Abstract
African American and Latino youth who reside in inner-city communities are at heightened risk for compromised mental health,
as their neighborhoods are too often associated with serious stressors, including elevated rates of poverty, substance abuse,
community violence, as well as scarce youth-supportive resources, and mental health care options. Many aspects of disadvantaged
urban contexts have the potential to thwart successful youth development. Adolescents with elevated mental health needs may
experience impaired judgment, poor problem-solving skills, and conflictual interpersonal relationships, resulting in unsafe
sexual behavior and drug use. However, mental health services are frequently avoided by urban adolescents who could gain substantial
benefit from care. Thus, the development of culturally sensitive, contextually relevant and effective services for urban,
low-income African American and Latino adolescents is critical. Given the complexity of the mental health and social needs
of urban youth, novel approaches to service delivery may need to consider individual (i.e., motivation to succeed in the future),
family (i.e., adult support within and outside of the family), and community-level (i.e., work and school opportunities) clinical
components. Step-Up, a high school-based mental health service delivery model has been developed to bolster key family, youth
and school processes related to youth mental health and positive youth development. Step-Up (1) intervenes with urban minority
adolescents across inner-city ecological domains; (2) addresses multiple levels (school, family and community) in order to
target youth mental health difficulties; and (3) provides opportunities for increasing youth social problem-solving and life
skills. Further, Step-Up integrates existing theory-driven, evidence-based interventions. This article describes Step-Up clinical
goals, theoretical influences, as well as components and key features, and presents preliminary data on youth engagement for
two cohorts of students.
as their neighborhoods are too often associated with serious stressors, including elevated rates of poverty, substance abuse,
community violence, as well as scarce youth-supportive resources, and mental health care options. Many aspects of disadvantaged
urban contexts have the potential to thwart successful youth development. Adolescents with elevated mental health needs may
experience impaired judgment, poor problem-solving skills, and conflictual interpersonal relationships, resulting in unsafe
sexual behavior and drug use. However, mental health services are frequently avoided by urban adolescents who could gain substantial
benefit from care. Thus, the development of culturally sensitive, contextually relevant and effective services for urban,
low-income African American and Latino adolescents is critical. Given the complexity of the mental health and social needs
of urban youth, novel approaches to service delivery may need to consider individual (i.e., motivation to succeed in the future),
family (i.e., adult support within and outside of the family), and community-level (i.e., work and school opportunities) clinical
components. Step-Up, a high school-based mental health service delivery model has been developed to bolster key family, youth
and school processes related to youth mental health and positive youth development. Step-Up (1) intervenes with urban minority
adolescents across inner-city ecological domains; (2) addresses multiple levels (school, family and community) in order to
target youth mental health difficulties; and (3) provides opportunities for increasing youth social problem-solving and life
skills. Further, Step-Up integrates existing theory-driven, evidence-based interventions. This article describes Step-Up clinical
goals, theoretical influences, as well as components and key features, and presents preliminary data on youth engagement for
two cohorts of students.
- Content Type Journal Article
- Pages 1-12
- DOI 10.1007/s10615-011-0344-3
- Authors
- Stacey Alicea, Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1230, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Gisselle Pardo, Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1230, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Kelly Conover, Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1230, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Geetha Gopalan, Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1230, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Mary McKay, Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1230, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Journal Clinical Social Work Journal
- Online ISSN 1573-3343
- Print ISSN 0091-1674