Project Mental Health Awareness: a Multimedia, Peer-to-Peer Pilot School Curriculum

Abstract

There is a need for teenagers and adolescents to be aware of mental health topics that affect their peers and community as well as resources for how to seek help. Project Mental Health Awareness (PMHA) is a self-sustaining program designed to be incorporated into any junior high or high school curriculum to increase mental health awareness and promote early recognition by teenagers. The program facilitates and guides students through the process of creating Public Service Announcements (PSA) with mental health themes. After picking a mental health theme, the students must research the topic using appropriate resources and script, film, and edit a PSA targeted toward their peers. In the first 3 years of the program, 80 PSAs were made at two separate high schools. Common topics chosen by students include depression, suicide, and bullying. The program utilizes the students’ creativity and knowledge of social media and technology to provide mental health awareness and resources for teens, by teens. PMHA is unique in that it uses the peer-peer education model through technology and that it is student-driven with little teacher direction. Future directions include formal research on the effectiveness and impact of the program, spreading the curriculum to more school districts, and further building an elementary curriculum.