Theory

Key Findings in Social Network Health

These 14 findings are critical to developing a mature approach to strengthening social networks in a community. Among the key findings, we currently identify ten that require implementation action and four findings are direct community health measurements. The number of key findings we describe may change as further research and implementation reveal new insights over time.

Key Action Findings

Key Action Findings:

Prevention: 

Effective and efficient prevention builds individual and community protective factors and social norms.  Network health approaches that address these processes, such as maximizing youth-adult connections school-wide, heightening influence of youth with coping, and creating protective schools.  

Dive in: Prioritizing Prevention

Ecological Validity:

Approaches that are designed and built by and with the community (authenticity, organic, grassroots, culturally relevant) have higher transfers of beliefs and skills to daily life.  A program that is transferred from one environment to another is not a valid Social Network Health approach, and is unlikely to address the cultural norms of the new environment.

Dive in: Ecological Validity

Evidence-Based Methodology:

Social Network Health approaches require an ongoing commitment to follow documented evidence of impact by studying research and implementation in the field of preventative mental health care.

Dive in: Evidence-Based Methodology

Consistency: 

Social Network Approaches require long-term commitment to intentional cultural integration, relationship and skill building, and re-evaluation and modification of programming over time. Mentors that regularly interact deeply with communities over time build consistent programming and genuinely change culture.

Dive in: Consistency

Discovery:

Discovery is the mechanism to explore personal strengths , how other’s strengths can be shared, and the community can borrow strength to affect change.  When everyone’s competencies are recognized, the group is aware of it's collective strengths and the value of all members.

Dive in: Discovery

Whole Community: 

A Social Network Health approach is when everyone in the community is invited to contribute to the overall health of the social network.  Involving as much of the community as possible contributes to efficiency (using the community instead of outsiders), co-creation (ecological validity), and discovery of strengths.

Dive in: Whole Community

Peer Influence:

Peer influenced or peer-peer activities promote relationships between peers and engage people in their existing communities, leveraging existing relationships and common interests, while enhancing their knowledge of one another and their potential within their community.

Dive in: Peer Influence

Mentoring: 

Mentoring is a practice and a skill set that supports others through listening, sharing and connecting.

Dive in: Mentoring

Active/Experiential Learning:

High-energy activities maintain interest, motivation, and create shared positive emotional experiences to create norms and provide incentive to acquire adaptive coping skills through experience.  Space is created to practice skills that grow healthy bonds and draw upon resources in the community.

Dive in: Active Learning

Notes: We are preferring Active Learning to experiential learning because it's a more modern and recognizable term and it is more common to find the term in supporting evidence.

Personally Meaningful Sharing:

Participants are invited to share personally relevant goals, values, and experiences. Using meaningful sharing draws upon real life strengths and conversations as a way to teach, discover, and understand one another. 

Dive in: Deep Conversations

Key Outcome Findings

Key Outcome Findings:

Group Cohesion:

Group Cohesion is an outcome resulting from feeling connected to others. An environment where youth-adult networks share in experiential learning maximizes protective bonds.

Dive in: Group Cohesion

Connection to Guidance:

Connection to guidance is the protective factor that encourages the identification of trusted adults who can be used as a resource, free of judgment, during times of relational disconnection or crisis.

Dive in: Connection to Guidance

Belonging:

A sense of Belonging is the feeling of being accepted, valued, and connected within a community or group.

Dive in: Belonging

Help Seeking:

Help seeking behaviors are actions taken by individuals to seek assistance or resources to address potential or existing mental health concerns before they become more severe.

Dive in: Help Seeking

Commentary on Key Findings:

Preventative care is one category within a holistic integrated system of mental health continuum.  Simplistically and fundamentally, it is critically important to address both Preventative and Emergency care within an integrated system.  A key result from meta analysis, is many social factors increase the risk of developing a mental health condition. However, focusing on reactive treatment of those factors is not the most efficient way to reduce the onset of mental health conditions. [citation required]. Instead, building protective factors across a community, which results in a widespread sense of belonging, appears to be extremely effective in reducing risk factors.

The makeup of a healthy school environment is unique to every school.  A healthy school environment cannot be duplicated by simply following a written manual or video series and/or taking a one-time training. Building culture needs to be intentional by developing ecologically valid skills and practices that are unique to each community. Research has shown that the time spent building healthy connections has an impact on the reduction in suicide idealization, social pruning and documented disciplinary incidents. A Social Network Health Approach to preventative mental health care, draws on published research from the University of Rochester Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide and from the implementations by preventative mental health care professionals in close cooperation with them.

Individuals who feel a sense of belonging in their community can acquire skills in the naturally occurring environment they are in.

by an increase in attendance and performance, and by an emotionally recharged community that spends the bulk of their time working preventatively, instead of performing interventions after disruptive and damaging incidents.

To make that happen in a community (a school environment, for example), the school community must develop group cohesion.  Cohesion is created from strong, healthy connections between student peers and between students and trusted adult guides throughout the community.

To engage with one another optimally, a community must discover the strengths of individuals and groups.  Discovery must be practiced and developed as a skill.  Active learning and heavily peer-influenced activities and initiatives have been show to be effective as part of a methodology to kick-start discovery and ultimately lead to deep conversations, which are the most powerful method of learning and bonding in social networks.

When a whole school community is cohesive, and has strong, healthy connections throughout, it’s members become more activated, more engaged, and more energized. 

  These skills and practices become cultural norms that are developed across years of consistency of practice.

Defining the Social Network Health Approach within an integrated system of care: