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Introduction

This toolkit exists to make freely available and accessible the theory, practical implementation guidelines, and most prominent research in the field of Social Network Health.

History:

This project was conceived in 2021 to document successful implementations in Social Network Health. The Social Network Health project has been filming teachers, students, administrators, counselors, researchers and others since early 2022 - that is ongoing as of this writing. In the process, we have collected research and observed common language, practices, and wisdom that is best compiled and presented in this living, mixed media format. We are launching the first useful release of this site in 2024.

Major Sections

Sections

The Major Sections of this toolkit can be navigated via the hamburger menu: Theory - How do Social Network Health approaches to preventative mental health care improve lives and communities, and fit into a holistic system of health care? Practical Implementation - What are fundamentals of practical implementation of a social network health approach? Research Library - Primary resources, seminal research, educational video explainers, and links to external resources.

Notes:

Note to Readers: this is an extremely early version of a site meant to describe Social Network Health approaches. DO NOT use this as an implementation guide and do not quote this toolkit anywhere until this note is removed. Once we reach alpha stage in August 2024, we will update this note and release the entire toolkit under a creative commons attribution non-commercial no-derivatives license only. As much as we would like to allow derivatives, the precautionary language on the Social Network Health site, and all mental health resources, is critical to maintain in it’s precise form. We will be looking into less restrictive licenses in the future.

Note on page name: This is the Theoretical Overview so "Main Page" has been replaced, unless we want to have overview and context here, and then link out to the three main sections: Theoretical Orientation, Practical Implementation, and Research Library

Crisis - TBD: Humanity is experiencing a crisis in mental health. Note: that probably doesn't belong on this page - unless we want another page on context.

Note: the summary could be a prelude to a section on the 14 points, or could be renamed and replaced entirely

Placeholder for Beliefs and Contexty Things

Active Research

The Network Health Approach describes tools and methods that are under active study, development, and use.

This means that this toolkit will be updated as new research dictates, and, most importantly the version history will reflect changes accurately.

To ensure that you have the latest information, you can check the most recent update date on any page in this wiki, view and read the full version history, see when it was last peer-reviewed, sign up for updates to this toolkit, join our discussion group, and apply to become an editor.

We will update this with new research as it develops.  We have a research page where new contexts in which these tools can be used will be described as the tools are applied, researched, and tested within them.

Schools First

Throughout this toolkit, we will assume the context of a school.  We are focused on helping there because the need for preventative solutions and research is strong.  However, this approach has been proven effective in other contexts such as in the United States Air Force, Police departments, and other contexts you can learn more about on the research page.

School have become community hubs and therefore the second and third places in the terminology of Oldenburg. Their increasing importance in modern society as community infrastructure warrants our full attention. Schools can even pull family (the first place) into community by organizing family oriented activities and relationship building.

Universality of the Approach

Programs are developed from approaches. Ecological validity is one part of the Social Network Health Approach that demands that a program is developed specifically and uniquely for a community - that’s what makes this approach so broadly applicable. This contention is supported by researched implementation across a breadth of communities.

A network health approach to preventative care builds individual and community protective factors and social norms.  Network health approaches that address these processes, such as maximizing youth-adult connections schoolwide and heightening influence of youth with coping, create more protective schools.  

Historical Context

The history of preventative mental health care is beyond the scope of this wiki, but it is worth arguing that the characteristics of this approach are different than what has been created in the societies of most of the world over the last 100 years, but they are not that different from what existed and still does exist in most cultures in the more distant past. Not an immediate focus, but the fact that research has taken humanity full circle to rediscovered excellence is notable and in some cases relevant.

(It is probably well worth discussing the resource trap that educational institutions get into in which prevention cannot be funded - this is a cycle that repeats throughout history and there should be a rail to prevent it from happening in the future)

Medical Model v. Strengths model

The medical model of care requires identification of a weakness to begin recommending treatment. In mental health care, some issues have no strong correlates that can be identified as weaknesses early on. Interestingly, there are correlates that can be identified as risk factors in communities that are much stronger indicators of future risk, and more readily identifiable, than individual risk factors. In some cases, strengths-based models that seek to identify strengths of individuals and communities have been shown to be more effective in reducing risk factors than a weakness-based medical model. Treating a community preventatively withy a strengths based-model can also be done without isolating individuals as weak links, separating them from connections. Instead, a strengths based preventative care program identifies strengths and integrates individuals into broader communities.

TBD - We could make a matrix of all the characteristics of programs out there and see where this approach fits - that might be overkill to start with, but it would be useful to those who are trying to find the right approach in a sea of approaches.