The PAUSE Program
NAMI York Adams Counties PA created the PAUSE Program to support the mental health wellness of students.
PAUSE is a rapidly growing program that supports the mental health wellness to middle school and high school students.
The goal of the program is to: Help students to manage their mental health wellness, reduce the stigma of mental health in schools, provide a place where students can be heard about their mental health wellness, access to resources, and meet peers living with a mental health condition.
This peer-led program follows a 24-28 week curriculum that offers activities that include wellness practices. Through weekly activity worksheets and discussion, students discuss topics that include: Journaling, Feeling in control of your mental health, Managing stress, Breathing exercises and much more.
WHY IS THE PAUSE PROGRAM NEEDED?
York and Adams Counties in Pennsylvania are no exception to the undeniable national youth mental health crisis:
- 50% of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14 and 75% of adults with mental illness begin experiencing symptoms before the age of 24.
- Prior to COVID, statistically, one in five teens lived with a mental health condition. Since the pandemic, it may be as high as one in three teens affected.
- Suicide is the second leading cause of death in the USA between those aged 15 – 34.
- 37% of students aged 14 and up with a mental health condition drop out of school – the highest dropout rate of any disability group.
- According to the American Psychiatric Association, an estimated 15 million children need mental health care, but there are only between 8,000-9,000 psychiatrists that treat youth, and young people often remain on waiting lists for months before seeing a mental health professional.
- Schools provide mental health support nets of assorted composition varying from school system to school system. Resources like school psychologists, social workers, and guidance counselors are calibrated around working with individual students on a case-by-case basis. PAUSE provides a novel opportunity to work with students in peer groups by providing an additional therapeutic outlet, and enables participating faculty & staff to interact with their student cases in a different group dynamic.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Please contact Niki Waters, Program Director at Niki.waters@namiyorkadams.org.
