Welcome back to New Day Northwe.
You know, more than a year ago,
the American Academy of Pediatrics made a
declaration there's a national emergency
in regards to the mental health of American
children and adolescents and the situation.
It's it's not really getting better locally.
I've personally heard reports fm
parents waiting months to get their kids
seen by a therapist or a psychologist.
There just aren't enough clinics
to go around.
So where do you go when the exps
are unavailable?
I've invited parenting coach Bevin Walters.
Share some things we can do to p
and monitor our kids at home no.
Bevan, I know you've witnessed a
lot of parents dealing with thi.
Let's get a reality check of
where we are right now.
I mean, the reality
is that we still are seeing declines in the
mental health of our youth in this country.
There have been some,
there has been some progress made since
the declaration of the state of Emergency.
There's been some legislation.
There's been the introduction oe
emergency number for mental health crises.
There are more people supporting
mental health of children in schools,
but we've got a long way to go.
There are, as you mentioned,
80% of states are mentioning tht
there are not enough mental heah
professionals to serve the kids.
And we're seeing increased
decline in certain populations,
in particular black boys,
girls under the age of 12.
And now for Asian American yout,
suicide is the leading cause of death.
So we've got a long way to go
to really make a huge impact on
the mental health of our kids.
I, you know, you say this is.
I mean, I have the chills
and it these are babies,
these are our babies.
And I just, as a parent,
I wonder how can parents help
support their child's emotional
health and well-being at home me
before it becomes a crisis or tn
intervene when there are concer,
but maybe not at a crisis level
yet. I mean, parents are the most important
piece of the puzzle and therapists are great,
but I mean, at best case scenar,
you're going to be with a therapist one
day a week for 50 minutes or ale
other hours it comes to the par.
Well, the ways that you can supt
your children at home are by first and
foremost making it possible and safe for
your kids to return to their feelings.
What we saw during the pandemic,
where a lot of kids that kind of are going
kind of numb in this state of kind of a,
a brain that's stressed out,
we need our kids to return to tr
feelings and not avoid their feelings.
So make space for the roller cor
ride of emotions that come withs
when they're expressing their emotions.
Make yourself ready to receive t
and support that so your childr.
Not like we're walking around trying to
avoid their feelings by turning to their
screens to numb out or more concerning
things like self harm or drugs and alcohol.
If your kids are really stuck and not
accessing their vulnerable emot,
you can kind of get in through
the side door entrance,
watch sad movies,
read books that kind of evoke emotions,
help your children return to their feelings.
That's
a really great point,
especially that screen time.
I didn't realize that's
exactly what they're doing.
They're trying to numb themselv.
How do we decide when
it's time to reach out?
For professional help,
well, when it's
time to reach out to a professional help is
when you're seeing your child have impact,
having to do their emotional he.
That is, you know you're seeing it at home,
you're seeing it at school,
they're avoiding activities.
But you also want to take a look at the
overall health of the family and look at,
you know, is it time to do kind of like
a an audit of your family's lifestyle?
Busy, stressed out adults are raising busy,
stressed out kids.
If your kids seem to be stressed out,
it might be turned.
It might be time to look at your overall.
Families balance and work
in some more downtime.
Prioritize that family meal tim.
Prioritize play time whenever
it's not so stressed out.
Maybe seek support to make this happen
on the adult level and the child level.
And again, I mentioned screens.
Is really important to look at
the relationship your kids have
with their screens.
Are they using it as a way to numb themselves
so they are that's caused for concern?
You can try at home first to kif
set up some strategies to decrease the
amount of screen time your kids have.
Kind of have some real clear structures.
OK, take a.
A break on the amount of time you kids
have that kind of really improv.
If that still doesn't seem to be enough,
those different interventions I
have mentioned look beyond the t
traditional cognitive behavioral
therapy modalities in terms of therapy.
There's also play therapy,
music therapy, art therapy.
Look at hiring a parent coach that can
support parents in supporting their children.
Many have knee specialist specializations
and things like supporting parents who have
kids who struggle with anxiety and intense.
Motions, things of that nature.
You also can look at other thers
that can be of support, like NL,
neurolinguistic programming.
You can look at neurofeedback,
biofeedback,
all things that can support emotional
health from being of children.
If you can't find the professio,
because it really is up to the parents.
Because I know for a fact,
if it weren't for our PTA at our school,
we wouldn't have a mental health counselor.
We wouldn't have. I mean,
when I grew up there were school counselors.
Yeah, that's not a thing anymor.
If your school can't afford it,
you don't have a counselor.
Absolutely.
So I think having the, the,
the parenting coach behind the
parent is such an important thi.
I I wanna ask you really quickly again,
because this is the one
thing I hear from friends.
I can't get my kids to talk is
that when maybe watching the sad
movies in the books can help.
What are some other tips that cn
really help? I think it's
also a matter of timing.
And a lot of times parents are
like on their kids a second they
see them at end of the day.
And the kid might just need a ce
just to kind of like chill out.
They may be carrying around a lot of stress,
a lot of big emotions from their day.
Away at school.
And immediately we start peppering them with,
like, what do you do at school today?
What did you know?
What kind of homework do you ha?
What do you have to get done to?
Right. And, like, God,
my kid doesn't wanna talk. Well,
it might be because you're attacking them.
Yeah, and grilling them.
So give your children some time, some space.
And, you know, nothing brings kids to
the table faster than a plate of yummy food.
Oh, yes.
You know, invite them to the ta.
Oh, I made you yummy snacks.
Sit down and just start talking about
things that are maybe not quite so intense.
Yeah, chitchat.
And then they might open up if you don't.
Really.
Pack them right as soon
as they come in the front
door. And no, that's really good advice.
I wanted to. You told me when
we did this interview today,
you really wanted to get one
important thing out there,
and that's this emergency resou.
And I know I have a full screen here.
This was just released last summer, right?
Yeah. It actually came after
this emergency was declared.
This actually one of the positie
steps forward so that when there
is a crisis, an emergency,
you can use the 988 suicide and crisis
lifeline it will still bring yo.
The first responder.
But the person on the phone
and the first responder will be
coming specifically to address
a mental health crisis so that
you're not kind of dealing with
other 911 related calls having o
do with maybe physical injuries.
And people maybe think that
they can't call for help.
And if you are in that worse
place right then in that moment,
call this is what they're designed to do.
Write it all over your house,
put it everywhere,
tell it to your kids,
share this number,
because it really is saving liv.
And thank you so much for all
the advice you always give.
I know this was a heavy topic.
I can't wait to talk to you more
about something simple as homew.
You've got a great strategy for that.
Alright, thanks
for having me. Well.