Project Step-Up (A multi-level, school-based mental health service for youth evidencing academic failure and mental health difficulties)
The goals of Project Step-Up are
- Delivery of a school, family and community-based mental health intervention for adolescents (14 to 17 years of age) with serious impairments in behavioral and educational functioning due to complex and unmet mental health difficulties
- Providing Project Step-Up within urban high school programs and neighboring inner-city communities; and examining the process of mental health service delivery and the impact of Project Step-Up on youth mental health, impairment and functioning across inner-city ecological contexts
The process of developing the service delivery model involved convening a collaborative planning group consisting of 40 14-17 year old adolescents attending two inner-city high schools in East Harlem and Bronx, NY. These groups were charged with making decisions regarding the specific content and service delivery processes.
Currently, Step-Up is being examined with funding from the Robinhood Foundation. Preliminary rates of engagement for the first 45 students assigned to the Step-Up are summarized in Figure 3.
In addition, there is emerging preliminary evidence that Step-Up is associated with significant reductions in youth mental health symptoms (see Table 6).
Mary M. McKay, PhD
Icahn School of Medicine
Department of Psychiatry
One Gustave L. Levy Place
New York, NY 10029