CATCH-IT
An interactive comic book that helps teens to beat the blues
The CATCH-IT curriculum brought together four leading experts with very different clinical approaches to teen depression to create a 14-module, skills-based online curriculum for 13-18-year-old students. It was an evidence-based, effective, state-of-the-science approach to help adolescents manage the challenges they face every day to build resilience.
The science was sound.
The approach was solid.
The tools were transformational.
But, not to sound like a get off my lawn Luddite grandpa….in our always-on, digital-centric, social media-obsessed, video game driven era…how do you cut through the noise and make something as challenging as working through your emotions not feel like homework?
Especially when we are feeling depressed.
The National Institutes of Health estimated 3.2 million adolescents ages 12 to 17 had at least one major depressive episode.
And depression is characterized by a loss of interest in activities.
That’s a tall order for any curriculum to overcome.
Strategy
We assembled a stellar team.
Our mission to remove barriers to participation and make the curriculum interesting, engaging, and maybe even fun. We had clinicians with experience working with teens, a comic book illustrator with high school-based science fiction graphic novels about mutant chickens and trans werewolves, and a CBT therapist with expertise in developing behavior change technology. We brought together a graphic designer who had created some spectacular album covers, a storyteller with curriculum development experience, and a team of ruthless teens who didn’t pull punches tearing apart our work when we didn’t hit the mark.
We bonded over shared high school humiliations, swapped YA entertainment for…erm…” research purposes,” and worked to craft the curriculum we would have wanted slogging through our own adolescence.
First, we rewrote the curriculum from beginning to end in one voice. We removed the jargon, scaled back the language, traded in our twenty-five cent words for two dimes and nickel, and kept our reader in mind the whole way through.
Second, we created audio scripts for the curriculum to be recorded rather than read, timing out each module. Third, we designed interactive components gamifying comic book stories that delivered cognitive-behavioral tools. We created a custom cast of characters that matched our audience demographic. We put representation as our centerpiece—accurate representation—with fully formed people that got anxious before tests, hangry before lunch, hoped, and dreamed with human needs and wants. We traded mutant chickens for pre-calc exams and workshopped everyday teen dramas to script as exemplars for the coping strategies at work.
Results
We created a completely digital, 14-module, self-paced, 100% responsive, engaging, interactive curriculum for teen resilience.
Our characters navigated relatable challenges in recognizable ways with the outcomes directed by the participant. Skills included relationship and conflict management, meditation and mindfulness, cognitive-behavioral techniques, visualization, and much more.
We also picked up a skill or two ourselves in the process.
…and consumed a staggering amount of YA entertainment.
Chicago Tribune reporter Darcel Rocket gave some excellent coverage just in time for C2E2, but we couldn’t get the team to celebrate by dressing in cosplay as our characters.
You win some, and you lose some.