Mental Health & Well-Being

Many adolescent-serving health centers find it challenging to implement effective collaboration between primary care and behavioral health providers. Integrating behavioral health services into primary care settings usually entails implementing new workflows for screening, communications, and billing, as well as arranging for provider and staff training. To help sites tackle common challenges with integrating behavioral health services, we created the Power Meeting: Integrated Behavioral Health, an interactive, web-based tool that guides interdisciplinary teams through one meeting where they work through activities and create a customized, actionable plan over the course of two hours.

Click the button below for access to the Power Meeting and instructions to prepare.

For adolescents who have experienced trauma, visiting a health center can be uncomfortable and even re-traumatizing, and providers have the potential to create health care experiences that are comforting and reassuring. This Timely Topics module provides a brief outline of the impacts of trauma on adolescents and shares strategies for practicing trauma-responsive care in a primary care setting.

CONTENT WARNING: This module discusses suicide and mental illness. Some of the content may be emotional and challenging to engage with depending on your personal experiences.

As suicide remains the second leading cause of death for adolescents and barriers to accessing mental health care remain high, primary care providers often become the entry point of mental health care for these patients. These trends highlight a need for primary care providers to be trained in the identification, treatment, and management of depression and suicidal ideation among youth. To support providers’ learning on these topics, AHI is piloting its new Adolescent Suicide Prevention in Primary Care Timely Topic, a resource that provides evidence-based guidance on these topics and strategies that can be implemented in a primary care setting.

CONTENT WARNING: This module broadly discusses trauma and sexual violence. Depending on your personal experience, some of the content may be emotional and challenging.

Youth-friendly sexual and mental health care are two of adolescents’ biggest priorities in their overall health care. AHI’s youth council members report feeling like their therapists often aren’t comfortable talking about sexual health, including relationships, sexuality, and gender identity. Behavioral health providers have the opportunity to set an affirming, supportive atmosphere for adolescents to discuss these topics in a safe, confidential space. Timely Topics: Adolescent Sexual Health for Behavioral Health Clinicians was developed in partnership with AHI’s Teen Advisory Council and clinicians, and it is intended to assist behavioral health care providers in navigating strengths-based, youth-friendly sexual health-related conversations with adolescent and young adult clients.

Dr. Jeffrey P. Winer, an Attending Psychologist within the Trauma and Community Resilience Center at Boston Children’s Hospital and an Instructor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School lead this plenary address, Mental Health Practice with Immigrant and Refugee Youth, at the 2021 Conference on Adolescent Health.

Dr. Polly Gipson, PhD, presented this keynote address virtually at AHI’s 2020 Connection Session on adolescent-centered, trauma-informed care in clinical settings.

Strategies from the Field: Three 15-minute Talks on adolescent-centered, trauma-informed care from AHI’s 2020 Connection Session.