Project Details
Description
Main project purpose: The need for comprehensive, evidence-based, community-driven prevention has never been greater, especially in rural communities. Pennsylvania has been severely impacted by the opioid epidemic, and adolescent mental health concerns, already on the rise prior to the COVID-19 pandemic have risen remarkably in the last two years. Specific to youth, reports from the Pennsylvania Youth Survey for Wayne and Susquehanna counties (in rural northeast Pennsylvania) indicate several areas of concern related to substance use and mental health, including lifetime alcohol use rates, binge drinking, driving while or shortly after drinking, marijuana use, and vaping. Meanwhile, feeling sad or depressed and seriously considering suicide have risen remarkably in those counties in the last six years. Furthermore, recent research highlights the often-toxic effects of social media on youth mental health, including associations between social media use and depression, negative body image, and both internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, particularly for vulnerable youth, and rural Pennsylvania remains underserved regarding access to evidence-based prevention programs and treatment options for those without insurance. Given the urgency of the crisis, many resources in Pennsylvania have been dedicated to harm-reduction strategies, with relatively few allocated to primary prevention. Fortunately, we have a solution: the PROSPER (PROmoting School-university-community Partnerships to Enhance Resilience) model, which has demonstrated significant long-term effects on promoting positive family relationships and youth outcomes from adolescence into adulthood. This RHSE project builds on the existing knowledge and skills in the state to deepen the infrastructure and support for PROSPER and adds PROSPER communities in a rural, underserved, high-need region, while adapting the model to serve the increasing mental health needs of Pennsylvania's youth and families.Basic methods and approaches. The current project integrates available resources regarding youth mental health and online safety with standard PROSPER substance misuse preventive interventions. We will incorporate the Mental Health First Aid initiative into the PROSPER work and to offer TA to parents and other relevant stakeholders on the Social Media Test Drive program, a program teaching youth about digital citizenship and online safety. Information about program quality, reach, and impact will be tracked with surveys given to program participants and facilitators before, during, or after programs are delivered in participating communities.Pennsylvania has 30 rural counties that are not currently benefitting from PROSPER. To broaden PROSPER's impact on Pennsylvania, this project also includes additional statewide outreach to underserved rural communities in the form of two online webinars or learning communities each year. Statewide webinars or learning communities will be evaluated with surveys to participants and facilitators upon the events' completion. Ultimate goal and expected impact. The current project will integrate standard PROSPER substance misuse preventive interventions with additional resources regarding youth mental health and online safety, and pushes PROSPER programming out to rural communities statewide. This adaptation of the PROSPER model has the potential to inform future dissemination of PROSPER by demonstrating how additional relevant community health and safety concerns can be integrated into it effectively, thereby improving the health and safety of community members and other stakeholders in rural Pennsylvania.
Status | Active |
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Effective start/end date | 9/1/22 → 8/31/25 |
Funding
- National Institute of Food and Agriculture: $252,766.00
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