“Take Five” Tool to Support Youth Mental Health & Wellbeing
Check out Take Five -
a free, anonymous, online tool for high school students!
Mercer Island Youth and Family Services and the University of Washington have partnered to create the “TAKE Five” tool to support youth mental health and wellbeing.
“TAKE Five” is a free, anonymous, online tool available to high school students. The tool is designed to provide a personal, private, self check-in for youth about their emotional state and coping strategies. The tool gives individualized feedback to students and also provides factual information about what other high school students are experiencing to give students perspective.
There is no denying, there has been a lot going on over the past few years. Despite far reaching protective factors, Mercer Island youth have not escaped the unprecedented mental health crisis that is occurring in the youth population across the United States. Mental health conditions can affect anyone regardless of age, gender, socio-economic status, race, ethnicity, and background, and as such, it is important to create opportunities for youth to check in to ask “how am I doing”, “how are my friends doing”, and more broadly “how do I deal with stress in my everyday life”?
The Take Five tool has five sections:
Your mood and emotions
Optimism and social connections
Coping with stress
Alcohol and marijuana use and non-use
Moving forward
Once the individual has answered a few anonymous questions in the tool, they receive personalized tips and strategies to support mental health and wellbeing based on the information they provided. The tool also shares statistics such as what % of students feel lonely, drink alcohol or use marijuana as a way to provide social norms around a behavior.
In addition, users can access a list of free resources including crisis hotlines, BIPOC resources and prevention information about alcohol and marijuana use. Mercer Island residents are also provided specific information about local resources offered by Mercer Island Youth and Family Services including MIYFS school-based counselors, mental health and/or substance use counseling and the MI Healthy Youth Initiative (HYI) programs. All Mercer Island residents can call the MIYFS confidential intake line at (206) 275-7657 to access services
The tool can be accessed online via phone or computer at https://takefivemi.org. The tool is available for all high school students in Washington ages 13+. The tool is anonymous and no identifying information is collected
The Take Five tool was designed by behavioral health experts in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington. Funding for this program has been provided by the City of Mercer Island’s Youth & Family Services Healthy Youth Initiative through funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
