WHO-backed youth mental-health program coming to the Twin Ports

A World Health Organization-backed youth mental-health program is coming to the Twin Ports as local leaders look for a structured way to help older children and younger teens before their struggles become a crisis. ArcaMind and the Miller-Dwan Foundation are bringing EASE, short for Early Adolescent Skills for Emotions, to Duluth and Superior through a pilot that will train four organizations, including Boys & Girls Clubs of the Northland and the Superior School District. University of Wisconsin-Superior will evaluate the results after the rollout.

EASE is designed for adolescents ages 10 to 15 and their caregivers. The model uses seven group sessions for young people and three group sessions for caregivers, built around adapted elements of cognitive behavioral therapy. The World Health Organization and UNICEF published the intervention on Dec. 20, 2023, calling it the first WHO-UNICEF psychological intervention aimed at adolescents experiencing distress and noting that 1 in 7 adolescents worldwide experience mental health conditions that often go untreated.

The local pitch is not simply awareness. It is a test of whether a low-intensity, skills-based intervention can help fill gaps in a region where families often face long waits or limited adolescent mental-health support. In New York City, the first U.S. adaptation of EASE was co-developed with Brooklyn-based youth, families and community organizations, along with the Department of Youth and Community Development and The New School Center for Global Mental Health. That rollout was created in response to youth mental-health needs and a shortage of licensed clinicians in the public sector, a constraint that sounds familiar in many parts of the Northland.

In the New York City pilot, 153 children took part and evaluators reported positive results: distress symptoms went down, school belonging went up and daily functioning became easier. Those are the kinds of outcomes local officials will be watching if the Twin Ports version is to move beyond a pilot and into a broader school-readiness and public-health tool.

The Twin Ports project also lands in a network that already touches children’s daily lives. St. Louis County Public Health says it has two dedicated staff members focused on population-level mental-health and well-being strategies, including suicide prevention and youth mental-health first aid. The Boys & Girls Clubs of the Northland says it serves more than 8,000 kids and has provided 96,000-plus meals and snacks, while also offering mental-health services, academic support and mentorship across the Duluth-Superior region and beyond.

WHO says EASE was field-tested in Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan and Tanzania, with fully powered randomized controlled trials in Jordan and Pakistan before the 2023 publication. The program is built to be delivered by trained, supervised non-specialists, which makes it a plausible fit for schools and youth-serving sites in mid-sized communities. If the Twin Ports pilot shows the same kind of gains seen elsewhere, local partners will have a clearer case for expanding it where Northland families already turn for support.