Sparking Conversations Around Teen Behavioral Health

Comic books have been popular with teenagers for generations. Hoping to both educate and entertain teenagers, Centerstone, a Tennessee-based behavior health provider, developed a comic book series featuring a variety of important topics. Ashleigh Hall, Grants Marketing Manager at Centerstone, joined Keith Boushee on this episode of Netsmart CareThreads to talk about how her team created a series of comic books to successfully deliver mental health messages to teens. After receiving a grant from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHSS), Centerstone decided to lay the foundation for bringing Spark, the main character, to life. They hired illustrators who specialize in comic books to bring the series to life. Spark tackles controversial topics in the series including: - Sex messaging - Bullying - Under-age drinking - Opioid issues - Depression - Online safety Since launching the series in 2014, over 60,000 books have been distributed. By including discussion prompts at the end of each book, the books can be used in a classroom setting. Centerstone hopes to bridge the gap between parents and children as well as show these issues can affect everyone, everywhere. The series has also been popular in schools with many counselors and principals helping to distribute the comics. In partnership with Centerstone, we are giving away 50 sets of the six-book series. Go to https://pages.ntst.com/Centerstone-Podcast-LP.html and enter to receive free comic books! This discussion with Ashleigh Hall was taken from our show Netsmart CareThreads. If you want to hear more episodes like this one, search Netsmart CareThreads on Apple Podcast. Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for CareThreads in your favorite podcast player.