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Youth spend an increasing amount of time at school and are experiencing greater mental health needs in the school setting. School professionals have the responsibility to respond and assist in managing the mental health needs of students. Illinois has implemented the Illinois Mental Health First Aid Training Act to provide psychoeducational programming in mental health interventions to better respond to the needs of youth in schools. This training program provides critical information that professionals need to respond to students' mental health needs effectively. This explanatory, sequential mixed methods study researched the intervention's effectiveness for a rural northwestern county in Illinois. The results of the mixed methods sequential, explanatory study demonstrated an effective intervention for changing mental health attitudes as well as increasing school professionals' confidence to respond to mental health needs with the students within their school. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]