Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining me today. My name is Lily Marie Anton. I am currently a third-year osteopathic medical student, and my classmates and I worked on this project titled Toolkit for Improved Mental Wellness Among High School Students. Today, I want to talk about a critical issue affecting our youth, adolescent mental health. In 2022, Arizona was ranked 49th in mental health access and adolescent mental health by Mental Health America. This alarming statistic highlights the urgent need for effective interventions. Poor adolescent mental health can lead to severe consequences, including increased violence, poor decision-making, academic challenges, and substance use. These issues not only affect the individuals, but also have a broader impact on families, schools, and communities. To address this pressing issue, we implemented a mental health toolkit and education sessions at Alhambra High School in Glendale, Arizona. Our project objectives were to bridge the access gap with accessible resources, improve health literacy through evidence-based, self-regulated mental health practices, and equip students with skills to support resilience, learning, healthy relationship development, and mental well-being. Our participants were students from grades 9 to 12 at Alhambra High School in Glendale, Arizona, located in Maricopa County. We collected data through pre- and post-intervention surveys on mental health knowledge, self-care, and opinions on the interventions. To ensure unbiased results, we used blinded data collection with students numbered by toolkit assignment. The educational interventions consisted of three sessions over six weeks based on WHO guidelines. During the first session, we distributed a mental health toolkit. The education topics included meditation, aromatherapy, positive affirmations, time management, and CBT exercises that matched with the components of the mental health toolkits. Other topics we also covered were healthy nutrition habits, self-love, peer engagement, sleep. Hi, my name is Emily Koenig. I'm a third-year osteopathic medical student at A.T. Steele University in Arizona, and I am going to discuss our results. We assessed the impact of the toolkit through pre- and post-intervention surveys. The surveys evaluated mental health knowledge and intervention impact. The questions were grouped into five categories for analysis. Self-care, social support, social awareness, school-associated stress management, and self-esteem. Self-care showed a significant difference and improvement with a p-value of 0.046, most attributable to a significant change in exercise habits. This suggests that adolescents are initially most responsive to exercise habit changes out of all the techniques we introduced. School-associated stress was significantly correlated with a p-value of 0.044, showing no change between pre- and post-surveys. All other categories were neither significantly different nor significantly correlated. To further improve the program, we suggest additional education sessions, more resources, and increased time with the toolkit to enhance stress reduction strategy utilization. Our program assessed, our program addressed the mental health resource gap at Alhambra High School and promoted student well-being through resilience, healthy habits, and coping skills. The approach is replicable with clear data-driven steps and pre-made material, which can be adapted to the specific needs of the classroom. For long-term sustainability, we recommend integrating the program into existing lessons, securing future program resources, and collaborating with teachers. We did, however, face some limitations in our data collection. Arizona House Bill 2161 requires parental consent for student mental health surveys, which limited participation. The program was built for 60 students but yielded only 32 participants, predominantly female. Additionally, the short six-week program limits generalizability. In conclusion, our project demonstrated the potential to improve adolescent mental health through accessible resources and education. By addressing the mental health resource gap and promoting well-being, we can make a significant impact on the lives of our youth. Thank you for your attention.

mental wellness toolkit

high school students

mental health literacy

self-care improvements

youth mental health