Reduce Teenage Depression

Teenage depression is a concern to parents, teachers and entire communities. Teenage depression can bring about many negative effects in self-esteem and performance in educational settings. About 8% of children and adolescents suffer from depression. Research suggests that the prevalence of young depression sufferers in Western cultures ranges from 1.9% to 3.4% among primary school children and 3.2% to 8.9% among adolescents. Depression in childhood and adolescence is similar to adult major depressive disorder, although young sufferers may exhibit increased irritability or aggressive and self-destructive behavior, rather than the all-encompassing sadness associated with adult forms of depression. Our idea is to partner with LAUSD and create a program for mental counseling and therapy for the High Schools in their district. The program will recruit Psychology graduate students from the nearby schools that will be available for students to talk to and have counseling sessions with. Our program will be ran as a non-profit, where we will  apply for grants, ask for donations from private organizations, and from individuals in the community. The money raised will go towards paying the graduate students for helping out their community.

California State University Dominguez Hills

Madai, Marvin, Nancy, Tomas and Stephanie