Clinical trial NCT02169960: Comprehensive Program for Youth Mental Health
Official title: Comprehensive Program for Youth Mental Health
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Depression
Suicide
Anxiety
Lead sponsor: University of Alberta
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Red Deer Public School District
name: Addiction & Mental Health Strategic Clinical Network
First posted: 2014-06-23
Enrollment: 5514
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 11
Maximum age (years): 18
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: FACTORIAL
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: The majority of addiction and mental health problems seen in adults present first in youth. There is strong evidence that prevention and early identification during childhood can mitigate some of these risks. Students who screen at risk for the development of mental illness will be offered online intervention programs with personal guidance from a trained coach. In addition, lessons revolving around resiliency will be provided to all students.

The objectives of this study are:

* Decreased rates of depression and suicide (as well as rates of suicide attempts)
* Decreased use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, with additional downstream benefits such as reduced rates of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and cancer
* Decreased school drop-out rates Decreased rates of interactions with the justice system
* Decreased costs across a range of ministries (health, education, justice, human services), both for youth as well as their families who have been involved in this program


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* The intervention group will be the top 10% of all students participating in the school screening.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Lack of consent, lack of assent, lack of the ability to read and understand the screening tools or intervention tools

Primary outcomes:
measure: Decrease from baseline in rates of depression and suicide
timeFrame: 12 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Decreased use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs
timeFrame: Baseline, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months
measure: Decreased school drop-out rates
timeFrame: 12 months
measure: Decreased rates of interactions with the justice system
timeFrame: 12 months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Red Deer
country: Canada
facility: Red Deer Public Schools
state: Alberta
Study officials:
affiliation: Alberta Health Services and University of Alberta
name: Peter H SIlverstone, M.D.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
affiliation: Alberta Health services
name: Victoria YM Suen, B.A. (hons)
role: STUDY_DIRECTOR
References:
citation: Tak YR, Van Zundert RM, Kuijpers RC, Van Vlokhoven BS, Rensink HF, Engels RC. A randomized controlled trial testing the effectiveness of a universal school-based depression prevention program 'Op Volle Kracht' in the Netherlands. BMC Public Health. 2012 Jan 10;12:21. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-12-21.
citation: Silverstone PH, Bercov M, Suen VY, Allen A, Cribben I, Goodrick J, Henry S, Pryce C, Langstraat P, Rittenbach K, Chakraborty S, Engels RC, McCabe C. Initial Findings from a Novel School-Based Program, EMPATHY, Which May Help Reduce Depression and Suicidality in Youth. PLoS One. 2015 May 14;10(5):e0125527. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0125527. eCollection 2015.