For Professionals

YESS! is a research project being conducted by the University of Minnesota, and funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Our goal is to develop an effective and accessible self-management education program for teens and young adults with epilepsy.

Our process is guided by the principles of:

• Youth, family and community centeredness
• Healthy / Positive Youth Development
• Interdisciplinary and interprofesional team science
• Bridging public health and clinical approaches to promoting health

The YESS! intervention is built on:

• Evidence from the extensive literature on self-management in epilepsy among adults and the limited literature related to children, adolescents and young adults. We've drawn on expertise, and been guided by leaders of CDC's Managing Epilepsy Well network.
• Evidence from self-management programs for adolescents with other chronic conditions like diabetes and asthma.
• Knowledge we've gained from our own research with parents, youth and professionals via interviews, focus groups and surveys.
• Engagement of youth with epilepsy in the design and content development of the YESS! intervention

YESS! is different

• YESS! is a virtual space (website/app) where teens can go if they want and when they want to go.
• Information is presented in a way that responds to the reason that teens want that bit of information--the context of their lives.
• YESS! recognizes that there is always a choice to be made and adolescence is a time to learn to make healthy choices. YESS! motivates good choices and solutions.
• Sometimes it's the messenger that counts. YESS! supports hearing from and sharing experiences, and monitors them to keep it safe.