Date

12-2023

Document Type

Capstone Project (Open Access)

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

Department

Human Development & Family Science

Abstract

The focal point of this capstone project is to bring mental health awareness to the adolescent community in Soledad, California. With the numbers rising in the likelihood of adolescents developing a mental health disorder, it is extremely important for adolescents to know the different types of mental health disorders and the signs of these disorders (Abrams, 2023). Between 20-30% of adolescents have a form of depression, 37% have anxiety disorders, and there has been a 16% increase of suicide in youth 12 and older (Valdez et al., 2022).

Because of adolescents’ increasing risk for mental health issues, there is a need for increasing their awareness of mental health illnesses. To address this need, I developed a set of lessons that educated students on mental health illnesses and provided them with resources and coping methods. My capstone project started with teaching adolescents the different types of mental health disorders and teaching them the signs for each mental health disorder. Second, this project will teach adolescents the reasons why it is important to learn about mental health. Lastly, this project will teach adolescents ways to cope with their mental health disorders by participating in art therapy and mindfulness therapy which includes breathing exercises. At the end of the lesson the students were provided with many different resources. My capstone project was presented in three lessons over a span of 3 consecutive days. The lesson plan was taught to 11th grade students at Soledad High School. In the class of 11th graders, 100% were of the Hispanic culture. The students were also bilingual but predominantly spoke English.

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