Blog

It’s incredibly difficult to know what the right thing to do is when you have a child or a teen who is experiencing depression. It can be hard to talk openly about scary topics like self-harm and suicide, and caregivers often wonder if mentioning them is the appropriate thing to do at all.

A common mental health myth is that only adults and older adolescents can be depressed. In fact, kids and younger teens may experience depression too. In 2018-2019, 15% of adolescents reported experiencing a major depressive episode and 37% reported experiencing persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. Depression presents differently person to person and often is not just someone who seems really sad or down. In fact, for kids and teens, depression can look quite different. Depression spans a variety of symptom presentations including persistent tiredness, irritability, behavioral outbursts, isolation, and more.

A new school year means a new team of teachers and school professionals to partner with you in supporting your child. For caregivers with children experiencing mental health issues, communicating with the school team can be useful for ensuring everyone is on the same page. Teachers and school counselors often have insights to success and challenges kids experience at school that parents may not be aware of. Keeping the line of communication open and healthy is key. Here are some ways to engage with your kid’s school team about their mental health in a respectful and productive way.

Kids must go back to school every year once summer wraps, so why can it feel so hard for the whole family each time it comes around? Even though most of the year is taken up by school, the transition back can often feel challenging for kids and parents for a variety of reasons. For kids, going back to school means new teachers, new kids in their classes, and maybe even harder homework or more time spent away from family. For parents, it means managing a new routine, communicating with school professionals, and for some, getting back into a rigorous extracurricular activity schedule with their kids.

Families come to the Center for Effective Therapy with a wide range of backgrounds and varied levels of experience with mental health care. Some families and kids have had a long history of engaging with mental health services prior to coming to us, and others come to the Center without having sought out services before. No matter what your experiences with mental and behavioral health care have been like in the past, talking to your child about scheduling an appointment and engaging with an assessment or treatment can seem intimidating. Many caregivers worry about saying the wrong thing to introduce the idea to their kids, and about the reaction their child will have to the idea. To help set you up for success when you’re coming in for your initial appointment, here are some tips for communicating with your child about coming into the Center.