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Teens address mental health issues among youth at first-ever LVHN suicide prevention conference

Morning Call - 5/12/2023

A group of several young women and one young man were given the opportunity to tell parents, health care professionals and educators what they can do to better support them and their mental health Friday afternoon.

The United States is in the midst of an unprecedented mental health crisis, with children and teens in particular struggling in greater numbers than ever before.

As a way to help address the mental health needs of young people, Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital held Staying Alive Lehigh Valley 2023 on Thursday and Friday, an educational conference focused on informing adults, particularly those who work with children, about youth suicide prevention and pediatric mental health.

The free, two-day event is the first time that Lehigh Valley Health Network held this suicide prevention conference, something it plans to continue annually. Beyond suicide, the conference also covered issues such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, school avoidance, social media and youth athletics.

Around noon Friday, a panel of teens and young adults were given the chance to talk about what they want from therapists, doctors, school counselors and parents to help support them and their mental health.

The panel, moderated by Dr. Hatim Omar, chief of adolescent medicine at Reilly Children’s Hospital and the one who masterminded the conference, offered perspectives on what approaches they find useful from therapists, how parent’s behavior impacts their views of themselves, difficulty trusting professionals and what they do to help deal with mental health struggles.

One audience member asked what therapists can do to help younger patients open up to them.

Gia Brutto, who is in 11th grade, said it is important for therapists to respect the boundaries of their young patients.

“When I came in they were telling me, ‘Everything you tell me is confidential, you can tell me anything you can open up to me,’ but almost every single time anything was said, one of my parents was immediately brought into the room. Not by my request. At that point I felt like I didn’t have a place where I could actually talk, I felt like I actually started to resent my therapist,” Gia said.

The panelists also discussed body image issues and how parents can help their children.

Amira Mehmedi, a high school senior, said parents giving compliments to their children and engaging in little thoughtful actions that help reinforce their children’s self-esteem can go a long way.

“When you are young you always see your outside perspective, you always compare and contrast to younger people. ‘She’s so pretty I wish I could look like her.’ or ‘I wish I could be like that.’ You need to put into her mind that, the body you were born with is gorgeous, it’s beautiful, it’s never going to be ugly.” Amira said. “You can even write them little notes like ‘You look beautiful today,’ throw them in their lunchbox, throw it in their bag to remind her she is beautiful inside and out.”

Jamie Corona, an occupational inpatient therapist at LVHN who attended the conference, said the information she gleaned from the young women and girls on the panel will be useful in her own practice and will help her provide better care for adolescents.

“It makes it more raw and true getting their thoughts on mental health,” Corona said.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on the mental health of children, with many reporting anxiety and depression. The trying and often isolating conditions of the early pandemic are believed to have made many children vulnerable to developing new mental illness and worsening existing conditions amongst those who already had them.

However, even prior to the pandemic there were notable trends documented in the mental health of children and teens. From 2016 to 2019 there was a 27% increase in anxiety diagnoses among children and a 24% increase in depression, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association Network. And from 2019 to 2020 diagnoses of behavior or conduct problems increased 21%, representing about 5 million children.

Suicide rates for people ages 10 to 24 years increased by more than 50% from 2000 to 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For this age group, suicide is the second leading cause of death. About 15% of all suicides, about 7,000 annually, in the U.S. are among 10- to 24-year-olds.

Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death for children overall, and there are documented cases of children having suicidal ideations as early as age 5, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association Network.

Research has found that children with major depression, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, panic disorder and conduct disorder are much more likely to attempt suicide than others. Race is also a factor in suicide rates. Historically, rates have been highest among Native American or Alaska Natives with the next highest being white children. While suicide rates are still highest in these groups, prior to the pandemic there were documented decreases in suicides among these populations and notable increases among children who are Black, Asian and Pacific Islanders, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Children are also more than 2.5 times likely to self-harm than adults, according to the CDC. Young girls are more than two times as likely to self harm as young boys.

Morning Call reporter Leif Greiss can be reached at 610-679-4028 or lgreiss@mcall.com.

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