Youth Aware of Mental Health teaches coping skills to teens
2022 Springby Jane Woolery
MSU Extension Agent in Teton County
Can you remember being 14? Who were your friends? What was going on in your family? How about school? What got your time and attention? What made you concerned?
Now consider transplanting your fourteen-year-old self into today’s world. What would be different? Some differences might include technology and abundant media of all types at the access of the fingertips (and brain) constantly. Perhaps social media would have been distinctly different. Maybe entertainment has changed. Of course, some things would be the same: taking on more responsibilities, becoming more independent, developing autonomy from your family, feeling inadequate, contemplating the future, or finding your way.
Youth Aware of Mental Health (YAM) is a program that teaches teens coping skills to navigate challenges in their present and future experiences. Since 2016, more than 10,500 Montana students have received the Youth Aware of Mental Health training.
YAM is a five-session program that includes mental health literacy, dilemma and decision making, role playing exercises around stress and coping skills, and role playing for crisis situations and seeking help.
Jane Wolery, who serves as an MSU Extension educator in Teton County, said, “When MSU Extension announced the YAM program and opportunity to be trained as instructor, I was interested. I have a master’s degree in counseling and development. I had served as a teacher and school counselor for five years at the start of my career. I felt my background and experience as an educator and school counselor could be useful in delivering this program.”
Since 2017, Wolery has taught 27 sessions of YAM in five different school systems. Wolery has coordinated with Teton County school administrators and counselors to ensure that every high school student in the public school system receives YAM. The YAM program requires two adults in the classroom. Wolery has been fortunate to present with assistants who have been men in their 20s and 30s. Wolery said “The willingness of these men to discuss mental health in the classrooms has been hugely beneficial.”
A large portion of the program is student-driven based on their stressors, the way they act out scenarios, and the discussion that follows, making the program exceptionally relevant and unique to each group of teens involved. Topics have included academic stress, discord in the family/household, teen pregnancy, and approaching a classmate after a family member dies. After each role play, students spend time considering how it would feel to be the different characters in the situations and what or who might help. The audience is involved in observing interactions, giving perspectives, and discussing how the situation could be improved. YAM includes a few specific role-play scenarios of approaching a friend exhibiting signs of depression and suicidal thinking, and a role-play scenario with a student recognizing their challenges and seeking help.
After delivering YAM in the schools in Teton County for a few years, Wolery started a simple method of evaluating the program, asking students to anonymously answer one question, “If you gained anything from participating in YAM, what did you gain?” Below are a few individual student responses:
“I learned there is always someone there, and I won’t always be able to solve people’s problems, but I can be there to help and listen.”
“I learned to watch for hints that people are thinking of suicide and what to do.”
“I gained the self-confidence to tell my parents about my issues.”
“I feel like I learned how to reach out to others who may be in need of help. I feel I didn't know how to approach and take action before, but now I feel confident in being able to help.”
“I learned that I’m not alone with the problems I have.”
“The YAM class showed me there can be joy if you see past anger … it showed me ways to help my friends if they are struggling and how to contact someone or approach a situation.”
As part of the conclusion of YAM in classrooms, Wolery has students look through their booklets, which include two pages of local mental health resources in Teton County. The students are asked to amplify something they feel would be beneficial for their classmates. As a session concluded recently, one student said, “You are never alone. There is always someone to help, if you reach out.” This simple response has a real lesson in mental health for all of us.