Keywords: School programs, Culture, Stress

Objectives: There are increasing efforts to utilize youth peer navigation to address the youth mental health crisis. This study describes the evaluation of a mental health peer navigation program where students who are members of their schools’ Student Advisory Board (SAB) are trained to provide mental health education and facilitate linkage to services, in a large urban school district serving predominantly minoritized and under-resourced students.

Methods: Utilizing a mixed-methods and community-partnered participatory research approach as part of a standing academic-community partnership with the school district, we evaluated the peer navigation program through surveys pre and post mental health trainings in Fall 2021 and Summer 2022 (n=22), and after a peer-led conference in Spring 2022 (n=67). We conducted two focus groups in Summer 2022 with student peer navigators (n=4) and adult program mentors (n=5). We inquired about connecting students to services, program interventions, impact of COVID-19, changes in mental health views, and program feedback.

Results: Survey responses from the peer-led conference demonstrated the student peer navigators were more likely to report comfort discussing mental health issues with others and were significantly more likely to think peers would turn to other peers for help, compared to SAB involved students who were not peer navigators. Surveys before and after the mental health trainings found statistically significant improvement among students reporting they knew ways to help other students at school when they feel stressed. Focus groups revealed challenges due to COVID-19 limiting the integration of peer-led mental health campaigns into the school, including due to school staff attrition. However, involvement in the peer navigation program facilitated peer connections and promoted mental health among peer navigators, especially among students who reported stigma at home. Students also called for including eating disorder, substance use, and grief topics in the curriculum.

Conclusions: Youth peer mental health navigators offer a promising way to increase mental health support to students through building peer connections and raising mental health awareness. Future research is needed to examine the effectiveness of student peer mental health navigators on linkage to care and mental health outcomes.