How the ADAP Program Works

The  three-hour ADAP student curriculum employs multiple teaching formats including:

• Interactive lectures and discussions
• Video of teenagers describing their experiences with depression and bipolar disorder
  
• Homework and video assignments to reinforce key points
• Group interactive activities to teach the key message that depression is a common, treatable, medical illness.

The students are given a pre-test prior to the program and a follow-up post-test two months after the program in order to determine if they are gaining critical knowledge about depression.

In the first seven years of the program, over 50 health care clinicians have trained and taught the curriculum to over 8,600 high school students. The future focus of ADAP will be to train school-based professionals in order to achieve nationwide expansion.

PUBLICATIONS

Hess SG, Cox TS, Gonzales LC, Kastelic EA, Mink SP, Rose LE, Swartz KL. A survey of adolescents' knowledge about depression.  Archives of Psychiatric Nursing. 2004 Dec;18(6):228-34.

Swartz KL, Kastelic EA, Hess SG, Cox TS, Gonzales LC, Mink SP, DePaulo JR. The effectiveness of a school-based adolescent depression education program. Health Education and Behavior.  2007 In Press