It’s currently estimated that one in seven adolescents experiences a mental health disorder. And since a large portion of these formative years are spent largely inside the school system, it’s critical that children, adolescents, and young adults have the support they need to feel safe, secure and balanced as they navigate life’s challenges and progress towards being healthy, well-rounded adults.
Read MoreThe need for effective and accessible mental health services has grown substantially nationwide. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), approximately 51.5 million or 1 in 5 U.S. adults experienced mental illness in 2019. But while the need for sufficient mental health treatment exists for individuals of all ages, many are unable to receive the care necessary to properly treat and manage their symptoms.
Read MoreIn today’s society, the word anxiety is often used to express a multitude of emotions and reactions related to stress, fear, and/or worry. Whether voicing first-date jitters to a friend, ruminating over the outcome of a job interview, or while sitting in back-to-back traffic for hours on end, ‘having anxiety’ is used formally, and informally, to depict how one feels about a given situation.
Read MoreOur hearts grow weary and our minds speed up as we desperately search for an answer to end Colorado’s suicide crisis. In looking for that answer—the one that will save lives and improve the social determinants of health within our cities—we consider various risk-factors that gravely affect the well-being of the people who live here: limited mental health services, high rates of illicit drug use and substance use disorders, exposure to violent crime and/or abuse, access to weapons and/or firearms, and even a low percentage of high school graduates. Yes, further examination of and increased efforts put forth on account of the above risk-factors are critical for suicide prevention, but also, for addressing the mental health stigma that still exists today.
Read MoreWelcome to Morning in Mental Health. What better place to open up a dialogue about the pandemic than right here, with all of you. For a while now—well, approaching two years to be more accurate—we’ve kept our heads up through the storm and tried our very best to find the ‘light at the end of the tunnel,’ holding on to an inkling of hope that it actually exists. Because although we’ve made tremendous strides towards leaving this pandemic in the dust, as we celebrate over 188 million Americans vaccinated, we’re still here—still fighting, still losing loved ones, and still living in what seems to be an alternate reality worlds away from the life we once knew.
Read MoreAlthough a difficult and quite often heart-wrenching topic to discuss, teen suicide continues to be a prevalent issue in today’s society with rates steadily increasing throughout many parts of the United States. In 2019, PBS quoted a study by the Journal of the American Medical Association that found: “The rate of U.S. adolescents and young adults dying of suicide has reached its highest level in nearly two decades” (Frazee & Morales, 2019). For this reason, it’s obligatory we spread awareness about teen suicide while increasing preventative measures to save lives. Whether you’re a teen that is experiencing suicidal thoughts and not sure where to turn; a parent of a teen who is displaying worrisome behaviors or showing warning signs of suicide; or if you know of someone in your life who is currently struggling with their mental health: there is hope.
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