What is this project about?
We will test a new mental health intervention, Mental Health StepUp Peer. We want to learn if Mental Health StepUp Peer helps young adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities (IDD) with their mental health. We want to learn what makes Mental Health StepUp Peer easy or hard to do in community settings.
Why is this project important?
Young adults with IDD may not have adequate supports for their mental health and well being. There is:
• Lack of professional training
• Lack of services appropriate to meet their learning needs
• Lack of transportation
• Stigma associated with seeking mental health services
What is Mental Health StepUp Peer
Young adults with IDD will work with a peer partner with IDD to complete a series of accessible, self-help booklets about:
• Feeling Down
• Anxiety
• Feeling Angry
• Sleep
Peer partners complete the booklets in 1 hour/week over 10-12 weeks.
StepUp Peer also includes weekly group sessions, facilitated by trained UF research staff. The research staff answers any questions about StepUp Peer booklet activities, provides peers with training to support each other, and helping each young adult make a plan to support their mental health and well-being.
Who is doing this project?
Dr. Jessica Kramer at the University of Florida is partnering with Dr. Ariel Schwartz at University of New Hampshire. They are both occupational therapists. Their research teams include people with IDD who will make sure the study and StepUp is accessible for people with IDD.
The original intervention, StepUp, is a guided self-help intervention developed in Scotland, with demonstrated efficacy for reducing depression symptoms in adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
What evidence do we have about people with serving as peer mentors?
In a previous study conducted by Dr. Schwartz, mentors with IDD effectively supported mentees with IDD to: 1) recognize and describe their emotions; and 2) identify and utilize coping strategies in everyday life. Mentees reported improvements in ability to identify emotions, describe emotions, and reduced anxiety; and these changes were sustained over time. We think including peer mentors in the StepUp Peer intervention would also lead to improvements in mental health. In a pilot of StepUp Peer completed this past year, when working independently, peer partners completed StepUp Peer booklets with an acceptable level of accuracy.
Funding Information
‘Award# 90IFRE0090-01-00
Advancing Peer-Delivered Mental Health Interventions for Young Adults with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities: Adapting and Testing StepUp Peer Programming
This is supported by the Administration for Community Living (ACL), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $XXX with 100 percent funding by ACL/HHS. The contents are those of the author(S) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by ACL/HHS, or the U. S. Government.