The Health Advocate Role (cont.)

Preparing future physicians for socially responsive practice

Healthy Young Minds

Mental Health Promotion by Students for Students

UBC Vancouver Fraser Medical Program 2013

How did you get started?

The Healthy Young Minds Project is the brainchild of five first year medical students at the University of British Columbia who believe that health advocacy should start before illnesses arise. The dynamics of child and youth mental health is poorly understood, yet is an integral part of community wellness. Youth mental health (MH) is an area that has recently been identified as a priority health concern by the Mental Health Commission of Canada and other health promotion entities, due to a number of indicators, including:

• The estimated prevalence of child and youth MH disorders in British Columbia is 15%.
• The importance of early intervention in promoting mental well-being: for more than 70% of Canadian adults living with a mental illness, onset occurred before 18 years of age.
• Less than 1/3 of children under age 18, who have a serious mental health problem access any mental health services.
• Youth are poorly equipped to recognize MH disorders, yet are most likely to seek help from peers.

HYM student leaders came together as a result of a common passion for reducing these disparities and providing young people with the tools to not only access mental health resources, but also to emphasize the importance of addressing mental health in self-care practices. Our mission statement is “to establish a sustainable framework for engaging youth in the discussion of mental health with the aims of reducing stigma and facilitating access to mental health care” through the creation and delivery of mental health workshops. Important secondary goals include engaging youth in all phases of development and delivery of these workshops as well as identifying and tracking outcomes for evidence based evolution of this project.

The largest project we’ve organized to date, involves a network of residents who give health promotion talks in the community (i.e. smoking cessation, cardiovascular risk reduction, diabetes care, additions etc.). We have gone all over, from Chinatown, to churches and community centers to the Downtown Eastside. Reviews from the community have been great and residents really feel inspired by these connections.

We have also organized visits to the Downtown Eastside for residents to learn about the local resources available to patients once discharged from hospital. Every year we also participate in a dementia awareness program in Chinatown with seniors, checking their blood pressure and encouraging them to be screened for cognitive impairment by their family physician if they have symptoms.

What is satisfying about this work for HYM as physicians-in-training?

This work allows us to connect with the community in a number of ways while also providing us with the experience of acting as health advocates and experts. HYM has gathered together many experts in the field, who are active in the community, to mentor and inform the project. At the same time, the project gives us, physicians-in-training, the opportunity to interact directly with a vulnerable population as health experts and positive role models.

What pearls of wisdom would you like to share with medical colleagues about this work?

HYM is only just getting its feet wet in the world of youth mental health and hopes to learn more as the project progresses. Thus far, we have benefited immensely from doing background research before setting out to accomplish our goals. Recently, a number of outreach programs and re- sources have been developed, which complement the HYM project. These include the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Mental Health & High School Curriculum Guide, British Columbia Medical Association’s Practice Support Program and their East Vancouver Youth Mental Health Pilot project, and Simon Fraser University’s Students for Mental Wellness. HYM team leaders are already integrating these projects and their associated expert knowledge into the development of this project. In this way, HYM is integrating existing expert knowledge into a deliverable project.

How do you think more physicians can be engaged in HA?

There are many community projects that could benefit from continued input from health professionals, especially in poorly researched areas such as youth mental health. Physicians can provide both their medical expertise and experience with specific populations. HYM encourages health professionals at all stages of their careers to join us in the development, delivery; and evaluation of our youth workshops and training of our volunteers.

(Left to Right) Kristy Williams, Taylor Swanson, Maryam Dosani, Disha Mehta and Alex Butskiy

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