Dr. Ashurst completed instructor certifications for both the ADULT and the YOUTH Mental Health First Aid curricula. As of 2019, she began traveling around the state to faciltate trainings for agents and community partners on both curricula. To date, 6 trainings have been completed - 5 on the ADULT curriculum and 1 on the YOUTH curriculum. A total of 81 people have now been trained that are working with Kentucky Cooperative Extension as agents, specialists, staff, and collaborators.

From the 81 people trained, 55 completed evaluations. Upon completion of the training, evaluations showed:

- 90% strongly agreed they were better able to recognize the signs that someone may be dealing with a mental health problem or crisis after the training.

- 89% strongly agreed they were better able to reach out to someone who may be dealing with a mental health problem or crisis after the training.

- 85% strongly agreed they were better able to ask a person whether s/he is considering killing her/himself after the training.

- 92% strongly agreed they were better able to actively and compassionately listen to someone in distress after the training.

- 89% strongly agreed they were better able to offer a distressed person basic "first aid" level information and reassurance about mental health problems after the training.

- 90% strongly agreed they were better able to assist a person who may be dealing with a mental health problem or crisis to seek professional help after the training.

- 89% strongly agreed they were better able to assist a person who may be dealing with a mental health problem or crisis to connect with community, peer, and personal supports after the training.

- 93% strongly agreed they were better able to be aware of their own views and feelings about mental health problems and disorders because of the training.

- 92% strongly agreed they were better able to recognize and correct misconceptions about mental health and mental illness as they encounter them because of the training.

Exemplary quotes included: 

- "This course was very insightful on how to better deal with situations that we may come into contact with in our positions."

- "The content of this training was very important to the actual situation in rural Kentucky with my audiences which are teenagers and adults including substance abuse recovery."

"This course was helpful and informative .I appreciated the open dialogue about mental health issues. It as helpful to learn first aid responses to be able to help others."

"This course has better prepared me for the work that I do professionally. Great training and good intro into dealing with these topics."

"A strength of this course was real world/life situations - usable!"

"A strength of this training was the instructor's presentation style and engagement and the interaction between instructor and class.

"The course was too short and I need more time to practice what I learned."