TAMPA, Fla. — This Mental Health Awareness Month, new information suggests almost 25% of employees recently surveyed said there was no one at work they felt comfortable opening up to about behavioral health issues.

The Crisis Center of Tampa Bay offers group mental health and wellness training to help create a space to open that line of support in and out of the workplace.

“This is really group training, that’s what it’s designed for,” said President & CEO of Crisis Center of Tampa Bay Clara Reynolds. “It can be for businesses, but it can also be for church groups or youth groups or whatever kind of group that’s getting together that wants to learn more about how they can support one another.”

Sessions can focus on topics like mental health first aid, crisis de-escalation, burnout, managing stress and self-care. A group of Tampa Police Department Dispatchers from the 911 Communications Center recently attended training on suicide prevention.

“As dispatchers, we’re often the very first person that they talk to before we even get the ambulance or the police out there to them. We’re there on the phone with them,” said class participant Nando Alvarado.

The Crisis Center of Tampa Bay wants to make sure the community can provide safe support.

“It’s really important that if we’re going to make an impact on suicide and suicidal behavior in our community that we train as many people in as many things as possible,” said Eric Bledsoe, one of the class facilitators and director of Gateway Services with the Crisis Center.

The interactive training can be modified to meet an organization’s needs. 911 Communications Center Supervisor Richard Parsons has benefited from the training and says he plans to send all his dispatchers.

“Putting myself in that caller’s situation was something that I definitely took away from that class and it helps me take calls from a different perspective,” said Parsons.

Alvarado said many will be taking that different perspective back to the dispatch center.

“You never know that one person is the one who needs to speak with you,” said Alvarado.

Bledsoe talks about how a new perspective can be put into the community.

“It can be a friend, a family member, it can be a stranger at a gas station, so it’s all about letting everyone in the community know that we all have a role and we all have a stake in this,” said Bledsoe.

If you or a someone you know is struggling, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 is available 24/7.