Youth Aware of Mental Health—one tool in the fight against teen suicide on the Flathead Reservation

Published: 2019
By Brenda Richey

Youth Aware of Mental Health is a project meant to improve the mental health resilience of youth on the Flathead Reservation. The project is a collaboration of MSU Extension and the MSU Center for Mental Health Research and Recovery (CMHRR). The project is designed for adolescents. In the largest and most rigorous study of its kind, YAM reduced suicide attempts by 54.6% and suicidal thoughts by 49.6% over one year in students who had not previously had suicidality. YAM aims to provide youth with better resiliency through education and discussion about mental health and the development of problem-solving skills and emotional intelligence. The intervention utilizes a didactic booklet to increase knowledge, and posters, lectures and role plays to increase the awareness of students about their mental health and that of their peers and to enhance students’ ability to cope with stress and crisis and to seek professional help. An important component of YAM is a requirement that it is adapted culturally for each setting in which it is used. An adaptation of YAM to Montana was completed in the summer of 2016. In the last year, over 80 high school freshman on the Flathead Reservation participated in the YAM program. One student said, “...we got a chance to be educated about mental health and it was okay to feel certain emotions.” Surveys done this past year across the state of Montana showed that there was 79% improvement in students reporting they would seek help from school staff for depression and 49% improvement in students seeking help from school staff for assistance with feelings of suicide.