Director: Peggy Papp, LCSW
Assistant Directors: Paul Feinberg, PhD, Michael Davidovits, PhD

This project is devoted to treating depressed adolescents and their families within a family setting. Adolescent depression is often manifested by high risk behavior such as substance abuse, self mutilation, violence, withdrawal from relationships, school failure or suicidal thoughts. Generally family members don't know what to do and are left feeling desperate and demoralized. Their past failures to help the adolescent have often aggravated rather than alleviated the situation. In the Project's approach to treatment, the family is considered a valuable resource in identifying and changing the factors that are contributing to the adolescent's destructive behavior.

Although adolescents may seem disconnected and uninvolved, they are highly sensitive to family moods, conflicts and relationships. They are often acting upon, rebelling against or challenging certain family expectations, values or practices.

Family Therapy
In the family therapy sessions the therapists help the family and adolescent to:

• clarify issues
• correct distortions
• agree on goals
• open up significant areas of communication
• establish positive interactions that lead to workable solutions

The therapists take into account the adolescent's total life circumstances including:

• current peer relationships
• school performance
• developmental problems
• past traumatic life events
• social and cultural factors

The therapy team works collaboratively with other treatment providers that may be involved such as psychiatrists and psychopharmacologists.

Community Connection
The project has extended their work into the community by forming a partnership with North General Hospital, where the Project director, Peggy Papp and staff member, Michael Davidovits, train psychiatric residents to work with adolescents and their families in the low income community served by the hospital. A grant from the Herman Goldman Foundation supports current research that is exploring the relationship between childhood depression and family processes. By tracing the beliefs, themes and ethnic heritage of the families of depressed children, they are building new clinical theories and developing interventions based on the findings.

Suicide Prevention - The Tina Fund
The profound interaction of serious medical illness and depression can lead to suicidal thoughts and behavior. Beginning in 2007, the Center for Families and Health has initiated a suicide prevention program, under the leadership of Mary Arnold. This program offers specialized family therapy as well as training for professionals.