RIDOH Healthy Summer Toolkit for Youth Program Leaders
Vol. 1, Issue 2: Youth Mental Health
This is the second in a series of e-newsletters that RIDOH is sending to youth summer camp/program leaders every other week this summer.
Mental health issues can affect individuals of any age, but youth in Rhode Island and across the country have experienced an increase in mood disorder indicators and suicide-related outcomes in recent years. In Rhode Island alone, the percentage of youth reporting feeling sad or hopeless almost every day for 2 weeks or more to the point where they stopped doing some usual activities, increased from approximately 23.6% in 2007 to an estimated 29.4% in 2017.
It is important to note that you can support positive mental health in the youth you serve. To that end, the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) recommends 5 steps that summer youth programs can take to support their participants’ mental health:
Work to decrease the stigma around mental health issues. Embarrassment or shame around mental health issues can prevent youth from reaching out for help when they are suffering.
Be conscious of your language. Use person-first language, for example instead of saying that a person is “bi-polar” you would describe them as living with bi-polar disorder.
Talk openly about mental health, for example encouraging those with lived experience to talk about what it’s like to live with a mental health issue and the impact it can have.
Educate yourself and your program participants on mental health, websites like Teen Mental Health and National Alliance on Mental Illness have great information on mental illness that you can share with the youth you work with.
Implement a mental health awareness campaign as part of your program. The Campaign to Change Direction is a national campaign that provides outreach tools and easy to understand messaging on mental health.
Train staff in an evidence-based training program that will help you identify youth or others who are in crisis and get them to help.
Training programs like Mental Health First Aid or Question, Persuade, Refer are endorsed by RIDOH and can help staff identify youth who are in or approaching a mental health crisis and intervene effectively.
For middle and high school aged youth, there is also an evidence-based peer-to-peer suicide prevention training program available: Signs of Suicide.
For more information about training programs and how you may be able to access free training sessions, please contact Travis Vendetti, the Rhode Island Youth Suicide Prevention Program Coordinator, at travis.vendetti@health.ri.gov.
Make sure your program participants get enough sleep, even if that means modifying your program schedule. Sleep deprivation has been associated with mood changes, risk taking behaviors, and reduced cognitive ability.
U.S. teens on average tend to get about 7 hours of sleep per night, despite medical professionals recommending that they need approximately 9 to 9.5 hours of sleep. Additionally, puberty creates internal clock changes that lead to teenagers not being able to fall asleep until later at night.
Consider modifying your program’s schedule to make sure that your participants have a chance to get adequate sleep time.
Incorporate physical activity into your program if you haven’t already. Physical activity is associated with lower levels of anxiety and depression.
The U.S Department of Health and Human Services recommends that children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 years should have 60 minutes or more of physical activity each day.
Be sure to have adaptable activities for individuals with lower physical fitness levels or physical impairments so that everyone can participate.
Familiarize your staff with local mental health centers and other resources that you can recommend to parents/guardians of children who are exhibiting signs of mental health distress.
The Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH) provides a list of community mental health centers and other mental health resources here.
BHDDH also provides a guidebook for young adults ages 14-25 in navigating the sometimes complex system of behavioral health resources, available here.
The Trevor Project provides mental health resources specific to LGBTQ+ youth, as well as a 24/7 hotline (1-866-488-7386), you can find online resources and education for this population here.
If at any point you or another one your staff believes any of the individuals in your program may be considering suicide:
Call 911, if danger for self-harm seems imminent.
Ask them if they are thinking about killing themselves. (This will not put the idea into their head or make it more likely that they will attempt suicide.)
Listen without judgement.
Stay with the person (or make sure the person is in a private, secure place with another caring person) until you can get further help.
Remove any objects that could be used in a suicide attempt.
Please know that by providing a safe and welcoming atmosphere for youth to engage in fun activities with their peers you are already making great progress towards improving the mental health of the youth in your program. Thank you for all of the great work you and your colleagues do every day!
Previous issues of RIDOH Healthy Summer Toolkit for Youth Program Leaders:
· Vol. 1, Issue 1: Insect/Animal Bite Disease Prevention(Note: The deadline has been extended to sign up to receive free copies of the Rhode Island Tick Detective Workbook for Kids! Please sign up ASAP.)
