Introduction

The social service needs of adolescent boys and young men have received little attention in the research literature. Consequently, services for members of this population are sparse and may not be meeting their actual needs.  Services that address identified needs and work to circumvent existing barriers to access would encourage greater utilization and be more effective in helping young men deal with a variety of issues. There is little research that speaks to either the issues adolescent/young adult males define as problematic or how the service system can respond appropriately and effectively.

The survey may be accessed at the link

https://survey.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_8ADuoXpPzWbrxJj

Research Purpose and Objectives

The purpose of this study is to explore the mental health/social service needs from the standpoint of young adult males. The objectives are to:

 Identify service/counselling needs of young men;

 Identify barriers to accessing existing services;

 Explore the feasibility of online service models,

 Develop a series of practice guidelines for providing services/programs that are responsive to young men’s service needs; and

 Develop a pilot service model.

The purpose of the Men’s Resource Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba is to “enable the provision of counselling services for men who have experienced trauma and stressors in their lives and want to resolve related issues, recognizing that challenges to mental health as well as addictions are among the long term consequences related to unresolved trauma and stressors”. They are currently exploring the possibility of providing counselling services for male youth. However, they lack the empirical information necessary to move forward. They have therefore asked me to collaborate with them to collect and analyze the data they need to implement their plan. In addition to the exploration of service needs, this project intends to research how services can best be provided. Given the context of young adults has shifted to online communities; this project will research the efficacy of providing mental health support to this population via online or web-based methods.

The survey

We have developed an online survey that will allow us to collect the necessary information to move ahead with the development of a pilot program. The survey has two components: the first part asks young men to retrospectively consider what they may have needed from counselling services when they were in high school. The second component asks them to consider what their current counselling needs are, who they would most appreciate receiving services from, and whether the availability of online services is an appropriate format.

Please note that this is an anonymous survey – absolutely no identifying information will be collected.

The survey may be accessed at the link

https://survey.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_8ADuoXpPzWbrxJj

The survey will be available until September 1, 2015. We will be posting the results on the Men’s Resource Centre website in December, 2015.

Thank you very much for your willingness to help with this project. If there are any questions, please do not hesitate to email myself at Kathryn.Levine@umanitoba.ca

Kathy Levine