If you think the pandemic is causing adult challenges with respect to social, shopping, job security, etc., you are absolutely correct. But, let’s take a look at our children and what has happened to their lives, from small children who really don’t fully understand the magnitude of the situation as well at teens who need their social time.
Emotions Running High
Regardless of the age of the child, one thing is for certain, there is a definite feeling of overwhelming emotional unrest. Children are more anxious, with extreme feelings of isolation and sadness. Small issues balloon into major outbursts and many mental health professionals believe that children suicide rates are on the rise. This is cause for all parents, all adults, to be especially cognizant of agitated behavior and address it gently…never dismiss it.
Don’t Just Send Your Child to their Room
In the past, when one of our children misbehaves, it was standard practice to punish him or her by sending them to their room for a timeout. While in practice, a cool-down period may be just what is needed, it might be good to adopt some new ways of dealing with outbursts. Our children’s emotional wellness is being challenged, so sending them off to their room to deal with their issues is not such a great idea (more isolation). Instead, try some kindness and understanding. Ask little Johnny if there is something else that is troubling him. We can’t tell our children how to cope but we can let them know we are here to help them. Talk openly, ask questions, and don’t judge the answers. Let them express their feelings honestly.
If you have a child that is struggling with isolation and sadness, we have some amazing therapists that can help you and your child find some ways of finding peach together. Reach out to us for personalized counseling and therapy at one of our six convenient locations or via text, video, or phone. Let us help you and your children start on journey to better mental health!
ACT Family Counseling
6 Locations to Serve You
Apple Valley | Chino | Rancho Cucamonga | Redlands | Ontario | Victorville
This article first appeared at ACT Teletherapy.com
CLICK HERE to learn more about Teletherapy and how you can connect via phone, text, or video.
The pandemic has changed many aspects of our lives, from how we shop to how we spend our free time. We do our best to maintain 6 feet from anyone we don’t know, and even those we know really well we still maintain some distance for safety. We elbow bump instead of hug, we use online conferencing for social gatherings, even our children are learning to have their get togethers online.
Stolen Moments
The hardest part is the inability to visit our sick. Whether it is our parent with dementia or our uncle with COVID. Our family members are struggling with their health with only hospital staff to provide comfort.
Both above cited cases are all too common unfortunately. Our elderly family members with mental health issues like Alzheimer’s or Dementia don’t do well on the phone if their disease is advanced. Language skills are challenging as well as the ability to process and retain what is being said to them. In fact, Alzheimer’s and Dementia patients rely considerably on facial expression and simple acts of touching and comfort to communicate. Obviously, this is a challenge with COVID.
Family members who have contracted COVID and are at risk are likely to be in a hospital, quarantined from the world and surviving on oxygen or a ventilator. Having a mask on your face to breathe makes talking on the phone, the only means of communication when in quarantine, quite difficult.
Keeping it Together
We are all hopeful as we see the vaccines being rolled out as quickly as possible. The rates of new hospitalizations are dropping but it will still be months before all the restrictions of the pandemic are lifted.
If you or someone you love has been affected by the lonely, dark times the COVID virus has inflicted on our lives, help is here. We are available to help you from six convenient locations, or by phone, by text, or by video. We do take most major insurances and many insurance companies are actually waiving co-pays.
Don’t struggle alone. Reach out to us for personalized counseling and therapy. Let us help you start your journey to better mental health!!!
ACT Family Counseling
6 Locations to Serve You
Apple Valley | Chino | Rancho Cucamonga | Redlands | Ontario | Victorville
This article first appeared at ACT Teletherapy.com
CLICK HERE to learn more about Teletherapy and how you can connect via phone, text, or video.
As the pandemic continues, we are seeing the highest levels of anxiety and depression since we first learned about COVID-19 back in February of 2020. We have been sheltered with only essential businesses allowed to remain open. Many people have lost their jobs, and many businesses have been forced to close.
Even now as the vaccine is making its way through the “at risk” population, health care workers, and the education sector, we are still unable to fully open our doors. The vaccine, of sorts, is more of an instruction set to keep you safe, rather than an immunization and protection from spreading.
Loneliness and isolation are the new norm. Loved ones are dying of COVID and our elderly have been isolated from family for too long. Alarming numbers of children and teens are reporting thoughts of suicide or self-harm. Depression and anxiety have skyrocketed. Many areas around the country are not equipped to handle this mental crisis.
More children and adults have mental health concerns that are left untreated. Young people are struggling the most with over half of 11–17-year-olds reporting thoughts of suicide.
We Can Help
We must find a way to bring care and treatment to those who need it. Thanks to technology there is an answer to the unmet need for mental health treatment.
Teletherapy – Affordable & Convenient
Reach out to us, we can help. We offer personalized counseling and therapy via text, video, or phone. Many insurance companies are waving copays. Let us help you start your journey to better mental health!
ACT Family Counseling
6 Locations to Serve You
Apple Valley | Chino | Rancho Cucamonga | Redlands | Ontario | Victorville
This article first appeared at ACT Teletherapy.com
CLICK HERE to learn more about Teletherapy and how you can connect via phone, text, or video.
Mental health issues can have many different signs and symptoms. They are as unique as people are. There are some common underlying themes, but how well we hide it, how we deal with it, if or how we share it with others, varies tremendously from person to person.
Here are a few common attributes:
- Anxiety
- Changes in Mood
- Changes in Perception
- Changes in Behavior
- Fears
- Obsessions
BUT… Let’s NOT give it a LABEL
Who really cares if your mental health problem is called ADHD, Bipolar, Depression, Anger, or some other Psychosis? The important fact is that you are not yourself. Normal daily activities are no longer normal or comfortable. You struggle with simple things or get overly upset for no apparent reason.
You don’t need a fancy label for your mental disorder to tell you things are not right. You need someone to listen, someone trained who can make sense of the noise in your head, someone without judgement who will gently guide you out of the darkness.
With all the craziness in today’s world, maybe it’s just an overwhelming time in your life and you need a helping hand. Maybe you were not well before, and the whole COVID mess has made it worse. Whatever it is, we are glad to be there for you.
We will connect with you however is best for you. Unsure of how it all works? Just reach out to our call center for help getting started. 800-801-8777 or Contact Us and we will be happy to reach out to you!
ACT Family Counseling
6 Locations to Serve You
Apple Valley | Chino | Rancho Cucamonga | Redlands | Ontario | Victorville
This article first appeared at ACT Teletherapy.com
CLICK HERE to learn more about Teletherapy and how you can connect via phone, text, or video.
Krissy Williams, 15, had attempted suicide before, but never with pills.
The teen was diagnosed with schizophrenia when she was 9. People with this chronic mental health condition perceive reality differently and often experience hallucinations and delusions. She learned to manage these symptoms with a variety of services offered at home and at school.
But the pandemic upended those lifelines. She lost much of the support offered at school. She also lost regular contact with her peers. Her mother lost access to respite care — which allowed her to take a break.
On a Thursday in October, the isolation and sadness came to a head. As Krissy’s mother, Patricia Williams, called a mental crisis hotline for help, she said, Krissy stood on the deck of their Maryland home with a bottle of pain medication in one hand and water in the other.
Before Patricia could react, Krissy placed the pills in her mouth and swallowed.
Efforts to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus in the United States have led to drastic changes in the way children and teens learn, play and socialize. Tens of millions of students are attending school through some form of distance learning. Many extracurricular activities have been canceled. Playgrounds, zoos and other recreational spaces have closed. Kids like Krissy have struggled to cope and the toll is becoming evident.
Government figures show the proportion of children who arrived in emergency departments with mental health issues increased 24% from mid-March through mid-October, compared with the same period in 2019. Among preteens and adolescents, it rose by 31%. Anecdotally, some hospitals said they are seeing more cases of severe depression and suicidal thoughts among children, particularly attempts to overdose.
The increased demand for intensive mental health care that has accompanied the pandemic has worsened issues that have long plagued the system. In some hospitals, the number of children unable to immediately get a bed in the psychiatric unit rose. Others reduced the number of beds or closed psychiatric units altogether to reduce the spread of covid-19.
“It’s only a matter of time before a tsunami sort of reaches the shore of our service system, and it’s going to be overwhelmed with the mental health needs of kids,” said Jason Williams, a psychologist and director of operations of the Pediatric Mental Health Institute at Children’s Hospital Colorado.
“I think we’re just starting to see the tip of the iceberg, to be honest with you.”
Before covid, more than 8 million kids between ages 3 and 17 were diagnosed with a mental or behavioral health condition, according to the most recent National Survey of Children’s Health. A separate survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found 1 in 3 high school students in 2019 reported feeling persistently sad and hopeless — a 40% increase from 2009.
The coronavirus pandemic appears to be adding to these difficulties. A review of 80 studies found forced isolation and loneliness among children correlated with an increased risk of depression.
“We’re all social beings, but they’re [teenagers] at the point in their development where their peers are their reality,” said Terrie Andrews, a psychologist and administrator of behavioral health at Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Florida. “Their peers are their grounding mechanism.”
Children’s hospitals in New York, Colorado and Missouri all reported an uptick in the number of patients who thought about or attempted suicide. Clinicians also mentioned spikes in children with severe depression and those with autism who are acting out.
The number of overdose attempts among children has caught the attention of clinicians at two facilities. Andrews from Wolfson Children’s said the facility gives out lockboxes for weapons and medication to the public — including parents who come in after children attempted to take their life using medication.
Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., also has experienced an uptick, said Dr. Colby Tyson, associate director of inpatient psychiatry. She’s seen children’s mental health deteriorate due to a likely increase in family conflict — often a consequence of the chaos caused by the pandemic. Without school, connections with peers or employment, families don’t have the opportunity to spend time away from one another and regroup, which can add stress to an already tense situation.
“That break is gone,” she said.
The higher demand for child mental health services caused by the pandemic has made finding a bed at an inpatient unit more difficult.
Now, some hospitals report running at full capacity and having more children “boarding,” or sleeping in emergency departments before being admitted to the psychiatric unit. Among them is the Pediatric Mental Health Institute at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Williams said the inpatient unit has been full since March. Some children now wait nearly two days for a bed, up from the eight to 10 hours common before the pandemic.
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Ohio is also running at full capacity, said clinicians, and had several days in which the unit was above capacity and placed kids instead in the emergency department waiting to be admitted. In Florida, Andrews said, up to 25 children have been held on surgical floors at Wolfson Children’s while waiting for a spot to open in the inpatient psychiatric unit. Their wait could last as long as five days, she said.
Multiple hospitals said the usual summer slump in child psychiatric admissions was missing last year. “We never saw that during the pandemic,” said Andrews. “We stayed completely busy the entire time.”
Some facilities have decided to reduce the number of beds available to maintain physical distancing, further constricting supply. Children’s National in D.C. cut five beds from its unit to maintain single occupancy in every room, said Dr. Adelaide Robb, division chief of psychiatry and behavioral sciences.
The measures taken to curb the spread of covid have also affected the way hospitalized children receive mental health services. In addition to providers wearing protective equipment, some hospitals like Cincinnati Children’s rearranged furniture and placed cues on the floor as reminders to stay 6 feet apart. UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital in Pittsburgh and other facilities encourage children to keep their masks on by offering rewards like extra computer time. Patients at Children’s National now eat in their rooms, a change from when they ate together.
Despite the need for distance, social interaction still represents an important part of mental health care for children, clinicians said. Facilities have come up with various ways to do so safely, including creating smaller pods for group therapy. Kids at Cincinnati Children’s can play with toys, but only with ones that can be wiped clean afterward. No cards or board games, said Dr. Suzanne Sampang, clinical medical director for child and adolescent psychiatry at the hospital.
“I think what’s different about psychiatric treatment is that, really, interaction is the treatment,” she said, “just as much as a medication.”
The added infection-control precautions pose challenges to forging therapeutic connections. Masks can complicate the ability to read a person’s face. Online meetings make it difficult to build trust between a patient and a therapist.
“There’s something about the real relationship in person that the best technology can’t give to you,” said Robb.
For now, Krissy is relying on virtual platforms to receive some of her mental health services. Despite being hospitalized and suffering brain damage due to the overdose, she is now at home and in good spirits. She enjoys geometry, dancing on TikTok and trying to beat her mother at Super Mario Bros. on the Wii. But being away from her friends, she said, has been a hard adjustment.
“When you’re used to something,” she said, “it’s not easy to change everything.”
By Carmen Heredia Rodriguez
If you have contemplated suicide or someone you know has talked about it, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, or use the online Lifeline Crisis Chat, both available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
ACT Family Counseling
6 Locations to Serve You
Apple Valley | Chino | Rancho Cucamonga | Redlands | Ontario | Victorville
This article first appeared at ACT Teletherapy.com
CLICK HERE to learn more about Teletherapy and how you can connect via phone, text, or video.
