AWI halibut logo 128
Adolescent Wellness, Inc. 
Newsletter
Train The Trainer
Spring 2012
In This Issue
McLean therapy
Children's curricul
PIP Problems-Idea
 
Quick Links

Greetings!

Two remarkable resources are available this month - one from McLean Hospital on Tuesday, March 13 and the other from Children's Hospital Boston on Monday, March 26. McLean Hospital is offering a  series of therapy sessions for middle school and high school age youth with symptoms of depression. Children's Hospital Boston is offering high schools their new curriculum titled, 'Break Free From Depression.' Teens in the pilot implementations said:

  • "I liked that it showed me everyone has a chance to overcome depression." 
  • "I liked how people who experienced depression were strong and brave to tell their story. Seeing and hearing the real thing from someone is better to understand it."
  • "I think it was a great program and I would recommend it to anyone." 
The registration links may be found on the left by clicking either 'McLean therapy' or 'Children's curriculum'. 

 

Adolescent Wellness facilitates education with mental health and wellness. In addition to promoting awareness and treatment resources, we make resources available that help prevent mental illness. For example, we assist with the PIP for Problems-Ideas-Plans. The PIP is a fun, creative tool for teaching problem solving skills. It is brief, engaging, and can be used by both children and adults. The PIP promotes decision making skills of social and emotional learning (SEL), along with the creative (divergent) and critical (convergent) thinking skills of 21st century learning. There is a direct link between the skills taught through the PIP and the emotional health skills needed to promote wellness in children and adolescents. 

 

Adolescent Wellness helped develop PIP in Boston and its introduction into Georgia, Florida, California and beyond. See details through the PIP link on the left side of this page.

 

Best regards, 

--Bob Anthony
Executive Director
McLean Hospital therapy

 

Excellent treatment without charge!

 

One case of  depression is avoided for every 22 people learning the skills and knowledge of wellness. For comparison, one case of heart attack is avoided for every 130 people taking aspirin daily. (Am J Psychiatry 2008; 165:1272-1280)
 
For students who still develop symptoms of depression, early treatment is the best approach. McLean Hospital offers, without charge, excellent therapy for youth.  The next program begins March 13. Details and contact information may be viewed by clicking on the link: McLean therapy
Children's Hospital Boston
 
All high schools invited to 3/26 workshop to receive curriculum & documentary

  

This curriculum is for all students: it teaches young people how to effectively cope with difficult life circumstances, how to identify signs of depression in themselves and their peers, and how to seek help...The Break Free From Depression curriculum is based on best practices and experiences gathered over the six years of the existence of the Swensrud Depression Prevention Initiative (SDPI). 
 
Students asked: "What does depression feel like?" "How does behavior change with depression?" "How do you talk about it?" "What can you do?" They clamored to "see and hear" what the experience of depression is "really" like for an adolescent. In response, an engaging documentary was created. Through careful screening and evaluation, nine individuals graciously volunteered to share their stories on film."
 
The result is an uplifting resource for all high school students.  Register for Children's Hospital Boston
The PIP in Nigeria!

 

PIP Problems-Ideas-Plans intersects with SEL / Social Emotional Learning & 21st Century Learning

 

On December 19 in Ibadan, Nigeria, a group of over 200 young people learned the PIP, Problems-Ideas-Plans, a new wellness exercise.

 

The importance of creative problem solving has been studied for decades. Research indicates that risk factors associated with emotional distress and mental illness include poor problem solving skills, inability to generate alternative solutions, elevated levels of stress and poor coping skills. A practical model to problem solving can therefore help with specific problems, as well as promote healthier coping strategies for emotional management.  

 

PIP intersection with SEL and 21CL 

 

The Winter newsletter reported that Father Felix Kingsley-Obialo hoped discussions on wellness in his native Nigeria could become more open and acceptable, with the PIP activity helping to overcome the stigma often  blocking participation in discussions on mental illness, saying, "This may be attributable to cultural influences which encourage people to ascribe unexplainable experiences to forces that are beyond the individual."

  

Psychologist Nadja Reilly invited Adolescent Wellness to assist in overcoming a time barrier to the routine practice of creative problem solving, by developing a model that could be taught to groups within a typical classroom session of 45 minutes. Drawing on her clinical experience, and assisted by consultants in creative problem solving - Gloria Rapport, Russ Schoen and Doug Stevenson - the project succeeded. The PIP  has been taught to ages ranging from elementary school through adult. 

 

Father Felix shared over 200 pre- and post-PIP evaluation surveys with McLean Hospital to compare the groups by age and gender with teens in the US, including responses to standard Youth Risk Behavior Survey questions. We will report this data in the Summer newsletter. Dr. Reilly is Associate Director of the Freedman Center for Child and Family Development at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology. 

 

AWI Volunteers

 

The people who make it happen

 

AWI is an unusual 501c3 public charity in that everyone involved is an unpaid volunteer. Although there are obvious challenges, there are several advantages. Ironically, one advantage is the right people get involved in projects as they are needed. Over the years, many individuals have been essential; AWI is very grateful to each. The current volunteers are listed below:
  • Bob Anthony - Executive Director
  • Vivian Dole - iGROW
  • Julie Freeman - iGROW
  • Erin Reilly - iGROW
  • Bill Russell - Director
  • Anthony Schweizer - Director
  • Lisa Siegel - iGROW
  • Gloria Rapport - PIP in Sarasota
  • Kitty Heusner - PIP in Sarasota
  • Father Felix-Kingley Obialo - PIP in Ibadan
  • Clara Kumunde - PIP in San Francisco


In 2008, there were over 35,000 suicide completions in the United States, approaching the 
number of people that fill Fenway Park.
Adolescent Wellness, Inc. | 103 Old Colony Road | Wellesley, Massachusetts 02481 |