South Peninsula Hospital is launching a free mindfulness course for teens in Homer next week. The four-week program, Chaos Compass, focuses on stress management and mental health.
Pediatric nurse practitioner Devry Garity created the program. She said it’s designed for teens ages 14 to 18.
“My goals are to give teens tools for emotional regulation, helping them to manage emotions, decrease stress, decrease anxiety and kind of understand and help to manage mood swings that are pretty common in the teenage years,” Garity said.
Garity has been meditating for over two decades and said it strengthened her resilience as a healthcare provider during the pandemic. Garity recently completed a two-year training program to teach mindfulness and said she’s excited to give back to the community.
She said the program also aims to address the rising rates of depression and anxiety among young people.
She said the course typically runs for 6 weeks but this time it will be 4 weeks.
Garity ran two practice sessions with local teens as part of her training. She said post-session surveys showed participants felt more optimistic about the future and reported lower stress levels.
“They've reported they're able to think more clearly. They've been more confident. They've reported feeling more loved. They have more interest in new things. I mean, that's just a small sample of some of the of the survey results,” Garity said.
The upcoming course on mindfulness has space for up to 12 teens and will take place on Thursdays at the Kenai Peninsula College Kachemak Bay Campus.
Email wellness@sphosp.org to register.
