Mental health program lets teens talk it out
Project YES offers online help for depression and anxiety
In a year where schools have seen mental health issues reach unprecendented levels due to the pandemic and its fallout, San Antonio teens have a new option when seeking help.
Project Youth Empowerment and Support, also known as Project YES, launched in April by UT Health San Antonio, offers three “modules” they can complete on their phone or computer that have been shown to reduce depression and anxiety.
The 30-minute sessions — backed by the voices of local youths telling their own stories — teach about the power to change in ways that matter, how to be kinder to themselves and how to take action to manage their mood.
At the end of it, students have an opportunity to anonymously share their own advice, which is posted on the Project YES website
for other teens to read, whether they complete the program or not.
“It was the first project I had ever heard of that helps kids with mental health,” said Diego Aguirre, a freshman at Churchill High School who said he struggles with social anxiety at school.
“At first I was thinking, do I feel comfortable telling
my own story?” Aguirre said. “After a while I kept saying if my story can help at least one person then it’s OK.”
It was a relief just to describe his feelings, he said.
“I had been holding in this story and wondering who I tell. Most people don’t want to hear about how you feel, mentally. I tried telling a friend, ‘What do you think would help me feel better?’ And he said, ‘I’m not sure, I also feel that way.’ ”
The program was started at Stony Brook University in New York by Jessica Schleider, a psychologist and projessor. Kristen Plastino, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology who also runs the UT Teen Health program at UT Health, is expanding the project to South Texas, tailoring it to local youths.
“There are not enough health professionals in San Antonio, let alone the whole country, to meet the need,” Plastino said. “And teens wanted something on their own accord, something they could do on their own time, have it anonymous, not having anyone watching over their shoulder, and this provided that.”
Ámbar Ríos-herrera, a UT Teen Health counselor, said it was important that San Antonio students were represented. A total
of 256 youths have participated so far. The group’s goal is to reach 3,000 youths in San Antonio by Dec. 31.
“We started recruiting students to share their stories on how they managed certain challenging, stressful, anxiety-inducing situations. That way teens in Bexar County can hear people like them, who are from their own city,” Ríos-herrera said.
“Of course, it isn’t taking the place of actual therapy but it can be a good tool for them to use in the meantime, to give them different ways of thinking.”
The program is accessible — any youths ages 11 to 17 can use it, no matter where they live in the world. Currently, 16 school districts and 23 community partners in San Antonio are promoting Project YES in their own youth communities. For example, students in health and physical education classes at South San Antonio Independent School Districts participate.
Surveys of students completing the program showed marked decreases in feelings of hopelessness and self-hatred and an improved perception of control.
The modules have been translated into Spanish by Khayla Tovar, a senior at Health Careers High School.
“I know myself and a lot of my friends and a lot of people in the community speak Spanish and I saw it as something really cool that was about mental health and could be offered in Spanish,” Tovar said.
“The modules introduced solid ways of how to deal with real emotions that might arise in life,” she said. “It made me realize it is not just me who is going through things, it could also be the other person sitting right next to me.”
The project is funded by a $260,000 contract awarded by the city of San Antonio. It expires at the end of the year, but Plastino hopes that by that time the program will be so well integrated into schools that students will continue to use Project YES’S website to complete the modules.
Other UT Teen Health grants that focus on optimal health might be able to help continue to fund some costs of the project after 2021, Plastino said.