More Good Days: an e-mental health program

Kickstand

We know it can be hard to cope with everything that “growing up” throws at you, we’ve been there. This is why Kickstand launched MoreGoodDays, an innovative program designed to alleviate these struggles. MoreGoodDays is a daily dose of inspiration and support delivered to users’ phones via text message. It is an evidence-based, evidence-generating tool proven to be helpful in developing health coping skills and resiliency. We presented phase 1 of our MoreGoodDays program last year and this year, we would love to tell you all about phase 2! In this phase, we had 40 young people from across Alberta write their own messages of support and with this, generated an entire year’s worth of messages. This presentation will focus on this process of co-creation and on the incredible benefits of such a process. MoreGoodDays is a small but important first step to help young people have more good days.

Presenters

Rachal Pattison
Rachal Pattison is a mental health clinician & research manager at Kickstand, in Edmonton, AB. They are a registered occupational therapist, specializing in mental health, and they worked with incarcerated persons for 6 years before returning to school for graduate studies. They recently completed a Master’s degree from the University of British Columbia, doing research in the area of gender identity and mental health in young people. When Rachal is not working on establishing an integrated youth service model in Alberta, they can be found reading fantasy novels, eating nachos and catering to the whims of their codependent cat.

Shada Aborawi
Hello! My name is Shada and I am a member of Kickstand’s Youth Action Committee. I strive to be an activist and advocate for those who don’t have a voice, and I have always been active in social justice movements in my community as well as advocating for youth mental health awareness. I am currently attending the University of Lethbridge and majoring in Political Science and social studies education. In my free time, I love reading and watching movies and TV shows, as well as the occasional stress baking.

Hasul Kim
Hi, my name is Hasul, I use He/Him pronouns and I am one of the Youth Action Council (YAC) members at Kickstand. Outside Kickstand, I am a fourth-year undergraduate student studying Honors in Psychology in the Faculty of Science at University of Alberta. During my education, I have been working with various organizations working to enhance mental health services in our community and I believe the projects and research studies being done at Kickstand could provide a tremendous value towards our youth community, so I am very excited to be co-presenting about More Goodays with the amazing folks at Kickstand!

Key takeaways

  • MoreGoodDays is a text message based e-mental health program that sends daily inspirational texts to youth
  • Phase 1:
    • 90 messages were re-worked and re-vamped - adapted from the text 4 hope program
    • Engaged 26 young people from across Alberta aged 13-24
    • Development of youth friendly & accessible messages
  • Phase 2:
    • Getting youth themselves to write messages
  • Recruitment for phase 1 & 2: social media, existing network, online sign-up, self-selection
  • Content areas of messages:
    • Mental health & substance use
    • Body image
    • Life skills
    • Personal growth
    • Spirituality
    • Relationships
    • Physical health
    • Technology
  • Youth Experience: Youth had the opportunity to make peer-to-peer connections and build community

Key Learning Objectives (defined by presenters)

  1. Participants gain awareness of the Kickstand provincial initiative and network. 
  2. Participants learn about an innovative, effective yet simple method to provide support to young people
  3. Participants learn an effective and meaningful approach to engaging and involving young people in the development of messages for a youth-focused e-mental health service

Key Themes

  1. Youth Engagement 
  2. Low barrier/ intensity mental health support 
     

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