strongly agreed that if they thought they had
a mental health problem they would know
how to get help; this increased to over 30%
after participating in the project. Before
participating in the project, only about 50%
of students chose “agree” or “strongly agree”
when asked if they would know how to help a
friend who they thought had a mental health
problem. This increased to over 80% after
participating in the project. The number
of students who would be embarrassed to
tell anyone that they had a mental health
problem decreased by more than half after
participating in the project. When asked
if they enjoyed the project, 81% said they
agreed or strongly agreed, 17% felt neutral,
and only one person disagreed. Unfortunately,
the pre-survey was done retrospectively;
students were asked to think about how they
felt prior to completing the project. Ideally,
the survey would have been given prior to the
completion of the project. Thus, conclusions
cannot be drawn from this survey except
that the students overall enjoyed the project
and had a perceived increase in knowledge
and improved attitudes about help-seeking
behavior upon completion.
For the 2017-2018 optional social media
contest at Ball High School, two students
participated, and the student that won had
276 views of their PSA. The 2018-2019 social
media contest at Stephenville High School
was more popular among the students, with
six students participating and the winning
PSA having 478 views. The only social media
platform used by the participating students
was YouTube.
Challenges
Creating a school curriculum alone as
a medical student and continuing implementation
as a resident has not been easy.
The biggest challenge that I came across
was time. It takes time and patience when
communicating with schools. Schools are
usually very busy and are used to receiving
new ideas from outside sources. Getting
school buy-in, specifi cally teacher buy-in,
was the biggest hurdle. However, teachers
are looking for ways to incorporate mental
health into their curriculum as long as they
have time available to implement it. Some
teachers made the project extra-credit to
circumvent time pressures. Another challenge
is adequately monitoring the PSAs
produced. As some of the topics used can be
very sensitive, specifi cally suicide, we want
to make sure the students are discussing it
in a sensitive manner. This requires monitoring
of videos before they are shown to the
classroom or posted online. In my experience
over the multiple years of students producing
PSAs, I had multiple students attempt to
portray suicidal acts in the PSAs, which is not
appropriate. Lastly, formal research needs
to be performed to measure the eff ectiveness
of this program on changing students’
knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors after
completing and showing their PSAs. Ideally,
we would measure both the students participating
in the making of the PSAs and the
students viewing them. This has been limited
by the time of those invested in the project.
Successes
The reason that this program has continued
over the years is that students and
teachers enjoy it. Students get to use their
creativity and love of social media to make
real change among their peers. They can
use this as community service and even put
it on their resume. Teachers enjoy that it is
student-driven, thus reducing their workload.
It also gives them the opportunity to encompass
mental health awareness into their
existing curriculum.
Another success is that teachers have
continued
with the
project without
external
oversight; it is
self-sustaining
in schools.
This program
is gaining
interest from
third parties
and has the
potential to
grow not only
statewide but
nationwide.
Preliminary
pre- and
post-survey
data indicate
that this program
is liked among students and educators,
and it may be benefi cial for increasing mental
health knowledge, changing attitudes,
and promoting help-seeking behavior.
Future Directions
The future is bright for PMHA. More schools
are beginning to implement the program,
and it is also spreading by word of mouth
between teachers. The goal is to have the
program integrated into as many schools as
possible, not only in Dallas but statewide and
even possibly nationwide. Additionally, there
has been interest from elementary educators
for a K-5 curriculum. A pilot elementary
program was implemented in a small town
outside of Fort Worth in 2019 and had some
positive feedback. However, much work still
needs to be done on how to implement the
project more widely as it requires much more
educator oversight than the 6th- to 12thgrade
curriculum.
Conclusion
Though PMHA has only been utilized in a
few schools and classrooms across Texas,
I am optimistic about the future of the
program. As my knowledge of psychiatry
and mental illness grows, so does my passion
for spreading mental health awareness in
the school setting. I will continue to try to
grow PMHA and spread it through DFW and
beyond. With the guidance of the program
and students’ knowledge of technology, they
will have the potential to learn about mental
health issues while promoting help-seeking
behaviors with and for their peers in a novel
way that is relevant. Not only will it inspire
personal growth among the youth, but it
may also have the potential to save a life. For
more information on Project Mental Health
Awareness, visit https:/projectmentalhealt.
wixsite.com/awareness or email project.
mental.health.awareness@gmail.com. DMJ
“Dr. Kaylee Davis-Bordovsky has
created an outstanding program
directly focused on bringing
awareness of mental health
issues to teens. What better
way for students to learn than
to teach? Students take on the
‘teacher role’ when researching
and fi guring out a way to most
eff ectively get a positive mental
health message out to peers.
Stephenville High School has
participated for the last fi ve
years, and my students look
forward to creating this PSA.”
– Kathy Slemmons, Audio/Video
Production, Stephenville High School,
Stephenville, Texas.
14 | DALLAS MEDICAL JOURNAL • May 2022