Hello! During my MPH Graduate program I have been able to create a grant proposal that I will be sharing with you all today. The program will focus on providing trauma informed mental health care to adolescents in Gainesville, Florida. Below you will see a summary of my grant proposal!
Overview
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are traumatic event that may occur during childhood and are linked to a myriad of chronic health problems. Some outcomes are depression, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes1. ACEs are very common among adults in America and often can have lasting effects on an individual’s health as they grow older. 61% of adults that were surveyed reported experience at least one type of ACEs1. Furthermore, 1 in 6 adults reported experiencing four or more types of ACEs1.
Mental Health disorders, anxiety, major depressive disorder, et cetera, are common health outcomes that can be attributed to the presence of ACEs in an individual’s childhood1. To potentially prevent the emergence of these negative health conditions, the CDC recommends targeting the role ACEs play on an individual’s health outcomes, which may be more successful when executed during early adolescence as they are more susceptible health education1.
The target audience for this program are adolescents between the ages of 11-13 who attend public middle schools, that teach 6th to 8th grade, in Gainesville, Florida., and participants will be screened for ACEs and mental illness. To address mental health issues in this population, project activities will provide students with access to a licensed therapist in school and create at home resilience education that is online and interactive. Ultimately the aim of this program is to provide participants with support from a mental health professional for any adverse childhood experiences they may have faced or are currently facing and provide education of coping mechanisms designed to build resiliency to traumatic events and their effects on mental health.
Public Health Framework
Following the public health framework, the components of this program will try to take and upstream approach that will target multiple sectors to prevent ACEs, as stated in the guide2. Additionally, this project incorporates many aspects of the stages of prevention; although the direction of the project may suggest that it focuses mostly on secondary and tertiary prevention, it also sets the stage for the primary prevention of future health outcomes. Secondary and tertiary prevention are represented through screening processes for students with aces and self-reported mental illness and the provision of therapy to help alleviate negative effects. Primary prevention can be found in the coping skills and community resources provided to prevent future health outcomes regardless of its connection to ACEs.
Trauma-Informed Principles
The first principle this program will consider is safety, which will be achieved by providing training on providing trauma informed care, implicit bias, and cultural humility to all staff members. Additionally, the program will use careful wording in the online activity and make sure all spaces are empathetic and inviting for the participants. The next principle this program will incorporate is trustworthiness and transparency, which will be achieved using feedback from staff members and participants of the intervention to update the program. Finally focus on empowerment, voice, and choice, which will be achieved using therapy and strength-based activities in the online program.
Social Ecological Model
This project will mainly focus most of its effort on the individual and community level and hopes to implicitly address all the levels of the SEM model through program activities. The individual level is addressed through the use of licensed therapist and an interactive website, which will provide the individual with tools that can be used to heal from past and future trauma. The community level of the program is addressed by utilizing the therapist’s services during school hours, which will give the adolescent enrolled in the program a safe space they can go to when they are in need of help
Citations
- National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, & Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, April 03). Preventing adverse childhood experiences. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/violencepr...n/aces/fastfact.html
- Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia. Trauma-Informed Philanthropy: A Funder’s Resource Guide for Supporting Trauma-Informed Practice in the Delaware Valley. https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.philanthropynetwork.org/resource/resmgr/pn_miscdocs/Trau maGUIDE_FinalWeb.pdf. Accessed March 6, 2021
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