Des Moines Register's January Feature Topic: Young People with Mental Illness

I have enjoyed following the Des Moines Register's monthly features on a topic that affects kids and families in Iowa. Today's topic made me go buy a couple copies of the issue so that I could share some of the articles with our staff and students. I'm not a fan of the Des Moines Register's policy of only letting you view 10 articles online each month, but I guess that is the way the world is changing. Either way, hopefully you have not used up your views yet so that you can click on the following links. I suggest you save/print anything you want to read later. As a counselor, I have seen more and more mental illness in our young people and it seems the more bizarre and complicated issues are coming up more and more. A typical day may have some conflict and some bullying issues, but more and more, days seems to get filled with anxiety issues, depression issues, students seeing or hearing things that aren't really there, PTSD issues, and several other issues that do not allow the student to have much success in the classroom. At Carlisle, we have a great counseling staff, but many of these issues require much more than an occasional visit with the counselor. And with the number of students we have, many of these students only get 1 or 2 short check-ins or visits with the counselor each week. But we do have other resources we can help parents and families look into in order to get their child more help. The world is changing and for some reason or another, our kids are developing more and more mental health issues. But just like the flu or a broken bone where we immediately get our child checked out, we need to treat mental health problems just the same. We must get our children checked out and we must put just as much effort into getting them healthy as we would if their illness was a physical one.

      Please take a moment to click and read the links from the Des Moines Register below. The first step to finding solutions is education and these articles are very educational.

 Lead story on Mental Health issues in Kids click here! (Notice you can see their 4 previous focus features further down the page and a list of their upcoming topics on the right hand side.)

More Children Suffering from ADHD click here!

Parental Advice for Dealing With Children with Mental Disorders click here!

Mental Health Guide click here!

5 Ideas to Improve Mental Health click here!

Questioning Long Term ADHD Medication click here!

Video of 2 Orchard Place Volunteers Trying to Make a Difference click here!