Ensuring Youth Live Positiv.ly Healthy Lives (Montgomery County, Ohio)

About the Program

Category: Children and Youth (Best in Category)

Year: 2022

Positiv.ly is an app that serves high school students' mental health needs. It connects students to community-based resources (e.g., food banks, after-school programs, etc.) to address mental health and social determinants of health (SDoH) needs. Positiv.ly addresses the need for crisis resources by gathering the community's resources and sharing them in a directory, making help just a click away. We work with schools to ensure the resource directory includes appropriate resources, including community organizations and their support staff. Second, Positiv.ly addresses the stigma around mental health by providing a safe space for students to share their personal stories about life's challenges. Studies have shown that a student is 8-10x more likely to talk to a peer about a mental health issue than any adult, including parents, teachers, and counselors. Through peer-to-peer content, we create community and reduce the stigma around mental health. An idea created by Montgomery County ADAMHS, Positiv.ly is distributed to students through their school and schools have pinned Positiv.ly to their Chromebooks or iPads. Schools can also distribute Positiv.ly through their teachers and counselors. Counselors and social workers use Positiv.ly to ensure their students have support outside their office. Positive.ly is available for 63,000 students in Ohio.