A series of traumatic events—from Hurricane Maria in 2017 to the COVID-19 pandemic—have led to a heightened need for mental health resources and care for Puerto Rican children. Yet access to mental health care is insufficient to meet this growing need, especially in rural areas. The Building Resilience Project, a comprehensive, island-wide initiative undertaken in partnership with the Puerto Rico Department of Education, will examine the efficacy of Start with the Heart, a preventive yoga and mindfulness intervention for all students, and Cue-Centered Therapy, a treatment for students with moderate to severe post-traumatic disorder (PTSD) symptoms. The team will implement the yoga and mindfulness intervention in 40 schools serving 6-12th grades using a waitlist, cluster randomized approach. For the therapy intervention with school counselors, students who score high on a scale measuring post-traumatic stress syndrome symptoms will be randomized within schools to a treatment or control-waitlist condition. The team will use hierarchical linear modeling to explore the efficacy of the interventions on improving mental health outcomes for students, teachers, and counselors. In addition to publishing findings in academic outlets, the team will share findings and provide resources to the Puerto Rico Department of Education. The study will inform the implementation of trauma-informed care in schools and seeks to transform access to mental health care for young people in Puerto Rico.
Are mindfulness and meditation interventions promising strategies for improving the mental health of students in Puerto Rico who have experienced trauma?
