Youth Mental Health Model

By Jamie Cetrone | Categories: | Comments Off on Youth Mental Health Model

UMass Memorial Medical Center provides funding to support the coordinator role of the Healthy Options for Prevention and Education (HOPE) Coalition, a youth-adult partnership created to reduce youth violence and substance use, and promote adolescent mental health. HOPE addresses public health concerns affecting at-risk youth, including tobacco and alcohol use, violence, and access to mental health. Several programs initiated through this effort include; HOPE Peer Leaders, a program that works closely with the City of Worcester Health & Planning departments to change local policies that regulate outdoor signage of tobacco products; HOPE Mental Health model, provides on-site mental health services at youth-serving organizations; and Youth Worker Training Institute, a thirteen-week program that trains Youth Workers on protective factors in order to work better with adolescents.

HOPE peer leaders co-chair the Youth Substance Abuse Prevention Task Force with the Worcester Division of Public Health (WDPH). In fiscal year 2016, peer leaders focused on changing the city’s tobacco purchase policy and, by working with the WDPH, successfully raised the minimum age for tobacco purchases in the city to 21.

In 2016, the program served approximately 631 youth through one-on-one counseling, therapeutic groups and crisis intervention delivered by You, Inc. Since its launch, the model has served over 5,000 youth who otherwise would not have had access to mental health support.