Annika Kinney
Trend: Suicide in Adolescents
Written Program Development
1. Setting: School-based program
2. Population: Can be implemented in any type of school. For my program, I want to focus
on middle school and high school settings. Ages 11-18. Can be done in any population of
high schools or middle schools.
3. Areas of Occupational “dysfunction” related to mental health: Often times occupational
dysfunction can be seen as disengagement in meaningful occupations and engaging in
occupations that are harmful to a person. This program would allow individuals to
identify occupations and the feelings that are associated with them. Intervention would
then be focused on involving occupations that provide positive feelings for each
individual and introducing new occupations. This program would hopefully then provide
time for these individuals to engage in their meaningful occupations in order to improve
occupational functioning and hopefully decrease negative feelings. When one cannot
engage in occupations that are meaningful to them they may develop negative feelings
that could lead to or trigger mental illness. This can also happen when someone is
engaging in maladaptive behavior. This school-based program would hopefully allow for
adolescents to engage in occupations that would have a positive impact on tier mental
health.
4. Criteria: This program would become a required elective for every adolescent to take for
two years in middle school and two years in high school. Every student would participate
in this program without needing a referral.
5. Accessibility: This program would be accessible to all students as it would be required
for them to participate in it. Before this program is implemented there would be a news
letter that gets sent out to all students and parents explaining the reasoning behind it.
There would also be a meeting with the entire school to go over to basics of the program,
what to expect, and the reasoning behind the program.
6. Name of the program: ISAP (in school activity participation)
7. Goals of the program: The main goal of this program would be to provide students the
ability to engage in occupations they find meaningful. They will be able to focus a part of
their day on engaging in meaningful occupations. Engaging in these occupations will
hopefully provide a positive effect on all of the student’s emotional well-being. This
program engage them in occupations that will increase the quality of their mental health,
which they will hopefulyl carry out into their everyday life. This program will also
increase social participation as most of the occupations will be completed within a group
or side by side of peers. There will not be a grade given for this program as each student
will have different experiences with it and no assignments outside of class will be given.
8. Staffing: There will be an OT that has a background in mental health that will run the
program. They will provide structure for the program and all of the resources. Along with
the OT, in free periods, students would be allowed to volunteer to engage in the program
and help with the set-up and take-downs. These students would also help monitor the
sessions.
9. Timing: This program will occur during a school period. This will differ based on every
school, but will be around 40-60 minutes every other school day.
10. Duration: This program would be required for half of the year, every year of high school.
Students will have the choice to participate in this program for the entire year.
11. Frequency: Students would meet every other day, opposite of their physical education
period.
12. Funding: This staff would be funded by the state as the basis of this program would be
mental health. The materials would be funded and provided through grants.
13. Profile of a good candidate: Layla (she/her) is a fifteen year old female who had been
experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety. She has noticed that she has started to
withdrawal from her peers and has been spending her days at school and then in her room
at home. She has begun to find it hard to hang out with her friends, listen to music, and
do things that she loves to do. She is from a rural area where a lot of people spend time
outside. She sees her peers on social media hanging out, but cannot bring herself to be
around her friends outside of school. She is surrounded by many of her friends and family
who love her dearly and treat her well. She has a wonderful support system. Layla wants
to engage with others and the activities she loves, but cannot bring herself to do it on her
own.
14. Theory backing the program: This program would be backed by PEO. PEO would be
useful for this program as it is an interactional theory. Within this setting we can change
aspects of a person’s own factors, environment, or change occupations they participate in.
If one aspect of PEO is changed, modified, or adapted, there would be a change in the
other aspects. Based off of the needs of the students the program differ, but there would
be a foundation in changing aspects within PEO to alter the student.
15. Resources: For this program, the materials needed would be based off of the needs of the
students. Depending on these materials, the students may bring them in, they may be
provided by the school, or they may be received by funding through a grant or the state.
Students will be allowed to volunteer to help out with this program when they are on their
free periods.
16. References
Bar, M. A., & Jarus, T. (2015). The Effect of Engagement in Everyday Occupations, Role
Overload and Social Support on Health and Life Satisfaction among Mothers.
International journal of environmental research and public health, 12(6), 6045–6065.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120606045
Bradley, J., & Toole, K. P. (2022). Adolescent suicide: are there warning signs? Pediatric
Nursing, 48(5), 231-247. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-022-01449-2
Brown, C., Stoffel, V. & Munoz, J. (Eds.). (2019). Occupational therapy in mental health. A
vision for participation (2nd ed.). F.A. Davis Company.
Giabbanelli, P. J., Rice, K. L., Nataraj, N., Brown, M. M., & Harper, C. R. (2023). A systems
science approach to identifying data gaps in national data sources on adolescent suicidal
ideation and suicide attempt in the United States. BMC Public Health, 23(1), 1–9.
https://doi-org.ezproxy.ithaca.edu/10.1186/s12889-023-15320-8