Finding mental health solutions

Public health experts say America is experiencing a mental health crisis– particularly among teens and young adults. Roughly a third of Americans under 30 have a negative view of their own mental health and about half say that managing their stress is a big challenge. The good news is this is getting a lot of attention, and there are many people working to find solutions.

For this project, find a person, a program, or a new resource that is aimed at addressing the youth mental health crisis. Check out the student-produced examples below for inspiration.

Solutions Journalism Framework

Use a solutions journalism framework to cover how people are working to improve the mental health of teens and young adults. Solutions reporting encourages journalists to not only cover society’s problems– also dig into how people are working to solve them.

There are four key pillars to solutions journalism:

Response: the story focuses on a response to a social problem — and on how that response has worked, or why it hasn’t
Insight: the story shows what can be learned from a response and why it matters to the audience
Evidence: the story provides data or qualitative results that indicate effectiveness (or a lack thereof)
Limitations: the story places responses in context; it doesn’t shy away from revealing shortcomings

Resources

Solutions Journalism Network Story Tracker

Mental health resources

Journalism

Journalism is the activity of gathering, assessing, creating, and presenting news and information.

Source: American Press institute

Trust

Belief that someone or something is reliable, good, honest, effective, etc.

Source: Merriam Webster

Media

Media refers to all electronic or digital means and print or artistic visuals used to transmit messages.

Source: NAMLE

Issue

A subject or problem that people are thinking and talking about

Source: Cambridge Dictionary

Community

A group of people who live in the same area (such as a city, town, or neighborhood). It can also be a group of people who have the same interests, religion, race, etc.

Source: Merriam Webster

Solutions

Investigating and explaining, in a critical and clear-eyed way, how people try to solve widely shared problems. Solutions journalism focuses on responses to problems.

Source: Solutions Journalism

Video profile

The story of one person, has voiceover (VO), b-roll, pictures, nats (natural sound), interviews of family members or peers of that one person.

Plan and deliver a media production (e.g., broadcast, video, web, mobile).

CCTC AR-JB 3.1: Analyze the elements of a newscast production.
CCTC AR-JB 3.2: Analyze individual announcing competence.
CCTC AR-JB 3.3: Identify wardrobe suitable for on-camera appearances.
CCTC AR-JB 3.4: Analyze production functions..
CCTC AR-JB 3.5: Demonstrate promoting productions.
CCTC AR-JB 3.6: Analyze how image capturing and graphics design support the development of electronic presentations.
CCTC AR-JB 3.7: Distinguish amongst various musical radio formats.

Speaking and Listening - Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.4: Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.5: Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.6: Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

Speaking and Listening - Comprehension and Collaboration

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.1: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9–10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.2: Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.3: Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, identifying any fallacious reasoning or exaggerated or distorted evidence.

Feeling better