On the show

Youth mental health as a population problem

Mental health has moved from an individual clinical concern to a population-level one, and demand on community services has risen faster than those services have grown.

Why it is hard to measure

  • Rates of anxiety and depression among young people are a service-planning problem, not only a clinical one.
  • Contributing pressures are social and economic as well as personal.
  • Young people are among the least likely to complete a long formal questionnaire.
  • Screening tools measure severity well and context poorly.

Questions only a conversation can ask

“The last time things got hard, what did you actually do first — and did it help?”

“What is the difference between a bad week and a bad stretch, for you? Who notices when it is the second one?”

Where SamSurveyor fits

Response rates fall when a survey feels like paperwork. A short conversation is easier to finish than a long form, and it can follow up on an answer instead of moving straight to the next question.

Hear this discussed

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