STAY Tuned: Supporting Transition-Age Youth with mental health conditions STAY Tuned at Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research

There is a stereotype that gaming is a waste of time, but this episode with Derek Lewis, a member of our Young Adult Advisory Board challenges that notion head-on. Derek shares his personal journey, revealing how gaming became a lifeline for him, while growing up in a gang-prone LA neighborhood. We talk about how gaming helped Derek build meaningful relationships, including one with a gamer friend who stood by him as his best man at Derek's wedding! Tune in to learn how virtual worlds can become real sources of support and community, proving that sometimes, the best friendships can be found behind a controller. 

Debbie Nicolellis, the Training Director for the Helping Youth on the Path to Employment (HYPE) Study at the Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research brings her knowledge on all things accommodations in this episode.  What can mental health accommodations look like in school and work? If your medication makes you drowsy in the morning, maybe it’s shifting your work hours to start and end an hour later.  Who can use accommodations and how do you set them up? Debbie answers all our questions on how accommodations can help you be the best version of yourself in school and work.  

AmandaGrace Krier, a certified peer specialist with Youth MOVE National joins the show and discusses her journey advocating for herself in school and then in the workplace. There is not just one way to practice advocacy. It can look like anything from standing up for yourself to standing up for others through legislation. For AmandaGrace, self-advocacy was not always easy but was a skill she had to practice. Now she teaches others how they can practice advocacy for themselves, and she shares these tips with us including tips on obtaining accommodations in work and school. 

Can a mobile intervention using avatars help young adults manage their mental health after being discharged from the emergency department? Dr. Lourah Kelly’s “Avatar Project” explores this possibility. She’s testing an app-based cognitive behavioral therapy intervention for young adults with alcohol misuse and suicidal thoughts who have visited the ED.

Lourah shares that “this age group [has] the highest rates of alcohol use disorder and suicidality, but very low rates of utilization of behavioral healthcare for either problem.” There aren’t enough healthcare providers available, and young adults often want to manage their problems on their own. This avatar-based mobile intervention may help bridge this need and access gap. This is a fascinating episode where we learned how an avatar-based app is created and how input from young adults is driving the content of this tool. 

Read more about Lourah's project here: ⁠https://www.umassmed.edu/news/news-archives/2024/01/mobile-health-intervention-study-for-binge-drinking-suicide-risk-among-young-adults-to-start-at-umass-chan/⁠

Learn more about ⁠Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research⁠.



Links mentioned: 

-The National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline offers support and connection through mental health struggles and crises and is also available for friends/family of persons in need of support. Call or text 9-8-8 anytime, or chat here ⁠https://988lifeline.org/⁠ 

-The SAMHSA Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator is a confidential and anonymous source of information for persons seeking support in the United States for substance use/addiction and/or mental health problems. ⁠https://findtreatment.gov⁠  

-The NIAAA Alcohol Treatment Navigator is a free national resource to help people who want to cut down or stop drinking, with searches for quality providers, some questions to ask providers to make sure it’s a good fit for you, and things to consider when choosing your care. ⁠https://alcoholtreatment.niaaa.nih.gov/⁠ 

Today we talk with Joshua Calarino, a member of our Youth Advisory Board, about ways getting involved in his community has helped his mental health.
Joshua shares his journey, from someone who struggled with their mental health in high school, to his discovery of different activities that helped him feel better and more connected to his community. His story of recovery started when he said “yes” to an invite to a salsa dance class. We talk about his participation in Youth Move, as a peer support specialist, and Joshua’s experience as a member of our Youth Advisory Board. As part of the YAB, Joshua joins other young adult members to provide valued feedback from the youth perspective to our research teams at Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research. Joshua highlights the impact that a strong sense of community can have on young adults’ mental health.


S.T.A.Y. Tuned: Supporting Transition-Age Youth Podcast is a podcast for young adults, made by young adults, with mental health conditions. Our podcast hosts bring on guests, including research collaborators from across the globe, and young adults with lived experience and we discuss the challenges and opportunities for youth with serious mental health struggles, particularly as they navigate educational and workforce experiences.

This podcast episode was developed by our new Center for Community Inclusion and Reflective Collaborative (The CIRC Center).
Learn more about The CIRC Center: umassmed.edu/transitionsacr/circ


For more information about Transitions to Adulthood Center For Research, visit https://www.umassmed.edu/TransitionsACR/

For more information about our Young Adult Advisory Board, visit https://www.umassmed.edu/sparc/isparccenters/engaging-the-mental-health-community-in-research/engaging-the-mental-health-community-in-research2/

For more information about Youth MOVE, visit https://youthmovenational.org/

Do you find yourself going back to your childhood favorite shows and movies like Wizards of Waverly Place, Mulan, or Max and Ruby? Maybe you find yourself playing your old games like Webkinz, The Sims, and Pokemon. It’s actually quite common if sometimes all you want to do after a long day of work is consume the nostalgic content you grew up with. But what we wanted to know is, what is it about nostalgia that soothes us? Why do we find comfort in the things from our past? Can nostalgia be intentionally implemented as a tool to help us cope with our stressors in life? Join us as we explore these questions and discuss our childhood favorites to hopefully give you your own dose of nostalgia for the day.

Notes from the podcast hosts: This isn’t a topic we’ve focused on at Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research but it is a topic that we were curious about. So we did a little bit of our own research and found these sources. We thought we’d share them, although they don’t come from our research.

Sources:

"Once upon a game: Exploring video game nostalgia and its impact on well-being" https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328087196_Once_Upon_a_Game_Exploring_Video_Game_Nostalgia_and_Its_Impact_on_Well-Being

"Nostalgia confers psychological wellbeing by increasing authenticity" https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103122000981

"Flow and Pokémon GO: The Contribution of Game Level, Playing Alone, and Nostalgia to the Flow State" https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322581896_Flow_and_Pokemon_GO_The_Contribution_of_Game_Level_Playing_Alone_and_Nostalgia_to_the_Flow_State