Offered in partnership with the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership.
Youth mental health has been identified as a top behavioral health priority in our communities. Join this panel discussion to learn more about innovative programs and resources offered across the North American Region to support the mental health of our youth, and how you can replicate in your own community.
Supporting Young Adult College Students with Mental Health Conditions: Insights from a Feasibility Trial of HYPE on Campus
HYPE on Campus is a college-based intervention focused on preventing dropout and enhancing persistence of young adult college students with mental health conditions (MHC). This presentation will describe the model and share insights learned from a recent feasibility trial of HYPE on Campus at a 4-year state university. Discussion will focus on the need of college students with MHC, how HYPE was adapted to meet the COVID-related impacts of this population, and experiences of students receiving services.
Sustaining and Scaling: How to Make Something Work in Your Context
This presentation will focus on providing you tools to implement good programming, models and/or practice in their context. You will learn how to identify core components, drivers for successful implementation and how to sustain the change.
Centering LGBTQ+ Youth’s Mental Health Needs With Affirmative Practices
LGBTQ+ youth are at a higher risk for mental health distress compared to their non-LGBTQ+ peers. WJCS Center Lane works to combat that by providing programming where LGBTQ+ youth create community, connect with culture, and contribute to the world! This community support plays a crucial role in increasing resiliency among queer adolescents. This presentation will demonstrate the importance of gender and identity affirming spaces for youth and provide tools for fostering those spaces even in non-LGBTQ+ focused contexts. We’ll review the positive youth development strategies implemented in our programming, including our peer-to-peer support groups, adaptive response to community needs, and strengths-based approach to gender affirmation.
Speaker Information
Michelle Mullen, PhD
Michelle G. Mullen, PhD, is at UMASS Chan Medical School, Department of Psychiatry. Michelle’s main areas of expertise are mental health conditions (MHC), young adult (YA) services, career development, postsecondary education, and modernization of services. Her research focuses on increasing persistence and performance in work and school; cognitive training to enhance executive functioning skills; prevention of disability identity; and the evaluation of policy and programs to support normative development. Michelle is the clinical developer of a career development model, HYPE, that integrates employment and education support.
Shauna MacEachern
Shauna (she/her) is the Executive Director of Frayme, a national knowledge mobilization charity working to bring best evidence and knowledge to those implementing programs and services in the youth mental health sector. Shauna works to change systems and takes great joy in diving into complex and head-scratching transformative efforts. Driven by a commitment to social justice and deconstructing inequitable systems of service, Shauna firmly believes in a human-centered approach to her work. Having worked to enhance outcomes for children, youth, and their families in the mental health and substance use systems for over 15 years, Shauna believes that working together at community, provincial/territorial, and national levels is instrumental in eliminating fragmentation.
Liz Verrastro, LMSW
Liz Verrastro (she/her) is a Licensed Master Social Worker. She has a BA in English Literature from SUNY Geneseo and an MSW from Fordham University. She is a certified Youth Mental Health First Aid instructor and is trained in providing inclusive care for LGBTQ+ youth. As a counselor, she’s worked with youth of all ages and believes education and prevention are cornerstones of social work and activism. In addition to her work with youth, she also works for young people by providing trainings on supporting LGBTQ+ youth throughout Westchester County.
Alice Charlotte Bethke
Alice Charlotte Bethke (she/her) is an intern at WJCS Center Lane. She has previously helped facilitate Center Lane’s youth groups and Pride Camp and is the co-author of Center Lane’s Pride Academy Curriculum. As a trans woman from Iowa, she knows the importance of inclusive, community-building support from adults and peers. She lives in New York and is attending Sarah Lawrence College, where she is concentrating in fiction writing.
