Funding outcome

Researchers have demonstrated that teen mothers are at an increased risk for mental health challenges such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, which is not surprising given the multiple pressures and stigma that many teen parents face. Standards have not been established for providing clinical mental health services to teen parents, and this is concerning because the mental health of teen parents impacts their wellbeing and the wellbeing of their children. This community-based participatory research study will use a qualitative approach to (1) understand teen parents' experiences with accessing and receiving mental health services; and (2) identify how mental health services can best meet the unique needs of teen parents. We will use this information to create a model for providing mental health services to teen parents that will be shared with service providers in order to impact clinical practice. To gather this information, we will build on an existing partnership with the Successful Families program within the Terra Centre, which is a program that provides supportive housing to teen families. First, participants in the program will be engaged in discussions to answer our research questions. Next, we will have discussions with Terra staff, and our research team will analyze the information gathered through discussions with staff and parents. Finally, our research team will present the ways we have analyzed our data to teen parents, and parents will be engaged in refining our data analyses and helping us generate a model for clinical service provision. Our findings will be shared with Terra staff, other community agencies and service providers, as well as academic audiences in order to impact the wavs that clinical mental health services are delivered to teen parents.