The Adolescent Depression Awareness Program (ADAP)

Initiative Description: Adolescent Depression Awareness Program. The curriculum is 3 hours long and is designed to be taught in 2 or 3 consecutive health classes. Multiple teaching modalities are employed with interactive lectures, videos, film assignments, homework, and group activities to reinforce key concepts. The core components include the following: Identifying symptoms of depression, understanding the process of medical decision-making, seeing parallels between depression and other medical illnesses, recognizing suicide as a potential consequence of depression, and understanding that depression is a treatable medical illness.

Study Results: ADAP is an effective public health intervention for improving depression literacy among students.

Reference: Swartz, K., Musci, R. J., Beaudry, M. B., Heley, K., Miller, L., Alfes, C., … & Wilcox, H. C. (2017). School-based curriculum to improve depression literacy among US secondary school students: A randomized effectiveness trial. American Journal of Public Health, 107(12), 1970–1976. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2017.304088

Level of Evidence: Very Good