Hear about smartphones for Strongest Families
Pottie to speak about helping teens overcome mental-health challenges
The Penticton Rotary Club is pleased to bring Dr. Patricia Pottie to Penticton to talk about Strongest Families.
This strategy for helping young people deal with mental-health challenges recently won the Governor General’s Award for Innovation.
Strongest Families was developed by Dr. Patrick McGrath of Dalhousie University over a 20-year period of investigating effective ways to treat mental illness in young people.
To ensure acceptance, he decided to make it based around the smartphone and made it convenient for the young people to connect in the privacy of their homes at times that suited them.
He also made it skills based so that the youth effectively healed themselves. At a set time every week, the youth connect with a designated coach at Strongest Families and the together they come up with a strategy for the following week. These coaches are well trained and are non-judgmental as they help guide the youth to wellness.
As a result, an independent audit of Strongest Families reported over 90 per cent approval rating and less than a 10 per cent drop out rate in the program.
The Rotary Youth Wellness Initiative is looking to utilize Strongest Families in the South Okanagan to observe its effectiveness on youth suffering with anxiety or anxiety disorder.
This seems to be quite a prevalent problem in the country as youth grapple with social media and the challenges of our world.
The goal is that youth suffering from anxiety or anxiety disorder will be enrolled in the 14-week program and interested organizations and Ministries can study the efficacy. If it proves to be efficacious and cost effective, it could potentially be offered to a broader population in the future.
The Penticton Rotary Youth Mental Wellness Initiative has learned several things over the past four years but the most important thing is there is no silver bullet when it comes to achieving youth mental wellness. Some youth respond to therapy while others do not. Medication is effect for some yet a nightmare for others. Strongest Families evidence based coaching strategy is not the be-all end-all but rather another arrow in the quiver
A public talk on Strongest Families with Pottie will be held on Jan. 30 at 2 p.m. at The Shatford Centre in Penticton.
Everyone is welcome. To book seating or for more information, call Brian Hughes at 250-460-1731.