Early Findings of a Nurse-Led Youth Activist Program in Mind Caring.

BACKGROUND:School-based youth activist programs in mind caring have been shown to support the mental health and learning needs of adolescent students.METHODS:We used collaborative action research methods to implement a nurse-led mind caring youth activist program for a rural, extended opportunity school in Thailand. The participants (N = 67) were the public health nurse assigned to the school, students willing to become youth activists (n = 42), school teachers and staff (n = 7), university psychiatric mental health nursing faculty (n = 2), and volunteer nursing students (n = 16). Qualitative thematic analyses methods were used to explore the transcripts of the participant's reflection circles and confirmatory interviews for evidence of effective program implementation.RESULTS:Major themes of change and growth were identified. Youth activists students said mind caring improved their mental health. Teachers described having a more positive attitude towards students' mental health and learning needs. Nursing students found optimistic confidence and self-awareness in the hands-on experience with the complex role responsibilities in public health nursing.CONCLUSION:These results provide early evidence of stakeholder satisfaction with the implementation of a school-based youth activist program as collaborative action for organizational change.