Tag: depression

Asked & Answered: 5 questions from the Providence Business News about Zero Suicide

Zero Suicide seeks to make taking one’s life a “never event” in South County.

The Providence Business News used its popular “5 Questions…” column to ask Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds Director Susan Orban to explain our new Zero Suicide effort.

SAMHSA (the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) granted Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds $2 million over the next 5 years for a comprehensive effort to eliminate suicides in South County, which has the state’s highest suicide rate.

According to Orban, the focus will be on training key health care staff to identify and work with people with depression, and to offer mental health care to those who cannot afford it.

Watching for signs of trauma in your child

No child – or adult – should experience a traumatic experience or its aftermath alone.

A beloved grandma may have passed. For most children, that may unleash an understandable grieving period.

If a classmate dies, though, at almost any youthful age, your child might not only lose a dear friend but also a sense of invincibility. And we hear more and more about the horrors children see and experience everyday. It’s an obligation to be aware of the signs of trauma.

We list just four signs from the Child Mind Institute, which has an entire section of its website on identifying and working with grief and trauma:

  • A “hyper-focus on mortality or death.” And while some kids become notably morbid and fascinated by death, others will develop an obsession with their own safety and the safety of those close to them.
  • Problems with sleeping, eating, anger, and attention. Some symptoms of trauma in children (and adults) closely mimic depression, including too much or too little sleep, loss of appetite or overeating, unexplained irritability and anger, and problems focusing on projects, school work, and conversation.
  • Triggers. A year after a tragic event, we tend to look back, take stock, and memorialize those whose lives were lost. But anniversaries could have unexpected consequences — the birthdays of friends or classmates who died, for instance.
  • School refusal. When an event is connected to school, such as the loss of classmates or violence at school itself, an unhealthy reaction could take the form of avoiding school.

Pediatricians call for annual depression screening for all teens

Half of America’s depressed teens are reaching adulthood without being diagnosed. The American Association of Pediatrics has released new guidelines urging annual depression evaluations for ALL teens.

Only half of depressed youth are diagnosed before they reach adulthood, making the problem and treatment that much harder. In response, in February, the American Academy of Pediatrics call for annual, universal depression screening for all youth over the ages of 12, NPR (National Public Radio) reported.

The screening, Dr. Rachel Zuckerbrot told NPR, could be done during a well-patient visit, a sports’ physical or during another office visit. It could also be a questionnaire.

“Teenagers are often more honest when they’re not looking somebody in the face who’s asking questions,” she said. Zuckerbrot helped write the new guidelines.

The suggested questionnaires contain a range of questions. For instance, ‘Over the past two weeks, how often have you been bothered by any of the following problems: feeling down, depressed or hopeless? Or, little interest or pleasure in doing things?’

The new recommendations also call for families with a depressed teen to restrict the young person’s access to lethal means of harm.

5-year study of half-million teens links cell phone use with depression

Overuse of cellphones may lead to loneliness and thoughts of suicide among teens

Caseloads at 93 university counseling centers jumped a remarkable 30% between 2009-2010 from the previous five years, with high schools reporting major increases as well. Two studies of more than a half million adolescents ages 12-18 find a major increase in depression and thoughts of suicide.

The change happens to match the rapid availability and use of cell phones and other screen time, notes a recent research paper published in Clinical Psychological Science.

The study points a finger at the growing popularity of social media.

NPR (National Public Radio) interviewed Jean Twenge, one of the adolescent study’s authors. Her research, NPR reported, “found that teens who spend five or more hours per day on their devices are 71 percent more likely to have one risk factor for suicide. And that’s regardless of the content consumed. Whether teens are watching cat videos or looking at something more serious, the amount of screen time — not the specific content — goes hand in hand with the higher instances of depression.”

“At two hours a day there was only a slightly elevated risk,” Twenge said in a second NPR story. “And then three hours a day and beyond is where you saw the more pronounced increase in those who had at least one suicide risk factor.”

Adolescents in the 2010s spent more time on electronic communication and less time on in-person interaction than any previous generation. The paper notes that humans, as a species, traditionally required close, mostly continuous face-to-face contact with others. Lack of such could lead to both loneliness and thoughts of suicide.

Reduced screen time is a key focus of HBHM’s 5-2-1-0 initiative.