Health Education Advocates & Research
Health, Wellness & Fitness - , ,
Health Education Advocates & Research Employees
Health Education Advocates & Research Details
Mission: Our mission is to discover the most effective emotional health practices for former foster youth. Vision: HEAR aims to explore, develop and evaluate the impact of innovative technologies and traditional mental health services in a comparative setting to better understand how to help and support former foster youth in order to offer effective mental health services. Purpose: HEAR is the only non-profit research project led by former foster youth. HEAR's advisory board is primarily comprised of former foster youth leaders partnered with researchers and stakeholders to improve mental health outcomes for former foster youth. REACH (Realizing Every Action Creates Hope) and Loma Linda University formed HEAR in 2013. Join:We invite anyone interested in advocating on behalf of former foster youth as well as former foster youth themselves who are interested in contributing their life experiences to better inform mental health research. Background & Outlook:Young adults that have gone through the foster care system are at an increased risk to be diagnosed with depression, which is highly correlated to suicide than non-former foster youth in America. Untreated depression is considered to be a leading cause of suicide and adults with a history of foster care are especially vulnerable. Over the next couple of months, HEAR will conduct interviews with 25 selected former foster youth in order to inform our needs assessment in which we will then discuss with our advisory board on next steps for implementation. Our ultimate goal is to find an intervention to reduce suicide and depression rates amongst former foster youth in America.
