What about the children? | News, sports, jobs

Children’s mental health is often neglected amid all the talk about the mental health challenges adults face. Mental Health Awareness Week is October 6-12, and local experts are sharing tips for parents concerned that their children may be experiencing mental health issues.

Several organizations in our community provide mental health services for children. The Copper Shores Community Health Foundation focuses on young people traumatized by sexual assault.

“This is a priority population for us.” says Brian Rendel, program director for counseling and wellness at the foundation. “Trauma is something that can impact children’s mental health. Resilience allows many children to overcome challenging experiences, but some experiences – such as sexual trauma – can disrupt development. Therapy can help children recover from traumatic experiences so they can return to the task of understanding life. The sooner a young person is treated for trauma, the better their recovery is.”

However, Rendel fears that trauma may be a misleading term. “While difficult experiences can be traumatic for some children, the term ‘trauma’ is somewhat overused. This also applies to other terms such as “anxiety” and “depression”. he says. “Our culture now allows talking about mental health issues. More and more schools are incorporating mental health education. One downside can be confusion about which mental health problems are appropriate for formal treatment and which are part of normal human existence.”

Rendel adds: “We need to be careful to teach children that most people feel sad and worried at times, and that there are healthy ways to deal with these feelings when they arise.” Many of these experiences are not illnesses that require a diagnosis and require treatment. Rather, what is needed is a supportive caregiver who acknowledges the child’s feelings without trying to make the child feel better. It’s normal to not feel good sometimes. Children need to know that it is normal for them to feel emotions. When we intervene and try to make negative emotions go away by giving them medication, sending them to a therapist, or putting a clinical label on their feelings, the effect can be alarming for a child, inadvertently giving them the message that something is wrong with them is not true, although their emotions may actually be within the normal range of life.”

Rendel is also concerned about what he calls “Fake food” in children’s nutrition. “This impacts children’s mental health in many preventable ways.” he says.

“I would like to see a diet that consists more of real foods, like the ones our grandparents and their predecessors ate.” He would like people to regularly eat plant-based foods that are little or not processed at all.

“Our brain is simply an organ in our body that depends on the food we eat. When we eat well, our brains function better.” he says.

Prevention is an important part of supporting young people’s mental health. Copper Shores also runs several prevention programs that help children and teens learn and practice mental health support skills.

Other mental health services

Children and families can also receive help from Copper Country Community Mental Health (CCCMH), a federally funded mental health agency that serves Medicaid and Medicare clients.

Children face many mental health issues, including anxiety, depression and ADHD, says Jeff Williams, outpatient director at CCCMH. Other challenges children face include bullying at school and constant pressure from social media, he says.

CCCMH provides therapy services and medication management. They also sponsor Youth Peer Support, a peer-provided service for youth and young adults. It supports adolescents and young adults with severe emotional disorders and serious mental illness through collaborative activities and interventions.

A parent support partner program is run by trained parents who have first-hand experience running child care agencies and raising a child with mental health or developmental challenges. Parent Support Partners help families increase their confidence and competence in parenting skills, knowledge of navigation systems, and collaboration with service providers. “It empowers parents to build sustainable, natural support networks after formal service delivery ends.” Williams explains.

CCCMH offers many other services for children, including acute services for adolescents requiring inpatient psychiatric care; an individual and holistic, youth and family-oriented planning process as well as help for parents with their infants and toddlers.

They also offer crisis support, home therapy, autism services and referrals to other programs in the community.

“A great thing that both parents and teachers can do to address mental health issues in children is to become more educated about mental health and have conversations with young people if they suspect mental health issues are occurring. “ Williams says. “In fact, it’s helpful to talk to children about mental health regularly, even if someone doesn’t have a problem. as it can help build their resilience in the face of adversity.”

Unite Mental Health and Wellness, a private nonprofit organization in Houghton, also provides services for children with mild to moderate mental health issues. They recently received a $50,000 collaborative grant from Copper Shores and $18,561 from the Superior Health Foundation to fund a new infant mental health project.

Zachary Meston, a social worker and certified infant/family specialist, is developing the Infant Mental Health Services Program. The focus is on infants and children up to six years old.

There are also many individual therapists in the Houghton area who work with children. You can find a list of them at