Session: Youth Mental Health: A Participatory Approach to Wellness (Society for Social Work and Research 28th Annual Conference - Recentering & Democratizing Knowledge: The Next 30 Years of Social Work Science)

Background and Purpose: Statistics Canada (2022) has identified increased percentages (ranged between 1.3% to 3.6%) of Canadians who reported fair or poor perceived mental health in all age groups. Young people aged 12 to 17 showed the highest increase (3.6%) of fair or poor perceived mental health. As such, our Youth Mental Health Project (YMHP) is grounded in the self-determination theory, the concept of gamification, and a participatory action approach to engage youth aged 12 to 17, parents, and community partners in the development of youth-focused initiatives that promote mental wellness. Our objective with this symposium is to share the experiences and successes of engagement and empowerment of youth, volunteers, students, and emerging scholars throughout this participatory action project.

Symposium Contents: Four papers are presented: 1) Promising Interventions for Addressing Youth Mental Health. Here, we present a scoping review of 20 articles which examine promising interventions on youth mental health. Almost half of the studies were experimental designs (RCT, quasi, pre-experimental) demonstrating positive outcomes for participants. These results offer encouragement in the continued exploration and evaluation of interventions to address youth mental health; 2) Strengthening Youth Voice: A Photovoice Project with Youth on Mental Health and Wellbeing. This paper represents findings from the content analysis of 25 photo stories that have been developed by youth aged 12 to 17. Five emergent themes are presented, including a) relational and community connectedness; b) ways of coping to support mental health and wellbeing; c) growth in the face of challenges and adversity; d) sense of self, maintaining balance and embracing calmness; and e) embracing diversity; 3) Roles of Gamification for Youth Engagement and Empowerment. This project has engaged youth in the co-creation of a web application, as web development resonates well with young people. Qualitative feedback collected from the participants revealed that the “play and create� concepts have served very well towards self-efficacy and empowerment; and 4) Transformation through Participation. Finally, we present the process and the successes of youth mentorship and student training through a collaborative governance framework. Youth volunteers and post-secondary practicum students from transdisciplinary programs have participated in this project. Positive feedback illustrates the ways in which participants have gained valuable transferrable skills, supporting their ongoing learning and career development.

Importance of Symposium: Principles of collaboration and participation were foundational in creating and implementing this youth-focused project. From the scoping review to YMHP participant feedback confirms active engagement in meaningful activities that have helped youth to develop a strong sense of self, social connections, and transferrable skills—central to the foundation of mental wellbeing. Moreover, impact of the YMHP is beyond the project participants, our collaborative governance framework provided proven evidence on the success of training and mentorship components of this project. This symposium will provide insightful discussion on how to use multi-methods to examine promising practice on youth mental health and to provide a good mentorship for youth, students, and emerging scholars to excel.