Dr Ana Radovic eads Supporting Our Valued Adolescents (SOVA), an innovative psychoeducational intervention website tailored specifically for young persons with depression and anxiety. it includes two websites: SOVA for young people and wiseSOVA for parents
The primary objective of SOVA is to address common mental health problems such as depression and anxiety, two disorders for which adolescents often do not receive care.By using technology, SOVA provides readily accessible support to adolescents and parents helping them to understand what depression is and what treatments can help. Complementing the SOVA platform is a website for parents which enhances the communication between parents and adolescents concerning mental health matters. In creating SOVA, Dr Rodavic conducted extensive research and interviews with primary care providers as well as with depressed teenagers and their parents in order to assess the potential of social media as a vehicle for engagement and to glean insights about the well-being of adolescents who actively engage with social media platforms.
The moderators of the SOVA website ensure that the community of users remains safe. Moreover, it incorporates perspectives from one-third of adolescents confronting similar challenges in accessing mental health services. Through interactive discussion boards and articles,users are encouraged to engage and offer comments, thereby nurturing a supportive online community environment.
The research on SOVA has found it to be be user-friendly and interactive, and now the research is focusing on whether the website will help adolescents referred by their primary care doctor to get treatment for depression or anxiety. To read more about SOVA, read Supporting our Valued Adolescents, a social media website for adolescents with depression/anxiety: technological feasibility, suability and acceptability study.
