Wellness Curricula

Break Free From Depression

Register for Train the Trainer

Break Free From Depression is a video-centric program designed by the Swensrud Depression Prevention Initiative (SDPI), a part of the Department of Psychiatry at Children’s Hospital Boston.  It includes a guide for using the materials, a 35-minute documentary, and four structured modules for student instruction. The goals of the Break Free From Depression program are to:

• raise awareness of depression and other risk factors associated with mental illnesses
• reduce stigma associated with mental illness
• promote early intervention with with youth in distress

The structured activities focus on:

• staff development
• student instruction
• supplemental lessons that allow teachers the opportunity to continue this important conversation in a variety of settings and instructional approaches

The manual is divided into the three sections above and includes step-by-step directions, handouts, resources, and structured activities. The 35-minute documentary focuses on the stories of adolescents from diverse backgrounds as they struggle with depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. We learn of their symptoms, the course of their illness, and the methods they use for coping through their own words, rather than through expert narrative. Finally, the documentary also addresses hope – the adolescents in the film do not only share their distress, but also ways they find help and relief, and the daily skills they have learned to manage their symptoms of depression.

How Not To Keep A Secret

How Not to Keep a Secret is a peer-to-peer interactive model that opens dialog between teens and then connects teens to trusted adults.  In a single day, around 75 peer leaders from 3-5 schools can be brought together for training. The contents section from the manual is provided here to illustrate the preparation steps that makes this possible.  This training day helps teen leaders identify the symptoms of depression in themselves and their peers along with understanding how to seek and provide aid.  Following training, students have the skills to pursue peer-to-peer, child-parent, and student-educator interactions without the stigma of acknowledging depression or emotional difficulties for themselves or others.

Please click on the cover image to view the Contents section of the training day manual.

An Adolescent Mental Health & Wellness Curriculum
A Starter Kit For Schools

McLean Hospital and Children’s Hospital Boston collaborate to eliminate conflicting information on stress, substances and depression. This manual helps any school give youth the knowledge to make better decisions in the area of mental health.

Chapters 1 & 2 discuss the preparation phase and include school assessment instruments, the resource/referral checklist and the Class Emotional Safety Assessment to determine the appropriate curriculum activity level.  Three levels of activities are provided in each curriculum topic:

• Stress: Causes, Consequences and Management (Chapter 3)
• Substance Use, Abuse, and Dependence (Chapter 4)
• Depression in Adolescents (Chapter 5)

The starter kit manual is available without charge as a download file by clicking on the white cover image.