Funded Projects

Mind on Jamming: Mindfulness and Music

Project Year

2024

City & State

Flint, Michigan

Program Name

CATCH Resident

Topic

Mental Health (LHI)

Program Description

Problem:  In 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics along with several other organizations united to officially announce a national state of emergency concerning children’s mental health. (1) The CDC recently highlighted that in 2021, over 4 in 10 students felt persistently sad or hopeless, and nearly one-third reported experiencing poor mental health. (2) To further compound this, a significant number of children experience treatment access barriers including reluctance to seek help, financial constraints, and limited provider availability. (3)  One of the proposed solutions is preventive: to teach effective coping skills and stress mitigation techniques at earlier ages before the onset of mental health disorders. (3)  Primary Setting:   Our intended site for the project is based in Flint, MI. Flint has experienced numerous challenges since the late 1960s starting with the economic downturn of General Motors departure from the community. In the following 50 years, Flint lost nearly 50% of its population and experienced significant economic stagnation. (4) As of 2021, 35.5% of the population in Flint lives below the poverty line, with a median household income of $32,358. This is significantly lower than the Michigan average of $63,202 and significantly higher than the national average of 12.6%. (5) In 2013, Flint was placed under state-directed control of an emergency manager, effectively eliminating the democratic process of the city. (4) This inevitably led to what is now known as the Flint Water Crisis, where over the course of 18 months the nearly 100,000 residents were exposed to contaminated water including hazardous levels of lead and bacteria known to cause Legionnaires’ disease. (4) Unsurprisingly, the mental health of the children in Flint suffered with multiple stressors including lead exposure, crime, social isolation, poverty, and most recently COVID-19.(6) In a recent article by Dannis et al, the prevalence of mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression in children aged 3 to 17 was significantly higher among Flint's children compared to national averages. (6)  Project goal:  Acknowledging the rising tide of mental health disorders in youth, the burden of toxic stressors experienced by the children of Flint, and recognizing the power of preventive measures, we present a proposal for an innovative approach to enhance knowledge about mental health literacy, to teach stress management and coping skills coupled with music therapy to 5th grade students. Additionally, we hope to raise awareness of mental health disorders with caregivers and school staff while fostering connectedness and a sense of community within the school.  Proposed intervention: Our proposed project will consist of multiple sessions of mindfulness, music therapy, and community member highlights over the course of the 2024-2025 school year. Sessions will be hosted at Eisenhower Elementary School during an already established after school program. We will host ideally monthly sessions with a selected group of 5th grade students. During the sessions, we will have music therapists from the Flint Institute of Music, mindfulness educators from the CRIM Fitness Foundation, and local musicians highlighting their work. We plan to have the sessions be as interactive as possible with the potential to make music with instruments brought in or created during the sessions. The sessions will aim to include school educators, administrators, and children’s family members whenever possible.  Anticipated outcomes: The goal of the sessions is to enhance participants mental health literacy and teach stress management and coping techniques. We hope that with these skills, they will be able to better manage the myriad of stressors they experience daily in their environment. Additionally, we aim to see an increase in caregivers' and school staff awareness of mental health disorders and an improvement in the connectedness within the school.  

Project Goal

Enhance knowledge about mental health literacy, to teach stress management and coping skills coupled with music therapy, to raise awareness of mental health disorders with caregivers and school staff. 

Project Objective 1

Provide children with mindfulness and music therapist-guided techniques to cope with daily stressors.

Project Objective 2

Enhance awareness of mental health literacy among children and caregivers.

Project Objective 3

Reduce stressors in school and foster increased connections with peers, caregivers and the community.

AAP District

District V

Institutional Name

Hurley Medical Center

Contact 1

Sevgi Dasdemir, MD

Contact 2

Raima Hashmi, MD