Youth Participatory Action Research—Engaging Youth in Mental Health Promotion
ABSTRACT SUMMARY
Engaging youth in planning and decision-making can be incredibly beneficial to the young person themselves as he/she matures to adulthood, and to the community at large. This workshop will outline Oregon’s experience using two intertwined methods of positive youth engagement -- Youth Advisory Councils (YACs) and Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR)—to support mental health promotion. Participants will learn from our YPAR curriculum and the successes and challenges of our YAC projects.
ABSTRACT DESCRIPTION
In 2013, the Oregon State Legislature increased funding to the 2013–15 budget of the Addictions and Mental Health Division to support and enhance Oregon’s community mental health system. From this funding, the Adolescent and School Health Program (A&SH) was able to award SBHCs grants to add or expand mental health staffing capacity and to support mental health projects, including Youth Advisory/Action Councils (YACs). Three SBHC systems were awarded funding for YAC projects—Deschutes County, La Clinica (Jackson County), and Washington County. As part of their grant requirements, the YACs are conducting and leading a project on a mental health topic during the 2014-2015 school year. Preliminary work by some of the grantees included developing surveys to explore student experiences with and perceptions of mental health treatment and stigma, which will be used in the project planning process. Project topics may include suicide prevention and awareness, stigma related to mental health, and bullying. Some of the local communities have experienced youth suicides within the past few years, and are particularly interested in suicide prevention as a potential area of focus.
Concurrent to the beginning of YAC activities, our program finalized a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) curriculum that had been in development for a couple of years. Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is an evidence-based strategy to authentically engage youth in programs and policies that impact their lives, while providing opportunities for youth to build skills in research, team work, and civic engagement, while promoting strong youth-adult partnerships. The Institute for Community Research’s (ICR’s) Participatory Action Research Curriculum for Empowering Youth (2004) was identified as a model evidence-based curriculum, and the A&SH Program partnered with the ICR to adapt their curriculum for use in Oregon and to use their expertise in youth engagement to develop and conduct a training program on Oregon’s YPAR curriculum. The training program will be open to YAC project grantees, as well as other SBHCs and community partners who work with youth, and conducted from January-June 2015. Content will include a two-day workshop and technical assistance for the 6 months of implementation.
This conference workshop will include an overview of the mental health expansion grant, Oregon YAC grant projects, and the YPAR curriculum and training project. In addition, the Deschutes County project coordinator will give an overview of the YAC project in Deschutes County SBHCs, results from the Student Mental Health and Wellness Survey, and the successes and challenges of the project. Finally, the presenters will lead the audience in a short activity that is part of the YPAR workshop training.
PRESENTER(S)
NAME: Stefanie Murray MPH ORGANIZATION: Oregon School-Based Health Centers NAME: Melissa Varnum MPH ORGANIZATION: Deschutes County Health Services
AUDIENCE
ADMINISTRATORS: N
PRIMARY HEALTH: Y
MENTALHEALTH: Y
ORGANIZATIONAL: N
PUBLIC HEALTH: Y
EDUCATION: N
YOUTH: Y
Technical
issues should be directed to Deirdre Taylor via email: dtaylor@sbh4all.org
or Telephone: (202) 638-5872, ext. 204
