Transitions ACR December 2018 Newsletter
From The Director's Desk
It's December and the holidays are upon us, which while a wonderful thing, can also be a very difficult time of year for some people. It's important to remember to take time for yourself during the holidays.

December 3 was International Day of Persons with Disabilites, which aims to promote the rights and well-being of persons with disabilities in all spheres of society and development, and to increase awareness of the situation of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life. This year’s theme focused on empowering persons with disabilities for an inclusive, equitable and sustainable development.

See below for some products and activities we'd like to share with you.
Empowering Youth in Transition
Including Youth Voice in Your Organization
Young adult advisory councils are groups of likeminded young adults who come together on a consistent basis to share resources and advise organizations on how to better serve and support young people. By incorporating young adult expertise into the design and delivery of mental health services, these councils provide direct feedback on how to improve services and make them more relevant to young adult culture.

Read our tip sheet that walks you through ten steps of developing a young adult mental health advisory council here .
Applying to College
Need some pointers on applying for college? Here are a few to put up your sleeve!

Watch our ComeBackTV episode Applying to College here .

Check-out these tip sheets that are great companion resources by clicking here .
Advancing Research
Preventing Disability Among Young Adults with Mental Health Conditions
This webinar focuses on how supporting the normative, developmentally relevant pathways of young people prevents system effects and the disabilities experienced by older adults in mental health services by focusing on developing human capital among young adults with mental health conditions.

This webinar shows how higher education consistently insulates people from unemployment, provides a livable wage, and provides access to employment opportunities that, by design, naturally accommodate for periods of symptom exacerbation.

Watch it here and get the slides here .
In the Community
Self-Care
We went live on Facebook to discuss Self-Care! Several Transitions ACR staff talked about how they practice self-care and answered questions.

Find the recording here.  
Supporting Employment Goals
Having a job as a youth or young adult is a predictor of long-term work success. Having a job has also been related to improved self-esteem, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction. However, there is a significant gap in work experience for many young adults living with mental health conditions.

Read our tip sheet that provides strategies to work with young adults to reach their employment goals here .
Young Adult Corner
One Young Adult's Self-Care Tips for the Holidays

Holidays can be a difficult time for anyone. In some ways, they are a time of plenty and meaning, but they can also a be source of stress. This can be particularly challenging for those of us struggling with mental health conditions like anxiety and depression. Thankfully, there are some ways of easing this stress and increasing our capacity to adapt to various emotional demands in the environment. The following are three examples which could be helpful as we enter the holiday season.

Read more here .
What Is iSPARC Doing?
Increasing Cultural Competence
Did you miss the premier of Sign Here: How to Conduct Informed Consent with Deaf Research Participants?  

The Deaf ACCESS R21 project culminated in a 35-minute researcher training video titled, Sign Here: How to Conduct Informed Consent with Deaf Research Participants . The training video tested well in a small pre-/post-test simulation pilot study with "Deaf-naive" research staff, and has also had a very positive reception within the Deaf community. Watch the training video here .

Do you want to know more about the Deaf ACCESS study? Check out the following briefs here and here and as well as American Sign Language (ASL) videos .
Upcoming Events
Join Us in Tampa!
The 32nd Annual Research & Policy Conference on Child, Adolescent, and Young Adult Behavioral Health will be held March 3-6, 2019. Transitions ACR researchers Kathryn Sabella and Amanda Costa will be members of the "Business as Usual" Is Not Enough: Engaging and Innovating with Young Adults in Research and Practice Plenary Panel. We hope you’ll join us in Tampa.

Learn more about the conference here .
Who We Are
The Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research   promotes the full participation in socially valued roles of transition-age youth and young adults (ages 14-30) with serious mental health conditions. The Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research ( Transitions ACR ) is located within the  Implementation Science and Practice Advances Research Center  ( iSPARC ) and houses The Learning & Working During the Transition to Adulthood Rehabilitation Research & Training Center ( The Learning & Working RRTC ), among other projects.
 
The Learning & Working RRTC   is a national effort that aims to improve the supports of this population to successfully complete their schooling and training and move into rewarding work lives. 

Funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), and from the Center for Mental Health Services of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

As a Massachusetts Department of Mental Health Research Center of Excellence, iSPARC aims to improve the mental and behavioral health of all citizens of Massachusetts and beyond.
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Some of the contents of this message were developed under a grant with funding from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, and from the Center for Mental Health Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, United States Department of Health and Human Services (NIDILRR grant number 90RT5031). NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The contents of this message do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL, HHS, and/or SAMHSA and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

The Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research is part of the Implementation Science and Practice Advances Research Center, a Massachusetts Dept. of Mental
Health Research Center of Excellence.