Nonprofit offers mental health internship program, resources

The Waltham Partnership for Youth has expanded its offering of mental health services for teens by offering them a pathway into exploring a profession in the mental health field.

The Teen Mental Health Alliance program is a paid internship and training program offered to high school students in Waltham during the school year and summer.

According to Magali Garcia-Pletsch, WPY’s executive director, participants are trained under the Mental Health First Aid program, a course developed by the National Council for Mental Wellbeing.

Interns learn how to identify signs of mental illness and provide resources to those in need.

“They do things like role-playing around conversations related to depression or suicidal ideation, and then they’re connected with additional resources, either online or adults within Waltham or community partners, hotlines, texting lines, etc., that they can refer their peers to if they identify that they’re in crisis,” said Garcia-Pletsch.

Participants receive a certificate of completion when they finish the course.

“But their internship doesn’t end with that training,” said Garcia-Pletsch.

Interns then meet with certified mental or behavioral health practitioners to explore the various fields within mental health.

These newfound pieces of knowledge and skills are put to work in the form of a community project where participants identify a mental health-related issue affecting their peers or Waltham as a whole. Then participants take action.

Garcia-Pletsch said interns in the past have led workshops at Waltham High School where students learned about meditation and participated in stress-relieving activities.

The TMHA program is also offered in the summer during the WPY’s general internship program, which provides local youth with internships across various industries with local employers. Participants can be placed in internships at organizations offering mental health services, such as the nonprofit organization Doc Wayne Youth Services and Families For Depression Awareness.

Identifying the need

Garcia-Pletsch told The Waltham Times that the first TMHA program took place during the 2022-2023 school year, and was developed from a combination of requests from students and concerning data around the mental health of teens.

Trailblazers, an after-school leadership program run by the WPY prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, led events and talks related to substance-misuse prevention for high school students. The subject matter of these discussions changed with students’ interests and became more focused on mental health in general. During these conversations, students expressed the desire for more platforms to discuss the topic.

Furthermore, WPY saw that data from the Youth Behavior Risk Survey from 2017, 2019 and 2021 showed rising rates of depression, suicidal ideation and stress among Waltham students. 

The assessment is a survey administered every two years by the WPY that measures a variety of risks that may affect the mental and physical health of high school and middle school students. It also gauges students’ emotional and mental well-being. The WPY puts out reports on the survey’s data and presents them to the School Committee.

The most recent report can be found here. Garcia-Pletsch said the next survey will be administered in April and anticipates that the report will most likely be available this coming fall.

Why is this program important?

TMHA offers an opportunity for young people to have difficult conversations, providing a valuable resource for students.

“We do hear from a lot of students that coming together in a group of between 15 to 20 of their peers and talking so openly about mental health is really helping reduce the stigma around having those sorts of conversations,” Garcia-Pletsch explained.

Furthermore, this program exposes participants to the field of behavioral health, offering them a glimpse into what a career in this line of work could look like.

How to get involved

The application for the summer program is open until April 6; those interested can apply here. Anyone with questions about the program can email cet@walthampartnershipforyouth.org. Summer interns work 15 to 35 hours a week, while participants in the internship program during the school year work an average of five hours per week.

Applications for the school year TMHA program will be available in October.