3 New Episodes of Our S.T.A.Y. Tuned Podcast

Dr. Michelle Munson, a professor at NYU's Silver School of Social Work, walks us through her innovative research, collaborating with youth to fully understand what implementation strategies and tools will best meet their unique needs and desires.

Antonia Barba, LCSW guides us through her expertise in trauma-informed, affirming care for LGBTQ+ youth. We touch on how clinicians can work with unwilling caregivers to accept gender and sexual identity, the intersectionalities of LGBTQ+ youth, advocacy work, and dive into the systemic issues within our healthcare system.

Dr. Nana Yaa Marfo, a clinical psychology postdoctoral fellow at iSPARC provides outpatient clinical care, conducts mental health services research and works on weight-related studies. In this episode, we discuss unrealistic body expectations promoted by social media, food insecurity on college campuses, the impact of weight stigma on young adult mental health, and how the social determinants of health play a role in weight stigma.

S.T.A.Y. Tuned: Supporting Transition-Age Youth Podcast is a podcast for young adults, made by young adults, with mental health conditions. It's designed with the purpose of sharing useful information our research team has gained through studies of transition-age youth/young adults navigating school or work. We bring on guests, including our research collaborators from across the globe, and discuss the challenges and opportunities for youth with serious mental health struggles, particularly as they navigate educational and workforce experiences.

The "TEA" on IEPs Part 1,2 and 3 (NEW!)

In Part 2 of this series, Mateo spends more time learning about the steps in IEP transition planning, including why it's helpful to fill out a Statement of Strengths, Preferences and Needs Worksheet. The comic stresses the importance of the student being involved in their own transition planning.

In the newly released Part 3, Ms. Simmons helps Mateo see the benefit of setting some future goals, and together they fill out a "Creating SMART Goals" worksheet. Mateo gets excited about the possibility of accomplishing some small career-oriented goals as he heads towards high school graduation.

A new journal article, “Collaboration Between Mental Health and Vocational Rehabilitation Programs for Transition-Age Youth Vocational Outcomes” has been published in the APA’s Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal. 

The content of this article comes from the findings of our Triangle Study. Learn more about this work here: Collaborations in the Triangle: Vocational Rehabilitation, Adult and Child Mental Health.

Early in October, members of Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research attended the 6th Annual International Conference on Youth Mental Health (IACYMH) in Copenhagen, Denmark. We discussed our work and findings on some of our current projects, as well as networked and learned from other attendees from around the globe. You can find our presentations and posters from the conference here.

In early November, we attended and presented at NAMI Massachusetts' 40th Annual State Convention. We presented "Changing the Course of Young Adult Career Trajectories w/ the HYPE Course" and discussed opportunities to use the course within local communities. HYPE (Helping Youth on the Path to Employment) is a manual-based intervention to support transition-aged youth and young adults with mental health conditions to develop their careers. HYPE model within local communities. Learn more about HYPE.

Many of our downloadable tip sheets and briefs, reports, articles, posters, infographics and video were developed and reviewed with input from young adults with serious mental health conditions and given their “stamp of approval”. Check out them out for:

Employment — Education — Life Skills

And many of our publications are also available in Spanish (en español) or Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt).

Young Adult Meme Corner

Check out the memes developed by the young adults in our National Youth Advisory Board (YAB). They get posted to our various social media platforms.

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, United States Department of Health and Human Services (NIDILRR grant number 90RTEM0005). 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, and/or HHS, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.