. It is the home of one of the nation’s largest neonatal intensive care units, one of the only systems in the southeast to offer open fetal surgery to repair the most severe forms of spina bifida, the site of an Olympic athlete training facility and operator of one of the largest and highest performing clinically integrated networks in the region. Orlando Health has pioneered life-changing medical research and its Graduate Medical Education program hosts more than 350 residents and fellows.

The 3,487-bed system includes 33 hospitals and emergency departments – 26 of which are currently operational with seven coming soon. The system also includes nine specialty institutes, skilled nursing facilities, an in-patient behavioral health facility under the management of Acadia Healthcare, and more than 375 outpatient facilities that include physician clinics, imaging and laboratory services, wound care centers, home healthcare services in partnership with LHC Group, and urgent care centers in partnership with CareSpot Urgent Care. More than 4,950 physicians, representing more than 100 medical specialties and subspecialties have privileges across the Orlando Health system, which employs more than 29,000 team members and more than 1,400 physicians.

In FY 23, Orlando Health cared for 197,000 inpatients and 6.6 million outpatients.  The healthcare system provided nearly $1.3 billion in total impact to the communities it serves in the form of community benefit programs and services, Medicare shortfalls, bad debt, community-building activities and capital investments in FY 22, the most recent period for which this information is available.

Additional information can be found at http://www.orlandohealth.com, or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @orlandohealth.