Orygen Youth Health Research Centre, Centre for Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Australia.
Early Interv Psychiatry. 2011 Feb;5(1):81-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-7893.2010.00252.x.
There is increasing concern regarding the use of cannabis among adolescents, especially given recent evidence highlighting its link with later mental disorders. Encouraging young people with mental health or drug issues to seek professional help is an important early intervention strategy; however, adolescents are typically reluctant to do so and instead turn to their peers for help. Peers may not have the skills or knowledge required to assist their friends to access professional help. This paper describes the development and evaluation of MAKINGtheLINK, a school-based health promotion programme that promotes help-seeking behaviour for mental health and cannabis use issues among young people.
The MAKINGtheLINK programme was piloted with 182 Year 10 students at a secondary school in Melbourne, Australia. Forty teachers received the MAKINGtheLINK staff professional development session.
The delivery of the MAKINGtheLINK programme was found to be both acceptable and feasible within a school setting. Students and teachers described it as a fun, engaging, helpful and important programme. Students reported increased confidence and awareness of how to seek help for themselves or a friend, and teachers indicated increased confidence and awareness of how to assist students to seek help for cannabis use and/or mental health problems.
MAKINGtheLINK was successfully implemented within the school curriculum. We believe this is the first school-based programme that specifically focuses on facilitating professional help-seeking for cannabis use and mental health problems among young people, and demonstrates that utilizing peer models for help-seeking is a valuable resource for early intervention initiatives.
越来越多的人关注青少年使用大麻的问题，尤其是最近有证据表明大麻与后期精神障碍有关。鼓励有心理健康或药物问题的年轻人寻求专业帮助是一种重要的早期干预策略；然而，青少年通常不愿意这样做，而是向同龄人寻求帮助。同龄人可能没有帮助朋友获得专业帮助所需的技能或知识。本文描述了基于学校的健康促进计划 MAKINGtheLINK 的开发和评估，该计划促进了年轻人对心理健康和大麻使用问题的寻求帮助行为。
该 MAKINGtheLINK 计划在澳大利亚墨尔本的一所中学对 182 名 10 年级学生进行了试点。40 名教师接受了 MAKINGtheLINK 工作人员的专业发展课程。
在学校环境中，发现 MAKINGtheLINK 计划的实施既可以接受又切实可行。学生和教师将其描述为一个有趣、引人入胜、有帮助且重要的计划。学生报告说，他们对如何为自己或朋友寻求帮助的信心和意识增强了，教师表示，他们对如何协助学生寻求大麻使用和/或心理健康问题的帮助的信心和意识增强了。
MAKINGtheLINK 成功地纳入了学校课程。我们相信这是第一个专门针对促进年轻人寻求专业帮助解决大麻使用和心理健康问题的基于学校的计划，并证明利用同伴模式寻求帮助是早期干预举措的宝贵资源。
