SOCW6111: Mentoring and Peer Support -Response to 2 Students (WK9)

SOCW6111: Mentoring and Peer Support -Response to 2 Students (WK9)

Respond by Day 5 to at least two colleagues who identified a different article and provide feedback and/or support.

Support your responses with specific references to the Learning Resources. Be sure to provide full APA citations for your references.BE sure to be detailed and ask a question to the syudent in the response.

Response to Alecia,

Post an Internet-based intervention used with adolescents.

An Internet-based intervention used with adolescents is behavioral interventions. This help adolescents to actively participate in their recovery from drug abuse and addiction and enhance their ability to resist drug use.

Locate an article on the use of mentoring or peer support programs for adolescents.

The article that I found was Mental Health and Disclosure of HIV Status in Zambian Adolescents With HIV Infection: Implications for Peer-Support Programs (UNPHA, 2006).

Describe the intervention and the underlying theory.

The objective of the intervention is to examine emotional and behavioral difficulties in HIV positive Zambian adolescents and to determine the relationship between disclosure of their HIV status and their mental health. The intervention also aimed to explore the acceptability of a peer group intervention by this population of adolescents. The criteria for this study was HIV-positive status and age ranged from 11 to 15 years. Health care workers had to identify children meeting the criteria from clinic lists and then approach parents or guardians for their consent. The underlying theory is cognitive behavior which focuses on the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Identify the target behaviors that this intervention is used to address.

The target behavior is to reduce the prevalence of HIV in young people aged 11-15 years globally. Although these global commitments, goals, and targets are relevant for adolescents, the consequences and accountabilities are hardly specific to just this age group.

Assess the intervention and then compare and contrast these interventions.

Compared with infants and adults, less is known about the burden of HIV and AIDS among adolescents and progress to date in addressing their needs for HIV prevention, care, and treatment services. To address this gap, this article provides an overview of the global epidemiology of HIV and AIDS among adolescents and examines progress in their admittance to key selected, HIV-related high-impact interventions that reduce HIV risk, disease, and mortality.

Finally, describe the strengths and weaknesses of each intervention.

The data that was presented in this article shows a percent of differences in selected outcomes by age and sex and do not control for the interactive effects of different variables, like education level of respondent, their household wealth, if it’s a rural or urban residence or their ethnicity.

Reference

UNAIDS/WHO AIDS Epidemic Update: December 2006. Geneva, Switzerland: UNAIDS; 2006.

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Response to Michael

Post an Internet-based intervention used with adolescents and locate an article on the use of mentoring or peer support programs for adolescents.

The internet-based intervention that I found is called Joyable. An article I found that addresses the use of mentoring or peer support programs for adolescents is: Weymouth, B. B., & Buehler, C. (2018). Early adolescents’ relationships with parents, teachers, and peers and increases in social anxiety symptoms. Journal Of Family Psychology, 32(4), 496-506. doi:10.1037/fam0000396. The article sought to understand the precipitating factors that caused adolescent social anxiety symptoms. Also, specific behavioral factors (poor academic performance, lower quality relationships functioning, substance misuse, and suicide) and their correlation with social anxiety was assessed. “The results reveal that nuanced social processes involving social behaviors and relationships with parents and teachers have important and potentially unique implications for changes in early adolescent social anxiety symptoms” (Weymouth, & Buehler, 2018, p. 496)

Describe the intervention and the underlying theory.

The underlying theory used in the “Joyable” internet-based intervention is the cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) orientation. According to LeCroy, & Williams (2013), there are four fundamental aspects when using CBT: “The approach focused on four fundamental aspects: having access to information on which to base decisions, understanding the information to make decisions, personalizing the information to maximize decision making, and applying behavioral skills to implement decisions in social situations” (p. 104).

The Joyable program consist of 6 six stages. Each client has a coach which helps them through each stage. There is no specified time limit as to how fast a client needs to go through each program because each stage is tailored to the needs of the client. Clients start the program with an optional 30-minute call with their coach or they can interact via text messaging. Clients usually communicate their fears, anxiety and/or what makes them angry during certain situations. The coach helps them to identify what triggers their anxiety and how to control it. Clients work towards their goals of controlling their anxiety at their pace. Typically, clients are exposed or challenged with mild situations that cause them anxiety. Gradually, clients are exposed to situations that might cause them a moderate anxiety. Through the entire process, their coach supports them and helps them to identify their (the client) thinking errors and how to overcome them.

Identify the target behaviors that this intervention is used to address.

The targeted behaviors for the internet-based therapy (Joyable) and the article is social anxiety disorder. CBT helps clients identify thinking distortions that are used in specific situations. By understanding the underlying cause for the thinking distortions, clients are enabled to generate different emotions that might produce different outcomes.

Assess the intervention and then compare and contrast these interventions.

When comparing the internet-based CBT with the convention or agency delivered CBT, the internet version appears to be cheaper. According to Zhou (2015), “Joyable offers human interaction primarily via text, email and optionally phone is one of our clients’ favorite parts of Joyable. People with social anxiety often report that they don’t visit a therapist precisely because their social anxiety prevents them from wanting to see someone in person” (para. 13).

Finally, describe the strengths and weaknesses of each intervention.

A strength of this orientation is that it focuses on the problems at a micro level. A client’s anxiety to a specific situation can be assessed and mitigate by understanding the distortion. I feel a weakness to this intervention is that it tends not to focus on the contextual or macro level to a problem. Helping a bullied child overcome their fear of reprisal when reporting another child does not assess the problem of bulling in a school.

LeCroy, C. W., & Williams, L. R. (2013). Intervention with adolescents. In M. Holosko, C. Dulmus, & K. Sowers (Eds.), Social work practice with individuals and families: Evidence-informed assessments and interventions (pp. 97–124). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Weymouth, B. B., & Buehler, C. (2018). Early adolescents’ relationships with parents, teachers, and peers and increases in social anxiety symptoms. Journal Of Family Psychology, 32(4), 496-506. doi:10.1037/fam0000396

Ziou, L. (2015). Li Ziou: There is Now a 12-Week Online Program for Overcoming Social Anxiety. Retrieved from: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/there-is…