Paraprofessional Youth Mentoring: A Framework for Integrating Youth Mentoring with Helping Institutions and Professions

Abstract

Highlights• We propose a framework for delegating some mental health service tasks to paraprofessional mentors.• Appropriately scaled, paraprofessionals can reduce the burden of youth's mental health difficulties.• With training, a subset of mentors could increase engagement in and deliver mental health services.• Training, supervision, and documentation of services will be critical to scale.• Paraprofessional youth mentorship requires research to establish efficacy.

Mentoring and depressive symptoms of youth: Examining prospective and interactive associations with mentoring relationship quality

“…More generally, given the prevalence of childhood depressive symptoms and low utilization of MHS, it is encouraging that volunteer mentors may be able to contribute to decreases in depressive symptoms among youth. In fact, there is increasing interest in therapeutic mentoring and drawing on youth mentors to serve as paraprofessionals to support youth mental health needs (McQuillin et al, 2020). Importantly, McQuillin et al (2020) call for competency‐based training and supervision by professionals if mentors are to act as paraprofessionals providing MHS.…”

Young people need experiences that boost their mental health

“…Proportion who report less than 7 hours of sleep most nights (%) *9th to 12th graders (ages [14][15][16][17][18] in the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System. focusing on single-cause explanations for their mental-health issues: ensuring that they are exposed to conditions and experiences that are known to help adolescents thrive.…”

“…Sports and other extracurricular activities can help to introduce youth to adult mentors. And various studies examining the importance of role models suggest that formal mentoring programmes, such as those involving a young in the community spending time with an adolescent, can positively affect the mental health of youth 17 . Mentoring seems to be particularly for adolescents with unstable home environments, such those who experience homelessness or are in the foster-care system.…”

Expanding the reach of psychosocial services for youth: Untapped potential of mentor‐delivered single session interventions

“…In an emendation of this position, Cavell and colleagues (2021) put forth a bilateral framework of mentoring in which the practice simultaneously serves as a means (i.e., as a platform for formal services) and an end (i.e., as a supportive relationship that is unto itself beneficial for participants). Similarly, McQuillin and colleagues (2021) identified how paraprofessional youth mentors can work with existing helping institutions and professions, and identified the following roles for paid or volunteer youth mentors who are supervised by professionals: First, mentors may reduce barriers to mental health services through providing outreach, transportation, or other adjunctive assistance that could make mental health programming more accessible; Second, mentors may increase engagement in existing services, such as through supervising homework or other practice assigned by a licensed professional, and; Third, mentors may provide direct services (McQuillin et al, 2021). The same work considers why mentors are particularly well-positioned to take on these tasks, recognizing that they already work in "quasi-therapeutic" roles that explicitly support youths' social, emotional, and behavioral development (Garringer et al, 2017;McQuillin et al, 2021).…”

“…Similarly, McQuillin and colleagues (2021) identified how paraprofessional youth mentors can work with existing helping institutions and professions, and identified the following roles for paid or volunteer youth mentors who are supervised by professionals: First, mentors may reduce barriers to mental health services through providing outreach, transportation, or other adjunctive assistance that could make mental health programming more accessible; Second, mentors may increase engagement in existing services, such as through supervising homework or other practice assigned by a licensed professional, and; Third, mentors may provide direct services (McQuillin et al, 2021). The same work considers why mentors are particularly well-positioned to take on these tasks, recognizing that they already work in "quasi-therapeutic" roles that explicitly support youths' social, emotional, and behavioral development (Garringer et al, 2017;McQuillin et al, 2021). Mentors may be even better positioned than others (e.g., parents, teachers) to support youth in this role, given their formal focus on positive youth development (i.e., mentors may be particularly motivated to seek structured activities, such as SSIs, to support youths' psychosocial needs) and lack of competing demands (e.g., though teachers often report wanting to support students' psychosocial development, job duties dictate they prioritize academics; Baweja et al, 2016).…”