Matthew J Molloy, Calli Morris, Alicia Caldwell, Dennis LaChance, Laura Woeste, Mary Anne Lenk, Patrick W Brady, Amanda C Schondelmeyer
Increasing the Use of Enteral Antibiotics in Hospitalized Children With Uncomplicated Infections
Pediatrics
demand adolescent mental health services surged aftermath covid19 pandemic traditional models care entailing inperson services licensed mental health providers inadequate meet demand however research shown proper training supervision mentors work youth mental health challenges like depression anxiety even support use evidencebased strategies like cognitive behavioral therapy cbt increasingly connected world youth mentors meet young people webbased platform convenience reducing barriers care moreover internet made evidencebased cbt skills addressing depression anxiety accessible ever trained supervised licensed clinicians mentors untapped resource support youth mental health challenges objective study develop assess feasibility acceptability appa health appa evidencebased mental health mentoring program youth experiencing symptoms depression anxiety paper describes development pilot testing process preliminary quantitative qualitative outcomes appas 12week smartphone app program combines webbased nearpeer mentorship shortform tiktokstyle videos teaching cbt skills created licensed mental health professionals also social media influencers development testing processes executed collaboration key stakeholders including young people clinical research advisory boards pilot study young people assessed symptoms depression anxiety using standard selfreport clinical measures patient health questionnaire8 generalized anxiety disorder7 scales teenagers endorsing symptoms depression anxiety n14 paired mentor n10 based preferred characteristics gender race ethnicity lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer lgbtq status quantitative survey data teenagers characteristics mental health feasibility acceptability combined qualitative data assessing youth perspectives program mentors cbt content participants reported finding appa helpful 100 n14 teenagers expressing felt better 12week program 85 n12 said would strongly recommend program friend teenagers engaged video chatting mentors consistently 12 weeks metrics anxiety depressive symptoms reduced consistently week 1 week 12 supporting qualitative data suggesting mentoring combined cbt strategies potential positively impact youth mental health warrants study appa health novel smartphone app aiming improve wellbeing youth reduce anxiety depressive symptoms webbased mentoring engaging cbt video content formative research sets stage largescale randomized controlled trial recently funded national institutes health small business innovation research program