Project Summary
Background: This conference will help identify informational gaps in the areas of behavioral and mental health practice among males and determine whether existing tools and procedures are adequately identifying mental health issues in males.
Objectives: The objectives are to stimulate a dialogue among experts in various sectors of health, community, and research to examine the outcomes of existing screening tools and programs; to determine which approaches have produced positive and negative outcomes; and to help organizations like PCORI craft and disseminate better, more gender-specific, and socio-culturally optimized tools.
Activities: Conference participants will be drawn from a pool of experts in the areas of behavioral health of men and adolescent boys, public health officials in the private and public sectors, academicians engaged in research in topics relevant to the target populations, clinicians who deal with frontline recognition and management of depression and its consequences in boys and men, and community program management staff who have experience in developing, delivering, and assessing outcomes of programs in this area.
Outcomes: The project team will examine how the failure to identify depression, stress, and related mental health issues in males can adversely affect program outcomes. In addition, the conference will yield a better definition of how to qualitatively and quantitatively measure outcomes in identifying and addressing depression and other mental health issues in boys and men.