Teen Depression and Anxiety Assessment
Part 1 - Assessment Plan
As a group, we have decided to conduct personal interviews in an effort to gather qualitative/quantitative data and evidence surrounding the need for greater psychoeducation and support of anxiety and depression within our school systems. Primary and secondary data information will ideally be obtained to support this claim.
Initially we discussed creating a survey or utilizing an existing, means-tested questionnaire. One of the drawbacks we realized was that accessing students who are minors could present problems in that we would need to acquire permission from parents if we were to solicit input from minors regardless of the methods used. We believe key informant interviews will be useful in gathering information and beginning to establish a relationship with professionals serving the youth population. However, a future survey and or focus group hasn’t been ruled out.
One requirement for inclusion in our interviews is that the participant is currently working in a Utah school setting or otherwise involved in working with teenage students. We will be conducting 5 interviews. Each student will be conducting an in-person or telephone interview at a time and location of the interviewee’s convenience and choosing. Each of us, through the interviewing process, will be responsible for compiling this data as a qualitative analysis. A list of questions have been brain stormed and follow the introductory guide.
Part 2 - Introductory Guide/Script
Thanks for taking the time to meet with me today. As a graduate student at the University of Utah I am part of a group that is researching teen and adolescent health and wellness in schools. To begin with, we hope to be able to get a better understanding of possible needs of students as it relates to wellness and prevention in the area of depression and anxiety in Utah school systems. We are researching the prevalence of anxiety and depression among teens and adolescents as well as the level of knowledge and education they have and receive about such issues. Part of our mission is to help promote student academic success. Mental health issues such as depression and anxiety obviously impact students on a personal and emotional level. But they also have a deleterious impact on students academic progress. With your permission, we would like to use the information you provide today to help identify if there is indeed a problem in this area and to assess what, if anything can be done to positively impact Utah teens and adolescents as a whole. Would you prefer that we keep your identifying information confidential?
Here is a list of questions to be potentially asked during the interview:
Is teen awareness of anxiety and depression something that needs to be addressed at your school/location?
Has there been interest expressed by students and or families to learn more about mental health?
Are you aware of any student, past or present, that has struggled with anxiety or depression?
Do you think your school gives enough attention to mental health topics, such as depression or suicide? Why or Why not?
Do you believe that there is a need for furthering education and prevention surrounding these issues in school. Please Explain.
Have you, in the past or during this conversation, thought of any possible solutions to these issues? (i guess this is assuming they believe that there ARE issues)
What wellness and prevention services does your school/district currently utilize to support students experiencing anxiety/depression?
What improvements or changes can be made (if any) to the mental health resources offered to students and their families?
What are some perceived barriers within the school system that interfere with the education of anxiety and depression?
How are at risk youth defined, identified, and addressed within the school system?
Is there administrative data available that indicates the number of missed school days by students in a year due to mental health treatment/care? Additionally are there attendance records available for the annual mental health seminar offered to parents? If so, how can I obtain this information?
I really like how you guys have considered the difficulties and challenges in working with minors and have contemplated the best way to gather information from them. One thing I would consider is when completing a phone interview maybe figuring out a way, if possible, of maybe doing it over some sort of video chat program to make the interview more personal. Just a thought. Your plan looks really good.
ReplyDeleteIdentifying stressors and bringing awareness regarding anxiety and depression is a great project. I am interested in what school age group you are focusing on (elementary schools, Jr. High, High School). I noticed that you have 10 very good questions that require deep thought, are you going to be using all 10 questions in each interview or do you have a method for determining which interview gets which questions. Interested to see what you find out.
ReplyDeleteI apologize, I just noticed you said "teen." I am therefore assuming it will be either Jr. High or High School?
ReplyDeleteHere is my second attempt...
ReplyDeleteI like how you identified that collecting data may be difficult. Without direct access to a teen to gather information you are relying upon another person's observations or someone who has directly worked with the identified population. Are you able to expand the reach to include organizations such as Big Brother-Big Sister. This may help analyze different risk factors to improve educational programs. I would think that you may have better chances of primary information with them and using the professionals at schools as secondary information.
This topic hits close to home for me and I look forward to your presentation after collecting the data!
I appreciated the fact that the paper started off with a serious issue of suicide being the second leading cause of death in Utah. This is what caught my interest to pursue the blog, because numbers tell stories. This epidemic that face our local society now is back on my radar after forgetting how high our suicide rates are in Utah. The amount of money is staggering for such a tragic issue. I hate to think that were spending millions to treat suicide rather than preventative treatment for depression. The stigma that is attached to mental health still kills me on how we can facilitate a paradigm shift as the leading profession. I’m thankful for NAMI’s attempts towards a progressive shift, but my pessimism thinks that this shift won’t be fast enough for many who are currently in their state of crisis with nobody to tell for the fear of being thought less of. Too often we like to think of this issue in a box while the issues linked with suicide are very different issues. We have this concept of normal that people want to be while still being a individual that wants to feel different. I remember battling with fitting in during my teens, but then also wanted to be accepted as normal by all groups. My groups of friends was all the cliché groups, but there wasn’t one that I ever identified with. While I was a varsity jock in sports, I wanted to fit in with scene, skaters, yuppies, and gangsters. This made it hard because I wouldn’t be my true self around different social groups.
ReplyDeleteThe SEL study is something that I will reference back to if the given opportunity to understand the interventions that they used. The decreases in symptoms is significant change and with 207 studies then it would be evidence based practice that holds validity and reliability. I’m curious as to what the interventions were. My constructive piece would be to list what led to the results for this study.