{"id":4430,"date":"2022-06-15T15:41:58","date_gmt":"2022-06-15T15:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nau.edu\/boundless\/?p=4430"},"modified":"2023-04-24T14:49:12","modified_gmt":"2023-04-24T14:49:12","slug":"adolescent-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/adolescent-mental-health\/","title":{"rendered":"PhD student gives teens a voice in mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Interdisciplinary Health PhD student and Assistant Clinical Professor Katie Mommaerts is continuously striving to improve her teaching skills, expand her scholarship, and deepen her research on adolescent mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mommaerts joined NAU in 2017 as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with a Master of Social Work (MSW) from the University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison. In her faculty role as Online Field Education Coordinator, Mommaerts provides clinical supervision for students in NAU\u2019s online Bachelor of Social Work (BSW)<\/a> as they complete intensive internships with partner agencies and organizations. \u201cI teach social work practice,\u201d she explains, \u201cintegrating my mind-body-spirit approach into my clinical supervision of students.\u201d As students engage in the program\u2019s hands-on learning, they develop and refine their social work skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research focuses on adolescent mental health, leads to PhD<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As the mental health of American adolescents has emerged as one of the country\u2019s most significant challenges in recent years\u2014with disorders including depression and anxiety on the rise\u2014we need compassionate mental health professionals now more than ever. Researchers are essential for helping clinicians understand the underlying causes of adolescent problems and how to deliver effective treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Katie<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Over the course of a decade-long career as a social worker, therapist, and clinical director, Mommaerts counseled many adolescents experiencing mental health crises. During this clinical experience, she discovered that, for many teens, their self-identified issues and concerns were not addressed in their treatment plans; rather, parents and professionals defined their needs with little input from the patients themselves. \u201cI wanted to change that, which is what led to my research focus of addressing adolescent mental health and well-being,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To realize her career objectives and her research goals, Mommaerts enrolled in the Interdisciplinary Health PhD<\/a> program at NAU. \u201cObtaining a PhD has always been one of my goals,\u201d she says. \u201cI enjoy challenging myself and I truly believe in being a lifelong learner. It\u2019s so important to personal growth, self-awareness, and insight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A collaborative effort between the College of Health and Human Services<\/a> (CHHS) and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences<\/a> (SBS), the Interdisciplinary Health program is designed to educate and train the next generation of health researchers, advocates, and teachers. The program offers three research specialization options in Disability, Health Equity, and Psychosocial Health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because Mommaerts\u2019 approach to clinical practice centers on understanding clients in the context of all the influences around them and their environment, she chose to specialize in Psychosocial Health, which encompasses the mental, emotional, social, and spiritual dimensions of well-being and resilience. Research in this area focuses on topics related to how personality characteristics, coping strategies, and social support, along with other individual, interpersonal, social, and cultural factors, affect psychosocial health. For Mommaerts, the program \u201cspeaks to my passions and highlights the importance of relationships, collaborations, and seeing the bigger picture to promote lasting change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Integrating adolescent voices into treatment plans<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Mommaerts\u2019 current research focuses on Mexican American females aged 14\u201317. She is interviewing them to better understand the pressures they\u2019re experiencing, how that leads to anxiety, and what it\u2019s like to walk in their shoes. She is also conducting focus groups with mental health professionals to gather their input.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAdolescents feel pressured to excel and to act like adults, but they don\u2019t feel that they\u2019re treated like adults,\u201d she says. \u201cSocial media is having both positive and negative influences on their mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, Mommaerts believes that a greater understanding of these voices can shed light on the mental health and overall well-being of female Mexican American adolescents. \u201cThis is a very special group in a growing population,\u201d she says. \u201cBy participating in the interviews and the research process, these young women have the opportunity to exercise autonomy, engage in social issues within their communities, enhance relationships with caring adults, and be part of the decision-making process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mommaerts\u2019 goal is to contribute original knowledge to her field that will help integrate the unique adolescent experience into individualized treatment plans, helping clinicians, parents, and teens improve adolescent mental health outcomes. \u201cAdolescent voices are missing, and I want to change this by making their voices heard. At the end of the day, I hope my research informs educators, parents, mental health therapists, and adults who influence adolescents about the real issues that are affecting this population.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interdisciplinary Health PhD student and Assistant Clinical Professor Katie Mommaerts is researching adolescent mental health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":570,"featured_media":4435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[377,163,380,379,378,381,179,195],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4430"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/570"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4430"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5325,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4430\/revisions\/5325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}