Majority of Lucero Phone App Users Report Mood Improvement 

[Austin, TX, June 2023] —

In the midst of an unprecedented mental health crisis which was recently highlighted by the US Surgeon General, over 50 youth, therapists, game designers and developers collaborated to make the Lucero digital app. The majority of teens and tweens that use the Lucero phone app show mood improvement, according to a recent white paper titled, “Increasing Access to Youth Mental Health Support.”

The goal of the Lucero app is to increase confidence, build emotional regulation skills, and provide support for children who are waiting to receive mental health services. A team of licensed mental health therapists from Ensemble Therapy and Dell Children’s Hospital in Austin have co-created all of the mental wellness and social-emotional skill building content for the app.“We took evidence-based activities that are being successfully used by mental health therapists every week and placed them in the pockets of youth and families,” the Lucero creators shared.

The effectiveness of Lucero’s content has been validated by a third party PhD researcher. Since launching in December of 2022, over 60% of users reported mood improvement while using the Spark “Self Care Wheel” feature of the app. Many adolescents in the pilot study showed a decrease in negative feelings within 20 minutes.

According to Jillian Domingue, CEO, “Our team of youth collaborators makes us successful and have been instrumental in the development of every aspect of this mental health app, from design to content approval.”  Lucero uses “gamified graphics” and collaborated with a former Disney story writer to create an engaging user experience. Since launching in December 2022, Lucero has over 7,000 explorers in the Beta launch and their retention is on par and exceeds other digital wellness apps.

Lucero is live on the App Store and Google Play for phones. Tablet compatibility is in the near future. Download the white paper at Lucerospeaks.com.

CONTACT:

Jillian Domingue, CEO
Lucerospeaks.com
jillian@lucerospeaks.com
512-870-7532

Lucero is a gamified wellness app for tweens, teens and their crew. It works like a digital daily self-care vitamin, making it easy and fun for adolescents to practice emotional regulation, boost self-confidence and connect with others who radically support them. Instead of a crisis-intervention approach, Lucero builds daily habits over time: a science-backed strategy that protects teens’ mental health and helps them grow into self-care savvy, purpose-driven adults. Here’s how we do it:

1. Give youth and families the tools to talk about hard topics.

Research shows that tweens, teens and their caregivers want to talk about mental health but lack skills, language and resources. Lucero ensures that all our content is co-created and approved by trauma-informed licensed therapists and grounded in evidence-based methods like Solutions-focused Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. Whether you’re a teen or a caregiver, Lucero puts simple solutions in hand and makes it easy to talk about hard topics and reach out for support.

2. Make it youth-driven, fun and engaging.

We asked teens, “If you had a magic app to solve the problems you face, what would it do?” Then we built the safe space they asked for. We believe there’s no better source of data about the support teens need than young people themselves. That’s why we recruited a panel of 27 tweens and teens to create, review and approve all our content. And everything inside Lucero’s world makes emotional regulation fun and engaging, including evolving avatars, 84+ gamified micro-lessons on topics like confidence and self-awareness, 600+ self-care ideas, and badges to track progress.

3. Make it affordable and accessible. 

Two of the biggest barriers to mental healthcare are accessibility and cost. Licensed community therapists often have a 5- to 8-month waitlist and cost between $75-150 per session and school counselors serve an average of 464 students each. There’s a clear need for solutions that streamline support for youth and families regardless of income or location. To use Lucero, all teens need is access to a smartphone. The app will always have a free individual account version available, and Crew subscriptions are just $10/month.

4. Cultivate connection.

Strong relationships with peers and caregivers protect teens’ mental health more than any other factor. Connection with others boosts teens’ confidence and helps them develop social skills, emotional resilience and self-awareness. Lucero makes it easy to strengthen relationships by giving teens the option to connect with up to 7 family members as part of their Crew. Family is inclusive of any combination of youth and adults who want to radically support each other.

5. Build healthy habits by making it bite-sized.

The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain responsible for planning, prioritizing and impulse-control. Since it’s still developing in teens, adolescence is the perfect time to lock in healthy habits for self-care and emotional regulation. Behavior scientists say the best way to build those habits is to start small and reward progress, so that’s just what Lucero does. It’s a safe space where teens can just be themselves and gain tools for a lifetime of healthy habits… all in just a few minutes a day.

1. Can you share why you\’re so invested in teen and adolescent mental health?

My drive to invest my time in teen and tween mental health comes from personal life experiences combined with the realization that the need for more accessible and effective resources is greater now than ever before. We have a youth mental health epidemic happening right now. Along with the crisis resources being developed and deployed, we need effective upstream solutions to help diminish the possibility of a mental health crisis for youth.

On a more personal level, I was the queer kid who navigated coming out at 16, triggering a process of navigating my own self-acceptance and self-love for several years.

I have also spent countless days trying to find and access mental health resources for youth in my care as a foster mom. One of the hardest days of my entire life was walking my foster daughter through the doors of a mental health hospital because we hadn’t been able to find the right resources in time. Nothing prepares you for the reality of realizing that as a mom, you can’t fix everything. It breaks you.

As a mother, I’d do anything to go back in time years before our crisis, years before my foster daughter even showed up at my house, to give her, I, and the other foster parents in her life the skills, language, and tools to better navigate what the next five years of her life would throw her way.

Since time travel isn’t possible, I’m committed to doing everything I can to help other youth and families be more prepared through Lucero.

1. What are you most excited about in terms of how people are now understanding that teens need more emotional support and proactive interventions to help them in daily lives?

I am most excited about inviting youth to design these resources together. Instead of retrofitting what has worked with adults, we have the opportunity to really listen, meet youth where they are, and design solutions with and for them.

In interviews with tweens and teens, one consistent theme is they don’t want to be told what to do. We can probably all agree that we were that teen/tween at one point or another. With clinical experts as part of the team to provide guardrails and share evidence-based tools, together we have the opportunity to really transform the youth experience– making self-care and radical support the norm.

1. What is one key to good parent/teen communication around mental health wellness?

Normalize talking about mental health.

It’s not something “other families deal with”. It’s something we all deal with. It’s part of the human experience.

As a mom who has gone through potty training twice, my kids and I have read countless books that normalize pooping. Including the book, “Everyone Poops” by Taro Gomi– which is a family favorite!

Right along with that book, families should be reading “Everyone has Mental Health”. This is the level of normalizing that I feel mental health needs.

A friend recently shared that she’s started taking her daughter (age 3) to a therapist every 6-months for a check-up as a way to normalize the experience. You go to your pediatrician and dentist for regular check-ups, and we understand that preventative care keeps us healthy. I think this is an absolute genius way to help your kids always know from a very young age that there’s someone there when/if things get out of their control. There’s no shame in asking for help. Mental health is health, and I love the idea of normalizing it as such. 

1. What is valuable in regard to teens having access to mental health mobile apps?

Youth 8-12 spend an average of 4-6 hours per day in front of a screen. With this number skyrocketing to up to 9 hours per day for teens. I think the most valuable impact of mental health apps is accessibility. It’s a resource youth can access 24/7 when they are out-and-about or in the privacy of their room at 3 am when they can’t fall asleep.

The second most valuable part of youth having access to mental health mobile apps on their phone is it starts to allow them to make a choice for where they spend their time. They become more consciously aware of options and the way certain apps make them feel vs. others.

1. If you could give one piece of insight for practitioners working with teens and mental health what would that be?

Actively listen to youth. Even in small moments where you can give them their own agency to choose the questions they want to ask (or answer) can have great impact. Many youth we interview sound like either ships adrift at sea with no direction at all or like they are on a ship pulled by a rope in a direction they have no control over and aren’t too sure about. Actively listening to youth will start helping youth adjust their own sail or paddle their own oars–skills that can help them navigate all the future waves that life will inevitably bring.

One of the most important keys to supporting good mental health is openly and positively talking about it with your family. Mental health is health, but families are often afraid to talk about mental health. Yet, talking about mental health is one of the ways we can avoid mental health crises.

Create space for hard conversations and be willing to talk about feelings of depression, anxiety, stress, and isolation. Let your teen know that all feelings are okay. Talking and listening to one another can ease feelings of isolation and create opportunities to address challenges positively and proactively before crisis happens.

Here are some engaging resources to support your family’s mental health conversations—this month and all year long.

1. Well Beings/PBS Community Outreach Tour– a series of outstanding virtual panels on a variety of youth mental health topics. Watch with your teen and start a conversation!

2. Child Mind Institute’s Dare to Share Campaign – hear from kids and adults talking about what they do to help their mental health.

As a family, you can also commit to keeping physically active, being in nature, getting enough sleep, and practicing mindfulness to support your mental health wellness. Additionally, keeping a journal can be an effective tool for calming your teen\’s mind and gives them time to slow down and process feelings.

While we know social media can be valuable for connecting and engaging, it’s important to track social media usage and its impact. Does it increase your anxiety or your teen\’s anxiety or does usage decrease it? Researchers are finding a link between frequent social media use and young mental health issues.

Sometimes social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat can put more pressure on teenagers in regard to body image, status symbols, as well as online bullying that can occur on these platforms. Not all social media is negative, though! Here’s a great list of Instagram accounts to boost your mood that you can share with your family.

When you’re open to raising awareness and creating opportunities for proactive and positive conversations about mental health in your family, your teen knows that it’s okay to not be okay and that your home is a safe space to be vulnerable.

Here are some valuable mental health resources for both parents and teens to explore and share with others.

• Crisis Text Line: Text “START” to 741741 in USA
• National Alliance on Mental Illness: 1-800-950-NAMI
• National Eating Disorder Association: 1-800-931-2237
• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
• Trevor Project (or LGBTQ Youth): Call 866-488-7386 or Text START to 678-678
• List of International Suicide Hotlines
• Helpful vs. harmful ways to manage emotions

This week an insightful New York Times article by Matt Richtel cited some of those struggles in the article, It’s Life or Death: The Mental Health Crisis Among U.S. Teens . The article details the rise of depression, self-harm, and suicide among teens.

One key insight in the article that is heartening is the lessening of stigma surrounding mental health issues. The article notes, “Health experts note that, for all its weight, the adolescent crisis at least is unfolding in a more accepting environment. Mental health issues have shed much of the stigma they carried three decades ago, and parents and adolescents alike are more at ease when discussing the subject among themselves and seeking help.”

For adolescents and teens, the consensus is growing that mental health stability is dependent upon providing interventions early and often. This includes having the capabilities to interact with teens via texting, talking, and daily support. Offering different methods for teens to share their feelings, report a crisis moment, and feel supported will help reduce and alleviate the teen’s struggle overall. Working as a team with the primary care physician, psychologist, parents and social workers can help ensure the teen has different options for dealing with mental illness as well as an integrated care team long-term.

With the advent of mobile apps focused on adults like Calm.com and others, the need for apps built and created for teens as well continues to expand. These apps will in the next decade provide an important tool for communication and reassurance to teens and adolescents. it’s more important than ever to offer interventions early and often. Teens are also benefiting from mobile apps.

According to the national research survey, Digital Health Practices, Social Media Use, and Mental Well-Being Among Teens and Young Adults in the U.S. led by Victoria Rideout , 38 percent of young adults aged 14 to 22 who suffer from moderate to severe anxiety and depression use stress and anxiety-relieving applications to help them feel better. Apps that offer mindfulness, guided meditation and breathing, journaling, parent/teen communication and depression interventions, are a growing avenue for teens, parents and clinical staff to help reduce anxiety and stress.

We’re working in the most optimal environment for helping adolescents and teens not only survive depression but thrive with actionable interventions that provide long-term support. We will continue to follow the news and help you learn as we go along together in this journey toward better mental and physical health.

*For more resources go here – https://www.nytimes.com/explain/2022/04/23/health/teen-mental-health-faq?action=click&module=RelatedLinksOne&pgtype=Article