Conducting a Peer-Led Mental Health Chat

Typically on Saturday night, I settle early into bed and check out my social media accounts (exciting right?).  One post that caught my attention was an article I found on Facebook explaining how adolescents are more open to talking about suicide and mental health than adults. This article reiterated what I often hear from students who tell me they often lack a trusted adult to talk to when they are feeling down or have concerns.  Since May is Mental Health Awareness Month, I wanted to share an activity that I conducted earlier in the year with middle and high school students at a Mental Health Summit.

Teen Chat on Mental Health Issues

Earlier in the year, I was asked to organize a teen chat for middle and high school students around mental health issues.  After much contemplation, I decided I could not be the only person in front of 30 students conducting a discussion...boring!  My plan was to train my peer leaders to facilitate a group discussion on important topics in mental health. Before attempting to coordinate this event, I polled my students about issues that caused them stress or anxiety.  Well, they certainly came through!   The students choose the following topics:

Self Harm and Suicide in Self and Others
Coping Skills and Self Care
Toxic Relationships and Peer Pressure
Time Management and Stress
Drug Abuse

Preparing to Facilitate a Student Led Discussion

Before turning teens loose in a discussion about these sensitive topics, it was imperative to train them to facilitate a dialogue.  I set aside an afternoon and invited interested peer leaders to learn about group facilitation.  The training included: how to set ground rules, how to listen attentively, how to conduct an informative dialogue, what resources we should share, techniques for closing a discussion, and, most importantly, how to make a referral.  Each student was given a set of guidelines and agreed to sign a confidentiality pledge not to share student information from the chat (of course there are exceptions that supersede this pledge--cases of harm to self, harm to others, abuse, or illegal activities).

Setting Up a Discussion

On the night of the event, we divided the room into five tables with two student facilitators at each table.  One student would lead the discussion and the second student or co-facilitator would keep the time, take notes, and assist with notifying one of the adults in the room if there was a student of concern. The students also were given a packet of resources and a large sheet of note paper to write down what they heard during the dialogue (this information would be shared with counselors and social workers).

 Before the chat began, I had one student to greet the entire group to set a positive tone.  On the wall, we listed the ground rules for our dialogue and identified the goals we wanted to accomplish with the group.  Each peer leader introduce him/herself and we acknowledged the presence and role of all the adults in the room (each adult was stationed in the corner of each room and would walk around listening for any concerns or questions).

Peer Leaders Conducting a Discussion on Stress and Time Management

Resource Ideas

Ok, this was actually the hardest part of me.  Coming up with interesting and informative resources for students is not the easiest thing to do.  So, after much deliberation, here are the resources we shared with the students.

Self Care Kit
Informational handouts on suicide, teen dating violence, drug abuse, deep breathing and bullying
Pictures (Adolescent brain on marijuana)
Referral Resources (Suicide hotline, etc.)
Brochures (i.e. self care)
Coloring Pages and coloring crayons

Coloring Pages and Referral Information

List of Coping Skills and Deep Breathing

Brain Image and Drug Information Poster

Self Management Brochure

Preparing for a Crisis

In our initial training, we discussed what to do if a student reported harm to self, others, abuse, or illegal activities.  Boy, did that training pay off!!  During our two chat sessions, we had two separate incidences of where our peer leaders had to make a referral.

The first incident included a group of middle school students who were sitting together. After the initial chat was over, the students asked to speak to the peer leader privately.  In that session, all three students reported having suicidal ideations.  Our peer leader quickly involved me in the conversation and our team was able to refer the students to the therapist on site.

The second incident involved another middle school student who shared that he/she frequently used drugs for recreational use.  After the chat was over, the peer leader immediately referred the student to our onsite social worker supervisor for follow up.

Following Up After the Event

After the event had concluded, the peer leaders were asked to evaluate the teen chat event.  The students were asked three questions:

1.  What went well?
2.  What did not go so well?
3.  What would you change in the future?

Each student was allowed to share his or her thoughts and we made notes about how we would make changes for any future events.  In addition, we reviewed the student notes taken during the evening and decided to share them with our counselors and social workers.

Some student issues of concern included:

Stress
Drama in Relationships
Being Able to Ask for Help
Being Able to Express Feelings
Self Image
Family Issues
Time Management
Sleep
Peer Influence
Anxiety
Depression
Bullying
Academic Pressures
Self Harm
Fear of the Future

Also, we were able to obtain the student evaluation of our event and I am happy to say we received a lot of positive feedback.  Our team decided to conduct more discussions during the school day especially during finals (i.e. lunch and learn).

How to Conduct Your Own Event

See my lesson on Teachers Pay Teachers on how to conduct your own teen chat.

Thanks for reading!!!