Letter to service providers

Hear me, Understand me, Support me: What young women want you to know about depression

Dear teacher, physician, therapist, nurse, youth worker, researcher, community worker or person who cares about girls and young women:

In your hands is not just another youth-related guide. You hold the next generation, the regeneration, of experience and information about depression and young women, uncovered through the work and spirit of the Vibrant Action Looking Into Depression In Today’s Young Women (VALIDITY) initiative. The intent of this guide is to focus on girls’ and young women’s voices, and to help you continue your work with them by providing tools and information that validate their voices, and the choices and challenges they face. Sponsored by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), this project offers insights based on the experiences of over 200 young women, ranging in age from early adolescence to young adulthood, residing across Ontario. Along with a team of professional supporters, we have throughout the process consciously used the lens of diverse young women’s perspectives to focus on one of the key issues of our time.

VALIDITY - Responding to the reality that, beginning in early adolescence, depression becomes significantly more prevalent in females than in males. This difference becomes even more pronounced in later adolescence, approaching a ratio of 3:1 past the age of 14, and persists into adulthood at a ratio of 2:1. Research has traditionally focused on biological factors in aiming to understand girls’ increased risk for depression as they enter adolescence. The VALIDITY project empowers young women to move beyond biological and medical model explorations, and share their stories and recommendations to contribute to the body of knowledge about risk and protective factors related to depression.

VALIDITY - A model of for-youth-by-youth action, of partnerships and innovation for learning and caring, of positive spirit and of alternative ways to approach prevention and to provide help for young women.

VALIDITY - A participatory action research project driven by young women every step of the way - through planning; logo and name creation; research, including literature searches and focus groups with young women and service providers from across Ontario; and the collective wisdom of over 80 young women who, at a provincial gathering and sleep-over at a Windsor high school, offered ideas and strategies to help prevent and address depression. The VALIDITY video tells it all. (See A Critical Link Referrals and Additional Resources for video details.)

VALIDITY - A project that has given birth to Girls Talk (see Girl-Centred Health for information), high school programming, a listserv, public speaking opportunities for young women, a video, community partnerships, friendships, mentorships and now . . . this guide, Hear Me, Understand Me, Support Me. In it, a superb team of writers - Bridget, Amy, Ida, Karyn Laura, Katherine, Meagan, Neva, Priscilla, Shauna, Tanya and Tiana - guide you through young women’s perspectives. Together with CAMH members of the VALIDITY team, the group has sifted through the research, the reports and the many voices of the young women involved, to provide information that can create a bridge between you as the service provider and young women’s culture, interests and needs as they relate to preventing and addressing depression.

Hear Me, Understand Me, Support Me - A guide that provides information to enhance your work with young women who may be at risk for depression or who may battle feelings of hopelessness, isolation, sadness, suicidal thoughts, negative body image and more. The words, images and ideas offered here provide insight into young women’s diverse realities, ideas that can guide you to provide effective service and support.

As you read and hear the young women’s voices throughout this guide, we hope you will come to feel how the project has resonated with the vibrancy, diversity and emotion of their lived experiences. Although the challenges are clear, we also heard the young women expressing that the experience of depression could be defined and reframed as one that, ultimately, provided hidden opportunities, however painful the process.

We hope you will understand what we, as elder sisters on this journey, have lived and believe - that young women are able, strong and knowledgeable about their own lives, and that if we hear them, understand them and support them, we help to release, strengthen and validate their voices in a challenging world.

The VALIDITY team invites you to join with the many young women and community partners who have travelled this journey so far. Beyond your immediate work, perhaps these words will inspire you to undertake your own vibrant action to help prevent depression in girls and young women.

Sincerely,

CAMH Members of the VALIDITY Team

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