The Northeast Wisconsin Mental Health Connection will celebrate Mental Health Month on May 9 in Appleton with a special report on Healthy Teen Minds, an eight-year initiative to improve teen mental health in the Fox Valley.
The event, planned for 7:00 – 9:30 a.m., Thurs., May 9, will be held at Catalpa Health, 4635 W. College Ave., Appleton. The public is invited to attend. The event will start at 7 a.m. with a light breakfast. The program begins at 7:30 a.m.
The event will highlight the results and impact of the project’s key strategies, including the region-wide implementation of Sources of Strength, an evidence-based suicide prevention and wellness program. The Healthy Teen Minds project, which began in 2016, partnered with 22 middle and high schools in Calumet, Outagamie and Winnebago counties to implement Sources of Strength.
“When we embarked on this project, we had our work cut out for us – a great sense of urgency to help turn the curve on our youth mental health crisis,” said Wendy Harris, Healthy Teen Minds Project Coordinator. “Eight years later, we are excited to report that our teens, with the support of trusted adults, are helping to do just that. Scaling up an evidence-based program that empowers young people to be leaders of positive culture change was a new upstream approach for our community to improve youth mental health. And it’s working.”
Featured speakers at the event will include school officials, teachers and students who will share stories of how they are transforming school culture to embrace “hope, help and strength,” normalize help-seeking behavior, and erode stigma. The full project is chronicled in the new Healthy Teen Minds Project Report 2024 which will be shared at the event.
“Sources of Strength has been integral to our efforts to build a positive culture at our school, reduce mental health stigma, and help students reach out to trusted adults in and out of school,” said Mike Altekruse, PhD, Mental Health Coordinator for the Neenah Joint School District. Neenah High School was an early adopter of Sources of Strength in 2017.
“Our Youth Risk Behavior Survey data on suicidality has improved over the time we have implemented Sources of Strength,” said Altekruse, who will be one of the featured speakers at the event.
The event will also share the successes of MyConnectionNEW.org, a mental health service navigation website designed to make it easier for people to access local mental health providers, services and supports. The development and launch of the website in 2017, and its continuous improvement, was the second key strategy of Healthy Teen Minds. Since its launch, the site has experienced steady growth and has received more than a half-million visits.
The Healthy Teen Minds initiative was funded by a $1.2 million grant from the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin (AHW) Endowment at the Medical College of Wisconsin to improve behavioral health in our community. The Connection was one of 10 Wisconsin community coalitions selected to participate in AHW’s new initiative, called the Advancing Behavioral Health Initiative (ABHI).
