• Author
    Vincent Chang
  • Discovery PI

    Amira Collison, MD, Roya Ijadi-Magsoodi, MD; Sheryl Kataoka, MD

  • Project Co-Author

    Daniel Freimer, MD

  • Abstract Title

    Impacts of a mental health curriculum for high school students: UCLA-LAUSD Mindful Mentors Workshops

  • Discovery AOC Petal or Dual Degree Program

    Medical Education Leadership & Scholarship

  • Abstract

    Background: Los Angeles, CA, has an extremely diverse and large immigrant population. With the additional financial, systemic, and social barriers that these underserved communities face, mental health is an important factor in improving the health of these communities. However, with the rise of ICE raids and community fear, there has been even more avoidance of healthcare settings (Derr 2016). As a result, there has been a disconnection in access to mental health services for those who need it the most. For example, in one urban Latine community study, only 11.7% of those wanting mental health care successfully connected to services in the past year (Newberry 2024).

    With rising rates of mental health crises and deaths by substances in youth, it is more important now than ever to meet community members where they are and have community outreach efforts to target those most in need. Studies of integrated assertive outreach models show improvements in both mental health symptoms and psychosocial functioning for youth (Savaglio 2022). Thus, we have partnered with L.A. Trust’s existing peer-based student health and wellness intervention, the Student Advisory Board, to deliver a mental health curriculum to ten LAUSD schools in predominantly under-resourced communities. The Student Advisory Board members, consisting of six to ten students at each school, serve as health student advocates for their respective schools. Our mental health intervention provides them with formalized training and supervision on mental health literacy taught by UCLA Psychiatry resident physicians and medical students.

    Objectives: To understand how teaching a mental health curriculum to high school leaders impact their mental health knowledge, attitudes towards mental health, and help-seeking behaviors. 

    Design: For our project, we have adapted an existing evidence-based high school mental health literacy curriculum, the Mental Health & High School Curriculum Guide, for use in a peer-led mental health intervention with LAUSD students. Pre and post surveys on gambling addiction were collected across two schools with thirteen participants. 5 questions were asked based on a 5 point scale gathering information about their knowledge and comfortability on the topic. 

    Impact/Effectiveness: There was a jump in “self-reported knowledge about gambling & mental health” (2.5 to 4.0) and “comfort in talking to a peer” (3.5 to 4.0). 

    Lessons Learned: Although we did see increases in knowledge and comfortability on the topic, thirteen participants is a small sample of the broader group of students that we teach and is difficult to determine true impact of the lectures. Additionally, post surveys were taken at the end of the session when students were ready to leave school after a long day, which could impact how students scored their responses. 


    Conclusion: Although we have preliminary data on one teaching session at two schools, we want to gather more data on the impacts of teaching this mental health curriculum over the whole year, compared to students who did not receive the curriculum. At the conclusion of the school year, we will be surveying the Student Advisory Board members at all ten LAUSD schools to determine the difference between student leaders who participated in the teachings compared to those who did not.

Back