Feasibility and preliminary outcomes from a pilot study of an integrated health-mental health promotion program in school mental health services

Lifestyle, body mass index and wellness in youth: Strengthens and weakness in Italian youth

This study investigated the psychological wellbeing and body perception among young Italian people. Drinking, eating, and sexual behaviors have been examined in relation to body mass index (BMI) and psychological well-being by EPOCH framework. This was a cross-sectional observational study conducted on Italian adolescent and young adult population through an online survey. Qualitative and quantitative data on lifestyle, BMI classes, and psychological characteristics of wellness in youth were obtained from a sample of 1221 Italian participants using a self-report questionnaire on body perception and habits, a socio-demographics inventory, and the EPOCH measure. Findings suggest that being underweight or overweight is associated with various factors, including gender, self-control regarding food, perception of one’s body, and the happiness domain. EPOCH framework revealed the psychological wellness of girls and young women did not seem strongly affected by BMI, though Perseverance and Happiness seemed reduced with increasing BMI. The Engagement, Optimism, and Connectedness domains were not significantly affected by the BMI variable. On the contrary, Perseverance and Happiness seemed reduced with increasing BMI and were related to physical shape. Our study offers a new perspective: promoting the development of positive psychological characteristics since adolescence to boost quality of life by improving wellness, by EPOCH approach could be functional reinforcing specific psychological aspects in young generations regarding future wellness, improving the positive perception and management of their own health.

Studies evaluating of health interventions at schools: an integrative literature review

OBJECTIVE

to identify and analyze the available evidence on the strategies used in the studies evaluating health interventions at school.

METHOD

this is an integrative review searching in LILACS, CINAHL, CUIDEN, ScienceDirect, and PubMed. From the pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria, there were 121 articles chosen to compose the sample.

RESULTS

english studies (97.5%), with a quantitative approach (80.2%), related to the interventions carried out in the Region of the Americas (54.6%) and the European Region (23.1%) predominated. For the most part, they are interventions as programs (70.2%), interested in evaluating results (73.5%) from the value judgment (83.4%). Prevalence of interventions focused on efficacy, effects or impact, and activities carried out on interventions were focused on physical activity, healthy eating, sexual and reproductive health, mental health, and use of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs. They are worked through activities of clinical monitoring, health promotion and disease prevention.

CONCLUSION

the evidence indicates that the evaluations of health interventions in the school focus the results produced in programs through the judgment of value. The topics most addressed were healthy eating, physical activity, prevention of alcohol and other drugs, among others.

Effectiveness of Universal School-Based Mental Health Awareness Programs Among Youth in the United States: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND

Stigmatizing attitudes toward mental illness and low mental health literacy have been identified as links to social adversity, and barriers to seeking and adhering to treatment among adolescents suffering from mental illness. Prior research has found that it is possible to improve these outcomes using school-based mental health awareness interventions. The purpose of this study was to review empirical literature pertaining to universal mental health awareness interventions aiming to improve mental health related outcomes among students enrolled in US K-12 schools, especially minorities vulnerable to health disparities.

METHODS

PsycINFO, Cochrane Library, PUBMED, and reference lists of relevant articles were searched for K-12 school-based mental health awareness interventions in the United States. Universal studies that measured knowledge, attitudes, and/or help-seeking pertinent to mental health were included.

RESULTS

A total of 15 studies were selected to be part of the review. There were 7 pretest/post-test case series, 5 nonrandomized experimental trial, 1 Solomon 4-groups, and 2 randomized controlled trial (RCT) designs. Nine studies measuring knowledge, 8 studies measuring attitudes, and 4 studies measuring help-seeking, indicated statistically significant improvements.

CONCLUSIONS

Although results of all studies indicated some level of improvement, more research on implementation of universal school-based mental health awareness programs is needed using RCT study designs, and long-term follow-up implementation.

Systematic review of youth mental health service integration research

Quality mental health care is based on the integration of care across organisations and disciplines. The aims of this study were, first, to assess the extent, characteristics and reported outcomes of publications concerned with youth mental health service integration in Australia and internationally; and second, to investigate the study design quality of evaluative interventions and determine whether the studies report on the cost-effectiveness of the integration in order to inform the reform of youth mental health services by Queensland Health. A systematic search of the peer-reviewed literature and a narrative synthesis were undertaken of English language publications from 21 electronic databases. Inclusion criteria were: published 1998–2014 (inclusive); peer-reviewed research; focused on mental health services integration; reported data for youth aged 12–25 years. The methodological quality of evaluative interventions was assessed using the Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies developed by the Effective Public Health Practice Project (EPHPP). Twenty-five studies met the inclusion criteria: one (4%) was classified as a measurement research, 13 (52%) as descriptive, and 11 (44%) as interventions including five (45%) evaluative interventions. Four out of the five evaluative interventions reported positive effects of youth mental health service integration. Particular problems included ambiguity of definitions, absence of economic or cost analyses and insufficient consumer involvement. The methodological quality of the interventions was variable with, on average, a moderate level of selection bias and study design. Despite a slight increase in the number of studies in the last couple of years, there are important gaps in the evidence base for youth mental health service integration processes. The relatively small number of evaluative studies and lack of economic evaluations point to the need for additional research in this important area.