Main Page
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.
Precaution:
This website is not to be considered medical advice under any circumstances.
If you, or anyone you know, are experiencing suicidal ideations, please visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention
Project History and Status:
The current status of this Toolkit is: Alpha
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 will be launching the first useful release of this site in 2024.
What we have done to date:
- We have enumerated the key findings in theory, and added references and video support for each.
- We have enumerated the basic precautions and scope of practical implementation
- We have filmed and interviewed one research team, and dozens of school administrators, teachers, counselors, students and education professionals. And we're just getting started. Less than 1% of that material has been added here to date - so we have a lot to learn and we'll be adding a lot more as time goes on.
Major Sections
The Major Sections of this toolkit can be navigated via the hamburger menu:
- Theory - The Key Findings in Social Network Health and their context.
- Practical Implementation - The fundamentals of practical implementation of a social network health approach.
- Research Library - Primary resources, seminal research, educational video explainers, and links to external resources.
Context
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 Social Network Health approaches differ from how mental health has been approached in modern societies most of the world over for 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. The fact that research has taken humanity full circle to rediscovered excellence is notable and in some cases relevant. Some discussion of this is relevant to understanding practical implementation roadblocks, so this history is expanded on in the implementation page.
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.