Group
Mental Health Promotion
Leader
Professor Helen Herrman
Members
Dr Jane Burns, Senior Research Fellow (VicHealth Research Fellow) and Advisor to the Inspire Foundation; Michelle Blanchard, University of Melbourne Research Scholarship 2008-2010, and part-time Research Project Manager at Inspire; Dr Kaveh Monshat, NHMRC Postgraduate Scholarship 2009-2011, RANZCP Young Investigator Grant 2009
Co-located Inspire staff include Marianne Webb, ReachOut.com Interactive Manager and Olivia Whitty, Online Communities Marketing Manager.
Overview
The aims of the Youth Mental Health Promotion Unit (YMHPU) are to:
- Investigate the promotion of mental health in adolescents and young adults through public health and social interventions that influence the broader social determinants of mental health (including social connections, freedom from discrimination and violence, and community participation), especially in the new setting of information and communication technologies (ICT); and
- Understand the best ways to engage the government, corporate, philanthropic, not for profit and community sectors in promoting mental health.
The Youth Mental Health Promotion Unit was established in 2008 as a partnership with the Inspire Foundation (www.inspire.org.au). Inspire is a national non-profit organisation with the mission to help millions of young people lead happier lives. Their two national program's ReachOut (www.reachout.com) and ActNow (www.actnow.com.au) are designed to improve the mental health and wellbeing of young people aged 14 to 25.
A focus for the collaborative work of the Youth Mental Health Promotion Unit is the role of information communication technology in improving mental health and wellbeing.
Current Research Projects
Bridging the Digital Divide: giving young people at risk opportunities to get connected. Dr Jane Burns. The work began at Inspire and continued in the context of the establishment of YMHPU, funded by VicHealth ($100,000 per year 2007-2009) The study investigates the role of ICT in young people’s identity formation, skill development and social relationships, and the supposed digital divide created by lack of access to ICT.Focus groups and semi-structured interviews were conducted with marginalised young people and professionals working with them. Both groups also completed a demographic survey and an audit of their ICT access and skills. A Project Advisory Group and Youth Reference Group helped refine the study design and research tools. The study reports extensive use of the internet and the implications for how to promote civic engagement among young people experiencing marginalisation.
Understanding the use of information communication technology by professionals to improve young people’s mental health and wellbeing. This project was developed in light of the above findings, and is conducted as her doctoral program by Michelle Blanchard, supervised by Jane Burns and Helen Herrman. The aim is to understand the way in which health care professionals who work with young people use information communication technology in their practice. The protocol has been developed, ethics approval received and data collection under way (75% completed). Conference presentations include Australian and New Zealand Adolescent Health Conference and Making Links.
Effectiveness of an internet-based intervention designed to promote mental health and prevent common mental disorders in young people. Dr Kaveh Monshat, doctoral program supervised by Helen Herrman and Jane Burns. The project tests an innovative internet-based intervention designed to promote positive mental health and prevent common mental disorders in young people through improved resilience, coping skills and social and occupational function.Literature reviews and protocol development were initiated, with poster presentations at RANZCP Congress May 2009.
The role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in promoting positive mental health in marginalised young people. The aim is to support leadership in development of a research collaboration of academics, practitioners and young people that will focus on four groups of young people at risk, identify gaps in evidence and define one or more projects that include preventive interventions and online program evaluation for which the collaboration will seek support. Applications are being developed for funding to University of Melbourne and ARC.
Assessing youth health and quality of life online. This joint project with Professor Jeff Richardson, Monash University Centre for Health Economics, is assessing the use of the PsyQoL and other instruments in a longitudinal study of young people recruited from Inspire’s ActNow site, using repeated measures of QOL and mental health. This project is funded by an National Health And Medical Research Council project grant on benefit measurement for health economic evaluation (HH CI), and will define instruments suitable for use in future studies. Ethics approval has been received and data collection is ready to commence.
Impact of youth participation on mental health and wellbeing.The aim is to study the practice of youth participation, about which there is little consensus despite its growing adoption as a concept by Australian organisations. Work has begun within Inspire to train peer researchers and define a peer-led evaluation framework and indicators of the effect of participation on the individual young person, the organisation and the community.
Other applications:
The role of ICT in promoting civic participation.
A longitudinal study of ActNow users
Improving mental health outcomes in high risk young adults through an internet-based intervention
An application for support from the US National Institute for Mental Health was developed with Johns Hopkins University, YMHPU at Orygen, the Brain & Mind Research Institute at the University of Sydney and Inspire USA, to study whether and how Reach Out promotes positive mental health in young people at risk for depression and suicide.
