Funded Projects

Mind Matters: Family-based Mental Health Education

Project Year

2025

City & State

Toppenish, Washington

Program Name

CATCH Resident

Topic

Mental Health (LHI)

Program Description

Problem: Toppenish, Washington is a rural Yakima County community designated as a medically underserved and professional mental health shortage area (1). Youth in this community face a significant burden of mental health needs, with Healthy Youth Survey surveillance showing higher rates of both depression and attempted suicide among 8th and 10th graders in Yakima County than in Washington overall (2). Anecdotally, wait times to be seen by mental health providers in the region can be upwards of 6-9 months. This is supported by the even greater degree of primary care and mental health provider shortage in Yakima County than the nationwide average (3). In a survey of community stakeholders in the Yakima Valley, respondents identified mental health services as the most unmet need, mentioned in 81% of answers (1).    Primary Setting: Our project setting will be in after-school and evening programs for Toppenish youth grades 4-8, located at the Safe Haven Community Center and Toppenish School District area schools.    Number of Children Affected: Our goal is to reach Toppenish youth grades 4-8 and their families through educational sessions. We will host 8 monthly sessions and estimate reaching 8-12 families per session, approximately 50-75 children over the grant period. This is based on current enrollment in Toppenish after-school programming through our community partners.    Project Goal: Our goal is to provide education, decrease stigma, and increase confidence for families of Toppenish youth around mental health resources and fundamentals. We will achieve this by creating interactive educational sessions for both youth grades 4-8 and their families in an accessible community-based environment, with content driven by community input via community partners and Toppenish families. To foster a safe, approachable space, sessions will occur outside a clinical setting, allowing youth and families to explore mental health-related topics with pediatricians in an informal setting. We will design sessions to facilitate family engagement and assess education and awareness.    Project: We will partner with the Northwest Community Action Center (NCAC) and the Educational Services District 105 (ESD 105) to host 8 monthly, hour-long interactive sessions to provide information on mental health topics and help families support their youth. These sessions will cover multiple topics related to mental health for youth grades 4-8. Content will be finalized in collaboration with our community partners. Sessions will be hosted at the Safe Haven Community Center through NCAC’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) and in Toppenish area schools in partnership with established programs supported by the ESD 105. We will also work with local elementary and middle schools for recruitment and advertising. Involvement of both youth and their caregivers is central to this project’s design. We will host separate 30-minute sessions tailored to both youth and caregivers on the same topic, followed by 30 minutes with both parties together. This will provide a safe space to learn and discuss amongst peers and prepare to come together to continue the conversation.    Anticipated Outcomes: We will deliver educational content on mental health fundamentals and resources to both youth and caregivers. By including both groups, we will set the stage for ongoing, informed conversations to continue at home, which is critical given the disparities in mental health and provider shortage in this area. We anticipate an increase in knowledge of mental health topics, positive conversations surrounding mental health, and openness to seeking mental health treatment. We will assess our outcomes through post-then-pre-surveys and discussions during the session. We will continually engage with the community on topics they would like to see in future renditions. 

Project Goal

Our goal with this project is to provide education, decrease stigma, and increase confidence surrounding mental health fundamentals and resources. We will achieve this by offering interactive educational sessions for both youth grades 4-8 and their caregivers in Toppenish in an accessible and safe community-based environment. We will design these sessions with community input.  

Project Objective 1

By September 2025, we will develop a mental health education curriculum for both youth grades 4-8 and their caregivers based on the needs of youth in Toppenish. 

Project Objective 2

By May 2026, we will complete 8, 60-minute educational sessions on mental health fundamentals with Toppenish youth grades 4-8 and their caregivers, reaching 8-12 families per session.  

Project Objective 3

From September 2025 to May 2026, we will assess our intervention by conducting post-then-pre-surveys and group qualitative feedback at the end of each educational session.  

AAP District

District VIII

Institutional Name

University of Washington/Seattle Children's Hospital

Contact 1

Amy Hong, MD, MS

Contact 2

Conor Nath, MD