CareThreads Podcast

Sparking Conversations Around Teen Mental Health

Keith Boushee, Community Strategist Director, Netsmart
Ashleigh Hall, Grants Marketing Manager, Centerstone

Comic books have been popular with teenagers for generations. Hoping to both educate and entertain teenagers, Centerstone, a Kentucky-based behavior health provider, developed a comic book series featuring a variety of important topics.

Ashleigh Hall, Marketing Manager at Centerstone, joined Keith Boushee on this episode of Netsmart CareThreads to talk about how her team created a series of comic books to successfully deliver mental health messages to teens.

After receiving a grant from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHSS), Centerstone decided to lay the foundation for bringing Spark, the main character, to life. They hired a graphic designer who specializes in comic books to design the series. Spark tackles controversial topics in the series including:

  • Sex messaging
  • Bullying
  • Under-age drinking
  • Opioid issues
  • Depression
  • Online relationships

Since launching the series in 2014, over 60,000 books have been distributed. By including discussion prompts at the end of each book, the books can be used in a classroom setting. Centerstone hopes to bridge the gap between parents and children as well as show these issues can affect everyone, everywhere. The series has also been popular in schools with many counselors and principals helping to distribute the comics.

In partnership with Centerstone, we are giving away 50 sets of our comic book series. Enter for your chance to win.

This discussion with Ashleigh Hall was taken from our show Netsmart CareThreads. If you want to hear more episodes like this one, check us out on Apple Podcasts.

If you don’t use Apple Podcasts, you can find every episode here.

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for CareThreads in your favorite podcast player.

You might also enjoy

Meeting the Demand for Autism Care with Staff Retention and Improved Outcomes

Jen Gray, Director of Solution Consulting, Netsmart
Jamie Pagliaro, Executive VP & Chief Learning Officer, Rethink Behavioral Health

November 29, 2023

Autism has become a significant issue in healthcare today, with rapidly rising diagnoses each year. In this podcast, Jamie Pagliaro, Executive Vice President and Chief Learning Officer at Rethink, a leading provider of ABA solutions, sits down with Jen Gray, Director of Solution Consulting at Netsmart, to talk about the growing demand for autism care. They’ll discuss the impact on service providers like BCBAs and RBTs, along with some emerging technology that can help with large caseloads and overwhelming documentation. Check out this podcast to learn more.

More

Revolutionizing Senior Care: Innovations, Partnerships, and the Future of CCRCs

Beth Reece, Vice President, and General Manager at Netsmart
Mike Emery, Executive Vice President at Curana Health
Todd Tyler, Chief Information Officer at Curana Health

November 08, 2023

The episode delves into solutions for senior care delivery, emphasizing prevention and care coordination. The guests shed light on the future of CCRCs, focusing on continuous innovation, expanded services, and cost-effective, high-quality care to support aging in place and prevent the need for higher acuity care settings.

More
Featuring Monica Oss, Chief Executive Officer, OPEN MINDS Dave Strocchia, SVP and Managing Director of Human Services, Netsmart

Managing Top-Line and Bottom-Line: Sustainability Strategies for Behavioral Health Organizations

Monica Oss, Chief Executive Officer, OPEN MINDS
Dave Strocchia, SVP and Managing Director of Human Services, Netsmart

August 28, 2023

What strategies do a human services organization need to improve both top-line (growth) and bottom-line (profit) sustainability? Learn how to leverage technology for business health, including less overhead, happier staff, more service lines and stronger consumer engagement.

More