"What's wrong with you!?" Creating Safe, Inclusive, & Empowering Spaces for Youth to Discuss their Mental Health

Abstract Information: During the COVID-19 pandemic, we experienced a spike in youth suicide rates, especially among Black youth living in Portland, Oregon. To address the issue head-on, a group of researchers, behavioral health clinicians, and youth service practitioners came together to develop a culturally specific suicide prevention and intervention curriculum. The curriculum will be used by health practitioners, community members, and youth/young adults to assist our community with identifying and intervening with youth who may be experiencing a mental health crisis. Have you tried to include youth and young adults in your work but found it challenging to ensure their perspectives were not overshadowed by adults? Have you noticed that adults, caregivers, and parents are often used as proxies for youth’s perspectives? Far too often, I have experienced these scenarios. In fact, previous curricula and frameworks have been developed by adults to train other adults on how to interact with youth. Instead of taking this approach, we decided to center the voices and perspectives of youth to understand how to effectively talk to youth about mental health and wellness. We are using an arts-based approach to deeply engage youth and leverage opportunities for them to creatively express themselves. To this end, we’re using photo journaling, video journaling, and focus groups to hear from youth about their experiences with mental health. The richness of the data will be captured and presented in this Ignite presentation to demonstrate the power of centering the often-silenced voices of our youth, especially our Black youth. The essence of the art demonstrates the need to no longer rely on adults to train other adults on how to speak to and engage with youth, but rather, engage and elevate our youth to tell us and train others on the best practices and strategies for engaging other youth and young adults. The photos, videos, and rich quotes from the qualitative methods shown in this presentation are designed to spark conversations within yourself and others in your community about how mental health impacts all of us. These images will also be used in the designing of a curriculum that will be used to train community members and adults on how to approach, build trust, and interact with youth in meaningful ways. It is our hope and goal that from this work, we will be able to collectively decrease the number of youth feeling alone when experiencing mental health challenges and increase community conversations about mental health. This is needed, especially in Black communities, where conversations around mental health are often silenced. Through critical reflection dialogue and support from adults, youth can feel empowered and become community change agents.