NCJ Number
213652
Journal
Youth Studies Australia Volume: 25 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2006 Pages: 57-63
Editor(s)
Sue Headley
Date Published
March 2006
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This article describes 16 Australian programs being developed and research being conducted that focus on youths' mental health and well-being issues.
Abstract
One program, called Resilient Families, is designed to help students and parents develop knowledge, skills, and support networks to promote health and well-being in the seventh and eighth grades. Another program is developing Web sites designed to help youth become informed about the nature and treatment of various mental disorders. Two projects are being developed to help youth with mentally ill parents; and a 5-year (2003-2007) research initiative is examining the effectiveness of an intervention designed to reduce depression among high school students. Other evaluation research is examining whether Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy is effective in preventing depressive relapse in youth 15-25 years old compared to standard Cognitive Based Therapy. A longitudinal evaluation project is examining the effectiveness of an integrated approach in treating youth with depression and a substance abuse problem. Another program is collecting data that will be used to improve mental health services for youth. A research project is examining how youth respond to emotional distress, to be followed by the development of a questionnaire that will measure such responses. Other projects described are designed to identify barriers youth face in accessing primary mental health services; to reorient general medical practice toward preventing mental health disorders in adolescents; to improve treatment for depressed youth in urban and rural primary-care settings; to determine predictors of treatment outcomes for adolescents with depression; to identify various emotions and their link to internalizing behaviors in youth; to survey mental health literacy among youth; and to distinguish early signs of psychiatric illness in youth from normal variations in adolescent experience.