4. Did you know?
•The fear of stigma often delays diagnosis and
treatment, yet early intervention can make a dramatic
difference in quality of life.
•One in six children diagnosed with a mental health
problem or mental illness will get treatment.
•40% of parents say they would not admit to anyone,
not even their doctor, that they had a child with a
mental health problem or mental illness.
5. Presentations
Info Booths
SafeTalk Training
8 week group programs
Bridging Counselling
Student Wellness
Committees
Stigma Reduction
Presentations
Yearly Trend Review
Program Evaluation
6. Mental Health Promotion
Our mental health
promotion services
aim to increase
mental health literacy
in young people
8. 8
• Mental health
• Happiness Myths
• Mental Health Continuum
• Understanding the stigma
• Sources of Strength
• Coping Skills, Positive Connections
and Community Resources
• Levels of help
• Call to action
Wellness 101
9. How do we talk about Mental Health?
Physical
health
Balanced:
Body
reacts in
a “normal”
range for you!
Stuffy nose:
You
might be
getting
a cold
A bad flu:
It’s not
getting any
better after
a week
Serious pain:
After a
serious car
accident -
you go to the
ER
Mental
health
Balanced:
Feelings and
thoughts are
in a “normal”
range for you!
Feel
stressed:
You may be
anxious
after a fight
with a friend
Really down:
Struggling for
a while - you
may be
missing school
Serious
pain:
Thoughts of
suicide - you
call a parent
or crisis line
11. 11
How 2 Help A Friend
• Mental health
• When to be concerned
• Why don’t people get help
• Positive friendships vs. mini
psychologist
• Crisis vs. concern
• Circles of help
– Professionals
– Trusted adults
– Positive connector
• Self-Care
13. 13
Our mobile
information booths
allow youth-friendly
facilitators to pop up in
any community and
connect young people
to our program and to
other community
mental health
resources
Information Booths
14. Intervention Programs
Our 8-week group intervention
programs have 2 prongs:
i. Guided discussion about a
mental health topic
ii. Practice of healthy stress
coping strategies
These programs aim to build
resilience in young people
15. Sample Intervention Program: Pens & Paint
Sketching clouds - Summer 2016
"Everyone is so respectful so you can
speak about yourself and not be or feel
judged“
"I like the people in the group. I also lik
e how the counsellors are younger and
can relate to us better"
"I liked [Pens and Paint] because I got
to meet new people and feel better
about myself"
"I enjoy [Pens and Paint] because of
the acceptance and comfort of the
people and facilitators"
17. 8-week Bridging Counselling
YouthNet RéseauAdo has almost no waitlist
However, if a young person is waiting for a
program spot in the next season, is
struggling, and is currently not connected to
any other service providers, YNRA is in the
position to offer short-term (8-week) 1:1
bridging counselling with a registered social
worker
18. safeTALK Training
YouthNet is a registered provider of safeTALK certification
safeTALK is a course which educates individuals on how to
identify the signs of suicidal ideation and connect those in need
of support to appropriate help
safeTALK is available to anyone
19. Wellness Summits
Every year, Ottawa hosts a wellness summit for youth to help
them better understand the importance of mental health and
the stigmas surrounding mental health
This year our summit is on November 9th
and we are partnering
with Ottawa Public Health and all the major Ottawa school
boards to offer content on
1)Mental Health and Stigma
2)Self-care and
3)How to help a friend
https://youtu.be/zKuc5Xin39Q
20. Research
In addition to delivering
operational programming,
YouthNet RéseauAdo
collects information from
youth and publishes yearly
data trends as a mechanism
of advocating for the youth
voice at the systems level
24. Presentations
Discussion Groups
Info Booths
8-10 week group programs
Bridging Counselling
SafeTalk Training
Student Wellness
Committees
Stigma Reduction Summits
Yearly Trend Review
Program Evaluation
At the center of the YouthNet program
Are the youth
25. YouthNet programs
are designed,
informed, and
overseen by a Youth
Advisory Committee
This volunteer working
group is open to all
youth mental health
advocates
Youth Advisory Committee (YAC)
26. Recognizing potential mental health
concerns
Youth will experience a lot of emotional and social changes so
the most important thing to note are:
1. Intensity: Have there been major changes in your
youth’s mental health?
2. Duration: Has this been persisting over a period of
time?
3. Interference: Is this interfering with your youth’s daily
life?
27. Recognizing potential mental health
concerns
Youth will experience a lot of emotional and social changes so
the most important thing to note are:
1. Intensity: Have there been major changes in their
mental health?
Are you noticing changes in their speech, their emotional
reactions to situations? Detaching from family and friends?
Losing interest in hobbies?
28. Recognizing potential mental health
concerns
Youth will experience a lot of emotional and social changes so
the most important thing to note are:
2. Duration: Has this been persisting over a period of time?
How long are these changes? 1 week? 1 month? Is it triggered
by an event?
29. Recognizing potential mental health
concerns
Youth will experience a lot of emotional and social changes so
the most important thing to note are:
3. Interference: Is this interfering with their daily life?
Is this interfering with their daily functions? Are they having a
hard time leaving the house? Getting out of bed? Ignoring
friends? Spending too much time online?
30. Let’s do something
We found that talking to youth about mental health
and teaching them strategies is easier and more
effective when you implement activities and try them
yourselves.
Let’s try it out.
31. The “do-ing” in Mental Health
• Roses and Thrones
• Mindful Check Ins (use online apps to help)
• Coping wall strategies – take one, leave one
• Gratitude Wall Challenge
• Find a quote and talk about its meaning and what you
like about it
• Adult Ally conversation
• Contact based education – go to talks, watch
documentaries on mental health
• Gadget Free outings and activities
32. Let’s Connect: Resources
We encourage families to locate resources and have them
readily available.
As health care professionals, sometimes if we offer 2-3
resources for parents, it helps reduce the stigma
33. Need more information?
@CHEOyouthnet Facebook.com/YNRAottawa
Topic Contact
General inquiries, career & volunteer
opportunities, media, safeTALK training,
fundraising/donations
Mary Alexandrou
malexandrou@cheo.on.ca
School/Community presentations, discussion
groups, info booths, Youth Advisory Committee
Stefan Domaradzki
sdomaradzki@cheo.on.ca
Intervention Programs, registration/wait list,
drop-ins
Kim Hsiung
khsiung@cheo.on.ca
Bridging Counselling & Clinical Backup Nadine Lamoureux
nlamoureux@cheo.on.ca
Research, Program Evaluation & Tools Elyse Champaigne-Klassen
EChampaigne@cheo.on.ca
CHEO’s YouthNet RéseauAdo 300B / 2305 St. Laurent Blvd 613-738-3915
@CHEOyouthnet
Notas del editor
YouthNet RéseauAdo (YNRA) is a bilingual mental health promotion and intervention program of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. Research suggests that adolescents are much more likely to talk to peers than to adults about mental health. For this reason, YNRA offers support services using a peer-to-peer model; youth facilitators between the ages of 20 and 30 create an open, non-judgmental space for youth to engage in healthy dialogue about mental health. Programs aim to build resilience in young people by demonstrating healthy stress coping strategies while decreasing the stigma surrounding mental illness and its treatment. Embracing a youth engagement philosophy, YNRA is informed by a Youth Advisory Committee, which both develops youth-relevant programming and advocates for youth to service providers, families, policy makers, and systems-level decision makers. This industry leading youth engagement program benefits young people by giving them the voice they deserve in their own healthcare
Explain
Hospital role
Community Role
Parternships with schools
Funding
Youth
Mary
YNRA’s deliverables in a snapshot.
YouthNet has a magic formula when talking about mental health. Know that 1) it is important to TALK openly about MH. 2) we understanding that once we get the talking going, we must DO something to create a link between MH and our own needs and 3) learning the importance of help-seeking behavior and reaching out.
We all have MH and it is on a continuum
Stigma is # 1 reason youth don’t seek help
explore stigma and ways to reduce it
Mental health continuum
Ways to stay mentally healthy (eat/sleep, outside, hobbies, routine, self-talk, trusted adult)
Social and emotional changes
When to be concerned (Intensity, duration, interference)
Three levels of help (Coping strategies, friends/fam, trusted adult, professionals)
Stress-Less:
Aim: explore stress and effective stress management
Survey research = almost all youth feel stress, and many frequently
Explore what stress is, origins
acknowledge stress part of being human
Key is good stress management habits
Awareness – triggers/under stress
Toolbox of coping mechanism is key
encourage seeking help
Updated this to make it more clear, but we may rather the old one (I personally like the much older one with more visuals vs. text, but would want to update that one with specific emojis and/or other visuals - e.g., cartoon of stuffy nose)
Come up with examples as a group
(2 minutes)
Ask: Okay, so we just agreed that everyone has mental health… So what IS mental health?
If no quick answers can prompt with “what is the first thing that pops into your head when you hear the words ‘mental health’?”
Can validate/acknowledge a few answers before moving to next Q. (e.g., sometimes they’ll say “depression” or “anxiety”, or sometimes they’ll say “the health of your mind”)
Review: Mental health is an umbrella term that includes a person’s psychological and emotional well-being.
Continue with: What is physical health? It is our condition, and generally refers to our bodies (muscles, throat, stomach, arms and legs, etc.).
Mental health is the same concept, but refers to our thoughts, feelings and emotions.
Both can change, and go up and down throughout our lives. This is why we like to think of health as on a spectrum, not black and white. Give one example from green/yellow:
There are times when we might be under the weather, or stressed. But we can take care of ourselves by using our coping strategies, such as going for a run or taking some Advil.
Give one example from orange/red:
- But there are others times where we might need professional help. Like when we are in crisis, perhaps because we have gotten into a car accident, or because we are having suicidal thoughts.
Ask: What’s the difference between mental health and mental illness? Everyone has a mental health, but not everyone has a mental illness. Mental illness includes diagnoses such as anxiety disorders.
Ask: Can you have good mental health if you have a mental illness? Yes. In the same way you can be physically healthy if you have diabetes/asthma/a broken leg, etc., you can be mentally healthy if you have a mental illness.
Ask: Can you have poor mental health without a mental illness? Yes. If you aren’t exercising and eating junk food all the time, you’re not going to feel physically healthy even if you don’t have a physical illness. In the same way, not taking care of yourself can lead to poor mental health.
Stress-Less:
Aim: explore stress and effective stress management
Survey research = almost all youth feel stress, and many frequently
Explore what stress is, origins
acknowledge stress part of being human
Key is good stress management habits
Awareness – triggers/under stress
Toolbox of coping mechanism is key
encourage seeking help
Presentations:
Each PR has a specific aim and seeks to introduce solutions and connect youth the resource such as YNRA
Under standing Mental Health
Aim: educate around MH/MI and encourage wellbeing
We all have MH and many struggle with MI
Stigma is # 1 reason youth don’t seek help
explore stigma and ways to reduce it
Promotes mental wellbeing
Encourages awareness your state of MH and guides with help seeking
Stress-Less:
Aim: explore stress and effective stress management
Survey research = almost all youth feel stress, and many frequently
Explore what stress is, origins
acknowledge stress part of being human
Key is good stress management habits
Awareness – triggers/under stress
Toolbox of coping mechanism is key
encourage seeking help
Teacher’s can download this guide for themselves to have in their classrooms link to website www.youthnet.on.ca/services
What is an IB?
Be active and visible in communities
Engage variety of audiences: parents, stakeholders…
Opportunity to connect youth to our programs
Be interactive! Bring props
2017-2018 – we have 15 sub-contracted youth facilitators as our front line workers.
https://youtu.be/zKuc5Xin39Q
Mary
More connected to FAMILY but TALK to youth more …
Mary
Stefan
Stefan
Stefan
Stefan
Mary
Do: ask a parent in the audience “how are you?”
Now ask another parent to tell me something “exciting about their day”
And then ask another parent to tell me something “hard about their day”