Suicides nationwide hit an all-time high last year. With the new school year approaching this can cause families and children to be stressed or anxious.
As students prepare to start the new school year, we take a look at the mental resources available to families in our community.
One of the best places to look for support first is right at school. Helping kids find a staff member that they like and trust is a really good first step.
Another good place to look for support is a pediatrician or your child’s primary care doctor, but if neither of those options work, families can always reach out to the Children’s Cabinet.
“We have a wide range of services and support for families. One of those is case management support which helps families connect to services in the community that their child may need,” said Director of Behavioral Health Services at Children’s Cabinet, Jacquelyn Kleinedler. “That could range from food stability support to getting help to get an assessment for an IEP at school to helping find the family stable housing support.”
Other services they offer is family counseling, a market for providing groceries, and childcare support.
They also have youth-oriented programs that mostly involve teenagers, after school programs, and they even have their own high school to help struggling students.
Kleinedler said that it’s really important for parents and caregivers to notice when to reach out for support and understand what their children are going through and how to manage it.
“Initial changes or short-term changes in sleep, or mood, or eating habits, that’s really normal for kids starting something new. But if that change starts to stretch on for weeks or months, then it might be time to look around and reach out for some more support,” she said.
If students feel like their anxiety is increasing in the middle of a school setting, a good method to help calm the nerves is to take several deep breaths and follow the 5-4-3-2-1 rule.
“Name five objects that they can see, and then to name four sounds that they can hear, name three things that they can feel, two odors that they can smell they might just even smell the detergent in their shoulder, and then one taste that they can taste,” Kleinedler said.
For more information on the Children’s Cabinet’s resources and methods you can visit the link here.