A Mental Health Program Targeting Adolescents is Critical

A Mental Health Program Targeting Adolescents is Critical
Introduction
This is a mental health program that seeks to help adolescents fight various mental health issues. The program will entail several steps that will help in the actualization of set objectives. Further, the program will be evaluated against set indicators to help assess its effectiveness in attaining the set objectives.
Pre-Planning
Mental health issues among adolescents happen to be a growing issue that continues to impact their wellbeing. Poor mental health happens to impact students’ grades and social lives, and could ultimately lead to death. According to WHO (2021), globally, there is a 13% burden of mental health disorders among adolescents. Further, WHO indicates that the leading mental health disorders for this group are anxiety, depression, and behavioral disorders. In the U.S., these numbers are steeper, with 1 in 3 high school students have struggled or experienced a mental health issue (CDC, 2021). With minimal coping strategies, adolescents often make bad decisions or expose themselves to other risky behaviors that further expose them to greater danger. For example, some indulge in drug abuse, others in risky sexual encounters and behaviors, and yet others become violent. There is another category that seeks to end their lives, and today, suicide is reported to be a leading cause of death for adolescents aged 15 to 19 (WHO, 2021). These sentiments are echoed by the CDC (2021), which reports that 1 in 6 high school students in the U.S. reported conjuring suicide plans in 2019. What the above helps to show is the glaring danger that adolescents face as a result of mental health issues. Therefore, this program will seek to provide adolescents with information regarding mental health, offer training on coping strategies, and introduce the advantages of social groups, including family and friends.
For this program, the stakeholders will entail community partners, hospital organizations, schools, and families. These are considered key stakeholders because of their proximity to the target population. For community partners, the idea is to find ways to introduce mental health interventions in some community programs. Hospital organizations will contribute by providing trainers and psychological counselors who will help offer guidance on coping strategies and educate adolescents regarding mental health. Schools are crucial stakeholders because of the need to initiate mental health education at the school level. Students spend a lot of time with their teachers, and the symptoms of mental health issues happen to, at times, occur in class. Finally, the families are a key part of this program because of the importance of having a healthy social support group around students with mental health issues. As Radez et al. (2021) indicate, families play a crucial role in the lives of adolescents, and therefore, healthcare professionals should ensure their involvement.
Situational Assessment
Mental health issues among adolescents happen to greatly influence their experiences in different settings. Adolescents are experiencing difficulties coping at home, in school, and even assimilating into their communities because of mental health issues. As indicated above, the number of adolescents impacted by mental health issues is growing with the changing global issues. Today, a significant percentage of adolescents happen to suffer from a “diagnosable mental health disorder” (ACOG, 2017). The impact of these issues happens to grow continually in consequence with every passing year. For example, in 2020, Panchal, Rudowitz, and Cox (2022) from KFF discovered that drug overdose in adolescents grew by more than 90%, from 282 in 2019 to 546 in 2020. On the other hand, suicides were reported to be on the rise, with adolescent males reporting 8.7 suicides per 100,000 and female adolescents reporting 3.9 suicides per 100,000 (Panchal, Rudowitz, and Cox, 2022)). In the report, the authors also reveal that mental health is also greatly leading to an increase in the number of adolescents who knowingly harm themselves.
The rates of anxiety and depression disorders in adolescents also happen to increase every year. With the COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbating the impacts of mental health issues in the world, adolescents experienced rising cases of anxiety and depression. Aside from the above, another issue that appears to be worsening the situation entails the rising cases of adverse experiences among adolescents. Emotional abuse among adolescents appears to be on the rise, and in 2021, 55% of adolescents reported to have suffered emotional abuse (Panchal, Rudowitz, and Cox, 2022)). Further, identifying with an LGBTQ group happens to be another issue that worsens the mental health burden among adolescents. Ormiston and Williams (2021) note that adolescents’ gender identities happen to predispose them to abuse, trauma, victimization, and discrimination. These lead to heightened levels of depression and anxiety as well as increasing the risk of suicide in this group.
The actions that can be taken to help deal with mental health issues are multifaceted. To deal with mental health issues in adolescents, there is a need to employ a holistic approach that combines several practices. For example, peer mentoring, mental health education, medication, and familial or social therapy sessions can be combined to help offer victims holistic treatment. Other examples of actions that can be taken include meditation, resilience training, social skills training, cognitive-behavioral skills training, interpersonal psychotherapy, and the provision of psychoeducation (Colizzi, Lasalvia, and Ruggeri, 2020).
Goals/Objectives of the Program
This program seeks to attain several goals and objectives with a specific aim of enhancing the lives of adolescents. Below are the goals and objectives the program will endeavor to attain:
1 Provision of psychological wellbeing learning.
2 Advancement and promotion of conversation around mental health and its impacts on adolescents.
3 Provision of education on common mental health problems facing adolescents.
4 Promotion of social support skills to families and the community. These should help them know their role in supporting victims of mental health issues.
5 Alleviate fears regarding mental health issues among adolescents and in the community.
6 Have more adolescents seek help concerning mental health issues.
7 Enhance conversation and vulnerability among adolescents regarding their struggles with mental health issues.
8 Educate adolescents on available mental health community resources.
Anticipated Outcomes
The anticipated outcomes for the proposed program include:
1 A more informed group of adolescents regarding mental health.
2 More adolescents seeking help with mental health issues.
3 Increased participation and use of community mental health resources.
4 Increased support and understanding extended to adolescents from family members and their social support groups.
5 Development of mental health programs in schools to help adolescents deal with mental health challenges.
6 Improved and wholesome conversations regarding mental health issues facing adolescents. Here is where issues facing adolescents identifying as members of LGBTQ should be addressed. Conversations should be encouraged, and adolescents share their experiences with each other for purposes of motivating participation in mental health enhancement.
Appropriate Theories and Models
i) Stages of Change Model
Several theories and models are appropriate for the implementation of this program. One such model is the stages of change model. The stages of change model is made up of six stages, including the pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation/determination, action, maintenance, and the termination stage. These stages are key in explaining the behavior change that occurs when a person or a group undergoes behavior change. In this model, the success of any change is dependent on going through the process of increasing one’s readiness to accept the idea of change (Edwards et al., 2006). This model is appropriate for this program because it will take time and a change of attitude for the target population to first accept the existence of a problem and then be actively involved in the program.
First, the target population is expected to avoid the program and distance themselves from the mental health challenges they are experiencing. This should happen at the pre-contemplation stage. After some time, the message will be too loud to ignore, and the expectation is that the target population will be more aware of the challenge. Awareness is bound to drive action, and therefore, this paves the way to the third stage known as the pre-preparation stage. At this stage, the target population is now ready to take part in the activities within the program and is beginning to comprehend the benefits of the program. In the fourth stage, the target population should be willing participants who are actively involved in the program. The fifth stage is known as the maintenance stage. In the context of this program, this stage will showcase the changes the target population has made with regard to the mental health challenges they have been experiencing. For example, strong social support should be showcased as more adolescents are embracing their need for others, especially while going through tough mental health challenges. Finally, this model paves the way to the termination stage, which is not necessarily activated depending on the problem. For mental h...