There’s been a surge in behavioral healthcare visits

There’s been a surge in behavioral healthcare visits

all right is your teen struggling if they are they are not alone there has been a surge in behavioral health care visits and dr laura saunders from the institute of living is joining us now to talk more about what how much trouble they’ve been having hi dr laura hello friends and happy wednesday it’s a great day connecticut it is a great day connecticut all right so tell us why are so many teens struggling i think i’ve got a few ideas but fill us in so so that’s you know that’s where we start we start with some speculation um what we know from last week’s heart for current article is that uh behavioral health care visits are three times what they were in the summer okay so as psychologists and as as critical thinkers what we ask ourselves is why now so why now is there such a surge in teens that are struggling do i think the global pandemic has played a role absolutely i do think that we typically see difficulty about a month into school because the adjustment period’s over and you know now they have to sort of settle in but there’s some certain factors that are making this year harder factor number one 18 months is a long time in the in the life of a child right for us for us uh young folks you know not quite teens but young 18 months is not that long in the course of our life but 18 months in the life of a 14 15 16 17 year old is a huge chunk of their lives and so these restrictions have become draining and let’s think about the last 18 months hybrid remote in person sometimes rotating makes a completely unpredictable pattern and the structure and routine are what children thrive on and it’s why one two factors why they’ve been struggling let me ask you a question do you think it could be anything to do with the fact that they might not have gotten as much education during the pandemic and now they’re back in school and they’re expected to know things that they might have missed absolutely so let’s think about it i mean you know as adults we’re not always well equipped to just learn via you know the computer we need something much more kind of interactive it’s not that different for a lot of of kids and and i’m focusing a little bit more on teams not that losing fourth and fifth grade wasn’t you know devastating in the life of a elementary school kid it was actually probably harder on the parents because they had to monitor things more closely in elementary school um high school kids i think were left more on their own but now they’re back now they’re just in the groove i think a lot of them have big gaps in learning so because they just missed things they just didn’t pick up the concepts in the same way via hybrid or zoom or the back and forth and so they’re missing chunks of information things are starting up again unless schools are really taking the time and the care to go back and make sure they have that knowledge base and sometimes it’s in a course before the course that you might be teaching i think those gaps in knowledge are creating learning deficits they’re creating increases of anxiety and that could certainly be a factor in the great distress that some of these individuals are experiencing yeah we only have a minute left but what do we do as parents if you start noticing because it’s like well you gotta go to school and you gotta deal with these things but you’re noticing they’re melting down so i do think it’s important to check with school support personnel get their sense of how kids are doing if you are in crisis um an urgent valuation you can call 211 emergency mobile psychiatric service each town or community has resources counseling financial help food banks we try to reserve the emergency room for life-threatening emergencies danger to self danger to others um but know that that these teens are acutely aware of what they’ve missed um and it puts a lot of pressure on them so let’s be a little kinder and gentler to each other and try to talk to your teens and find out what’s going on all right well that’s excellent advice thank you doctor we appreciate it dr laura have a great day you too

Dr. Laura Saunders from the Institute of Living talks about a surge in behavioral healthcare visits.