The statistics on teen depression are sobering. Depression affects approximately 5% of today's teens. Of these, a mere 30% receive any sort of intervention or treatment, even though studies show treatments of depression in adolescents can be effective. The impact of adolescent depression in teenagers has been found to significantly increase the risk of major depression and anxiety disorders, social dysfunction, nicotine dependence, alcohol dependence and abuse, educational underachievement, unemployment, early parenthood, suicide attempts and completed suicide. In the U.S., suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people ages 15 to 24.

The Adolescent Depression Awareness Program (ADAP) seeks to educate adolescents about the facts of depression, teaches them to recognize the symptoms, and provides information about possible treatment options. Started at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland by Dr. Karen L. Swartz, ADAP educates students, teachers, and parents about teenage depression. Using a three hour curriculum the program is presented in schools by trained medical personnel. Through depression education and awareness, ADAP hopes to decrease the number of teenagers who suffer without treatment from this disabling and potentially life threatening illness.

The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, has been educating students in the Baltimore-Washington area about mood disorders for over 15 years. In 1999, the Adolescent Depression Awareness Program (ADAP) was created to formalize the curriculum and bring it to high schools as a component of health class. To date, the ADAP curriculum has been taught to nearly 9,000 students.

ADAP in Tulsa is funded by Youth Philanthropy Initiative (YPI), which is in turn funded by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. The University of Oklahoma-Tulsa also contributes its resources and staff time to the program.

Research has repeatedly demonstrated that between 90-98% of teenagers who committed suicide were suffering from a mental illness, often depression. Given this strong and consistent correlation between suicide and mental illness, the ADAP team hypothesized that depression education would be an effective means of suicide prevention. Through depression education and awareness, ADAP hopes to decrease the number of teenagers who suffer without treatment from this disabling and potentially life threatening illness.

Through a variety of teaching modalities, including lecture and discussion, two videos, homework, video assignments and group interactive activities, the students will achieve the following objectives: to define depression, to identify the symptoms of depression, to understand depression as an illness, to see through real life examples that depression is a treatable illness, to review a homework assignment, to watch a video that demystifies the process of psychiatric evaluation, to identify the symptoms of mania, to review the treatments for mood disorders, and to work in groups to present information about depression.

Research is done to assess the effectiveness of the curriculum, not to study the individual students. The students are given an anonymous pre-test prior to the program and a follow-up post-test two months after the program is completed. The pre and post-test assesses the students' knowledge and attitudes about depression. By comparing the students' performance on the pre and post-tests, it can whether the students are gaining critical knowledge about depression and if the curriculum is effectively teaching the program's objectives. It should be specially noted that no personal identifying information about the students is collected, nor are they asked any personal questions.

The ADAP curriculum will be taught by either an experienced psychiatric health care professional (a doctor, nurse, social worker or an occupational therapist) or a nursing or medical student who has received extensive training on the ADAP curriculum. The ADAP instructors are considered "guest speakers" and will need the regular classroom teacher to be present at all times during the presentation.

The mission of ADAP is to educate students, not to screen and treat them. During the course of hearing the curriculum, certain students may self-identify as feeling depressed and may ask for help. Therefore, all schools that invite the ADAP team to teach their students must have someone available to guide and support a student in crisis. This individual might be a guidance counselor, the principal, the school nurse, or a mental health worker. The ADAP instructor can assist with support and referrals for the student, but cannot assume any care responsibilities. The ADAP team is available to help the school personnel with referrals.

Our research demonstrates that students learn best from ADAP's full three-hour curriculum. This can be taught in 2, 90-minute sessions or 3, 60 minute sessions. Understandably, each school has unique scheduling considerations and ADAP will work with each school to bring the optimal program to the students within the designated time frame.

ADAP believes that ALL high school students should be exposed to depression education so that they can identify the illness in themselves and their peers. In many schools, this is achieved by teaching the curriculum to all of the students in health class, often a requirement for graduation. The curriculum is presently available for students in 9th grade or above; it is not recommended for any students younger than 9th grade.

Please contact us:
The Adolescent Depression Awareness Program
Youth Philanthropy Initiative
c/o Sharon Gallagher
University of Oklahoma - Tulsa
Schusterman Center
4502 E. 41st Street, Suite 3B20
Tulsa, OK 74135-2512

Adam Seaman, Director
adam@ypitulsa.org
(918) 748-5908

Shannon Smith, Co-Facilitator
shannon@ypitulsa.org
(918) 749-5353