{"id":49658,"date":"2022-06-22T12:24:53","date_gmt":"2022-06-22T19:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=49658"},"modified":"2022-06-22T12:24:53","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T19:24:53","slug":"parents-and-children-in-mental-health-crises-need-to-know-recovery-is-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=49658","title":{"rendered":"Parents And Children In Mental Health Crises Need To Know \u2013 Recovery Is Possible"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Jenny Manrique<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"Recovery<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Leer este art\u00edculo en\u00a0espa\u00f1ol<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Miami, Fl. \u2013 Estephania Plascencia struggled with chronic depression and anxiety from when she was in grade school until her mid-20s when she finally sought help. The anxiety attacks had become so frequent, she hardly left her bed. A friend convinced her to see a therapist and she started learning healthy coping strategies and taking medication.<\/p>\n

Today, Plascencia is the Youth Program Coordinator at the Miami-Dade chapter of the\u00a0National Alliance for Mental Illness<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(NAMI), a peer based organization of people with lived experience that offers free education classes and support groups for individuals with mental health conditions and their family members.<\/p>\n

\u201cNAMI helped me realize I was not alone. They became part of my support network and family\u2026They provided the validation and understanding that allowed me to work with other people in their recovery journeys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plascencia spoke at a virtual news briefing hosted by the NAMI\u2019s Miami-Dade chapter as part of a month-long campaign to raise awareness of the nationwide increase in mental illness among children and youth \u2013 declared a national emergency by the American Pediatrics Association. She speaks to packed auditoriums of middle and high school students and has found that sharing her story \u201cis the strongest tool to fight against the stigma\u201d that attaches to mental illness.<\/p>\n

Post-pandemic kids are curious, Plascencia said. \u201cFrequently they ask how to find mental help when parents don\u2019t believe them and misread their symptoms as laziness or scold them for missing school or not finding a job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eddy Molin, a psychiatric nurse at the Jackson Health System Miami, says he sees \u201cparents being tough on their kids aiming for their success, but not acknowledging that they are experiencing a crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the last two months, Molin has noticed a rise in admissions among children with anxiety and disruptive behavior. He believes the mass shootings \u2013 especially those at school settings \u2013 have unsettled kids already struggling with isolation. He encouraged parents to be \u201ccompassionate and empathetic, to pay attention to symptoms such as withdrawal, a decline in personal hygiene, longer times in bed and disengagement from life, even with the things they used to love such as playing video games.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a support system that is there for you, recovery is attainable,\u201d Molin stressed. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s important to be on medication, but sometimes that may be tiring, too. Show love. Love is the key.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joshua Ho learned this advice the hard way. For 14 years he worked six days a week as a dean of discipline at a middle school in North Miami. He was used to taking care of his immigrant students who faced \u201ctragic incidents\u201d within their families or countries of origin. \u201cI thought I knew what mental health was about,\u201d said Ho, an immigrant from Korea who today is the Program Director for Miami-Dade County Asian American Advisory Board.<\/p>\n

But he was oblivious to the fact that his eldest son was struggling. When the son began having stomach aches, headaches, lack of energy and a constant need to sleep, Ho became angry. \u201cAs a typical Asian parent, my expectations for my son were very high\u2026Why isn\u2019t he doing what he\u2019s supposed to do?\u201d Ho recalls.<\/p>\n

He sent his son to a church youth pastor and made an appointment with an acupuncturist, Nothing worked. Finally, his son talked with a counselor and Ho learned he was suffering from mental illness. Now 20, his son is on the path of recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no book about how to be a right parent,\u201d Ho said. \u201cBut yelling and screaming doesn\u2019t help. Conversation does.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Susan Racher, Board President of NAMI Miami-Dade, \u201cWe have to start with education \u2013 knowing that you have a right to get help and knowing where to find health.\u201d That\u2019s what inspired NAMI\u2019s monthlong public education campaign that has included public events, workshops, advertising, billboards. \u201cMental health conditions are more common than any other but unfortunately, care and mental health literacy are elusive in many communities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Official data show that one in six youth have current diagnoses of attention-deficit\/hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, behavior problems or depression, but only half received mental health treatment in the prior year.<\/p>\n

Beth Jarosz, Acting Director for\u00a0KidsData<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0at the Population Reference Bureau, noted that the US suicide rate for 15-to-19-year-olds is nearly 60% higher in 2020 than it was in 2007. More worrying, she said, is that in Florida the suicide rate for 10-to-14-year-olds in 2020 is more than triple the rate in 2007. By contrast, rates in California are frozen at about 33% and rates in New York barely changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though youth suicide rates are highest for whites and Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, rates for black youth are rising fast,\u201d she said. \u201cThey have doubled in the past two decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jarosz said that the groups most at risk for mental health disorders are indigenous youth, youth who face an adverse childhood experience like suicide or substance abuse problems in their family, LGBTQ youth, and youth who experience homelessness or are in the foster care system.<\/p>\n

From her path to recovery, Plascencia learned that mental illnesses are treatable and that\u2019s the main message she wants to stress. \u201cThere\u2019s help and definitely you don\u2019t have to bear it alone.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ByJenny Manrique June 21, 2022 Ethnic...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,16,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-health","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49659,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49658\/revisions\/49659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}