Funded Projects

Middle School Mental Health Awareness Project

Project Year

2022

City & State

Providence, Rhode Island

Program Name

CATCH Resident

Topic

Mental Health (LHI)

Program Description

Problem: Mental health conditions, especially anxiety and depression, have been steadily increasing in the pediatric population. Recent data from the CDC in 2018 illustrates that 4.4 million children have been diagnosed with anxiety (7.1% of children aged 3-17 years) and 1.9 million have been diagnosed with depression (3.2% of children aged 3-17 years). The percentage of children diagnosed with anxiety or depression has increased from 5.4% in 2003 to 8.4% in 2011-2012 with recent data suggesting this number continues to rise. Between 2007 and 2012, anxiety disorders in teens increased by 20%. During the COVID-19 pandemic, children’s lives and routines drastically changed and new stressors arose which have led to increased mental health struggles, trend which have been reflected in Emergency Department utilization. The CDC recently reported that the proportion of mental health–related ED visits increased sharply beginning in mid-March 2020 and into October with increases of 24% among children aged 5–11 years and 31% among adolescents aged 12–17 years, compared with the same period in 2019. Similar reports regarding the impact of school closures and stay at home orders on adolescents reveal negative effects on mental health. Setting: Providence is the capital of RI. Providence Public Schools, the district serving Providence County, enrolls over 22,000 students. The district has 7 different middle schools. Providence, RI as well as the state of Rhode Island in general has been affected greatly by COVID-19. Over 280,000 total cases have been reported with over 3,000 deaths. RI has had the highest number of cases per 100,000 people out of any state and the 12th highest number of deaths per 100,000 people despite being the 2nd most vaccinated state. The high case burden resulted in most schools opting for hybrid/online learning for the 2020-2021 school year with students returning to schools in early 2021 facing a variety of learning options. Many schools resorted to virtual learning sporadically in 2021 in response to increased infection rates. In addition, Rhode Island hit a state record unemployment rate at the onset of the pandemic at 17.4% (2nd highest in the country), placing stress on many households, especially those with children. Proposed Intervention: Our project aims to educate middle school age adolescents and their caregivers on the importance of mental health as well as provide education on coping mechanisms and resources. This aim will be executed through an initial needs assessment in Providence Public Middle Schools with school counselors followed by focus groups every 3 months (for students, caregivers, and school counselors) to provide education and connection with local community resources and providers. We will ascertain knowledge and success of groups with questionnaires. We will also create monthly bulletin emails containing helpful information, tips, and resources with an anticipated compilation of all bulletins into a handout to provide to families. Anticipated Outcomes: We hope to increase awareness in middle school children and caregivers of both the signs and symptoms of depression and anxiety as well as resources available in the community. We aim to provide education on how to cope with stressors by providing strategies and tools on how to strengthen mental health at home. We hope that by providing children with resources (i.e. how to connect with a provider and local organizations providing programming) and education (i.e. information on anxiety/depression, how to recognize red flags, when to seek help, effective coping mechanisms), children will present to care earlier, be able to effectively manage symptoms while awaiting care, and advocate for peers who may require help. Ideally, this will help to “flatten the curve” of the mental health crisis our city and state at large is currently experiencing.

Project Goal

Our project aims to provide mental health education, resources and coping skills as well as tips on recognizing mental health struggles to middle schoolers and their caregivers. The goal is to provide mental health coping strategies in the middle school population for when students are dealing with manageable struggles to prevent escalation to mental health emergencies as well as to provide information on available resources in the community when their struggles become less manageable. As the pediatric mental health crisis soars due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic this population is in dire need of further education and resources.

Project Objective 1

85% of students and families in our partner Providence Public School middle schools will receive the educational bulletins and resources each month they are distributed

Project Objective 2

50% of students and families in focus groups will report increased knowledge of coping skills and mental health topics selected from the start to the end of our group as measured by mixed-methods qualitative/quantitative surveys

Project Objective 3

50% of students and families will report increased knowledge of where to access help should they need it from the start from the start to the end of our focus group group as measured by mixed-methods qualitative/quantitative surveys

AAP District

District I

Institutional Name

Hasbro Children's Hospital

Contact 1

Julia Donner

Contact 2

Kristen Klemmer