Real Talk: Community Health Care in Action
A community health initiative brought to you by Frontier Nursing University and Woodford County Chamber of Commerce to improve community health and increase healthcare awareness.
Learn more about Frontier Nursing University at frontier.edu.
Real Talk: Community Health Care in Action
Mental Health in Teens
Quincy is joined again by Dr. Latoya Lee, Board Certified as a Family Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, to discuss depression and suicide in teens. Listen in to learn about the symptoms and signs, and what you can do as a parent to get help.
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SPEAKER_00:Welcome back. This podcast is a community health initiative brought to you by Frontier Nursing University and the Woodford County Chamber of Commerce to improve community health and increase healthcare awareness. Today's episode is going to be a little heavy. Did you know approximately 2 million adolescents attempt suicide each year? Today we are going to talk about depression and suicide in teens. According to the Children's Hospital Association's Pediatric Health Information System, between 20 In 2016 and 2022, children's hospitals saw a 166% increase in emergency department visits for suicide attempts and self-injury among children from ages 5 to 18. Joining me today is Dr. Latoya Lee, who has been on the show before. Dr. Lee is a board-certified family psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner who practices here in Kentucky and takes a holistic, whole-body approach to medication management. and helps patients across various age groups find balance and relief from mental health challenges through compassionate and personalized care. Dr. Lee, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for having me again. So let's talk about depression in teens and children. What does that look like, and what is depression in teens?
SPEAKER_01:So depression in teens, again, will look more like that irritable, loss of interest, decreased motivation, a lot of withdrawal in their room, and then you might see a lot of emotional behavior issues. outburst or just a change from the person that they were before. Some of that could be hormonal, but some of it we need to think about what's going on with that adolescent or teen. And is it more than just hormones? Is it depression? Because that is, it's a tough time to be a teenager, especially right now. And they have a lot of body changes. They are sometimes having friend changes. We're changing schools. And this is around the time, unfortunately, that we have some of your families that are going through divorce or changes at home.
SPEAKER_00:So how, physically, how is it impacting? Like when we see depression in teens, physically, what does that look like?
SPEAKER_01:Physically, it could look like they're not sleeping. They're having loss of appetite, very fatigued. And again, you can have some belly aches, headaches, just overall not feeling very well physically. That would be your symptoms.
SPEAKER_00:As a parent or community member, so whether you're a teacher or a neighbor, what are some of the signs we're looking for? So I know it's kind of like all those symptoms, but...
SPEAKER_01:You'll see changes in their personality. So maybe they don't want to play baseball anymore. They used to love playing baseball. Why you don't want to play baseball anymore? They're very more self-critics of their self. They're starting to put their self down. They could be crying more. Again, that change of concentration and things like that. And we will start to see that they are declining in school or they're starting to hang out with different friends. And then you need to start asking why. Why are these things happening?
SPEAKER_00:And if I'm a parent of a teen and I think they're depressed or I think something's going on, what do I do? How do I even approach that? Especially with a teen. you
SPEAKER_01:you want to be not very critical you don't need to you know kind of raise your voice and and say what's wrong with you again you need to get on their eye level find a good If that's before dinner, after dinner, in the morning, wherever you and them used to connect and say, hey, I'm concerned because of X, Y, and Z. I saw that you not hanging out with your friend anymore. I saw that your grades are starting to slip. I have saw you staying in your room more often. Kind of tell me what's going on. Do we need to talk? Do I need to find somebody for you to talk to? Because we're looking for those small changes so that we can prevent any kind of. danger
SPEAKER_00:to their self later. And what's the first step in getting them help? Is it seeing a therapist, their primary? A lot of times they go to their
SPEAKER_01:primary first and then the primary is saying, hey, this is a little bit more than what I can do. And so then they'll send you to the therapist or if we are having those thoughts of self-harm and self-harm could be cutting or burning or thoughts of ending life they will they will usually send them to people like me like to the specialists and and how do you treat that um First, we do a great assessment. So I'm trying to see what kind of depression we have. Is it just us laying in the bed crying and sad? Or is it that we're having a lot of that decreased motivation, decreased energy, lack of sleep? And if we are having those suicidal thoughts, how seriously are they? At that point, then we're going to kind of see what treatment is. But we also have to get to the root of why. Why is very important. so that that way we can discuss it with the therapist. We can discuss it in my office. We can discuss it with mom and dad, but we need to figure out why. Because is this just a situational problem or is this the start of some mental health that could be genetic or something that we're going to have lifelong problems with?
SPEAKER_00:And what are some of the most common whys or causes that you're
SPEAKER_01:seeing? Next, it will be social media. Social media has been a big kicker on the depression type of reasoning because they're not only getting bullied online, they are comparing theirself to people that are online. And everything we see online is not normal. It is not real life. But their brains can't process that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. How... How do we as parents prevent the bullying or take control of the bullying before it causes the depression? And same with social media. Are there checks that we need in place? Like kids don't need to be on social media. Like what is that? What do you recommend?
SPEAKER_01:I highly recommend that you, especially if they have a phone, you need to have an understanding about the phone. You bought the phone as the parent. It's still your phone. You're letting the kid borrow it. So at any time, I should be able to check that phone. At any time. And if you won't let me check the phone, then it is my phone. And I feel like that is some of the gray area that we're in. And we need to make sure that we're being the parent and not the friend. Right. And we need to be checking the phone. I call myself, I have a teenager, the FBI. I'm checking that phone every day if I can because I need to know what's going on. I need to know what's going on at school. Not that I don't trust him, but And I'll need to know what what other friends and stuff are saying.
SPEAKER_00:Right. So it's it's not that you don't trust your kid. You don't trust other kids or other people. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:And and that's it's just a big responsibility for a little brain. Right. Right. And they're just some of them are not mature enough and they don't. They don't really understand. And so you have to be able to talk to your kids about everything, especially when we're talking about the teenage years. And there's different apps that you can get. There's different phones that you can get for your child so that you can monitor it. And I highly recommend them. You can Google that. There's one called the Bark app, and you can see what happens on your kid's phone and who they're talking to. Because even... even at nighttime and even during the school day they're getting all this sent to them you know and people think it's it's funny to take pictures during school and then the pictures get circulated around the school and then what happens they're they're anxious they're sad they don't want to go back to school because so-and-so's make fun of them and then if they put it on social media it's just a snowball effect and and kids are just don't understand at that point that eventually it's going to go away but at that moment it's so catastrophic and so they they're feeling like it's the end of the world and so that's what kind of sparks a lot of that the depression because they think it's the end of the world everybody's talking about them because in middle school especially you just want to be like everybody else you don't want to be called out right and so that's that's the majority of my patients that i see with a lot of depression um they're in that middle school setting okay
SPEAKER_00:So that was actually my next question. Times of life that lead to more depression in kids.
SPEAKER_01:I feel like it is that middle school age. It is tough. It's very tough. And then later on, when the 16, 17, 18... that seems to be another thing. Transitions through high school. Yes, transitions in high school when they start to drive. And then you have all that peer pressure. And then you also have the pressure of, and I'm even guilty of it too, when they come in. So what are you going to do after high school? That triggers a lot of depression because we're asking this 18-year-old, what do you want to do for the rest of your life? And some of them take that very personal. And so then they're trying to just like figure it all out. Or you have the ones that if it don't go this way, my whole world's going to end. So it's just very much a high balance or fine balance of knowing your kid and we're putting a lot of pressure on our kids right now in this day and age. And I think that as a society, we're not doing very well with that.
SPEAKER_00:Isn't that the truth? I think about that all the time, about the amount of pressure and stress and the schedules we're putting on our kids.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. I mean, even my kids, we play multiple sports. We're in school. And I'm like, Latoya, you've got to take it back. You have to think about what's going on and is this too much for your kids.
SPEAKER_00:So something you said earlier. you know looking out if your kid loves baseball and they're suddenly not wanting to play so part of it could be red flag but also it might be a light bulb like yeah hello they need to take a step back
SPEAKER_01:yes it could be that oh well this this is not going to pan out this was my dream what am I going to do now or it could be I don't really find any enjoyment in this anymore because maybe the coaches and things like that are putting too much expectations on the right on the And that could solve any problems. Yes. So you just really have to have that open communication when you have an adolescent. It's a fine balance. And research has showed that being more of that negative parenting style even increases depression chances for your kid.
SPEAKER_00:So I'm hearing not being reactive.
SPEAKER_01:Which is very hard because, again, you're going to have those hormones, right? Yes, yeah. And so it's just really a fine balance. And you don't want to be their friend, but you don't want to be a dictator as well. And so you have to figure out what works for your kid. But having that open communication and having that relationship is what I always highly recommend for all my parents.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So if I'm a kid, I'm a teen, and I think I might be depressed, I'm afraid to tell my mom because I don't want to upset her. What do I do?
SPEAKER_01:So a lot of schools have a mental health component built into their online, you know, like their Canvas or whatever they do at school. And you can reach out through there. Of course, a lot of kids know how to do the Google, right? And so you can Google mental health and all these resources come up. But if we're talking about suicide, we could always call 988. That's the national hotline for suicide. And I make sure that all my teenagers have that as that is always a resource that does not mean the people are going to come get you but it is going to help you process what's going on and I know that there was a huge initiative during the Biden Harris administration and they were they have put in a lot of resources and money into the school funding for mental health and I think that's why we're seeing that a lot of the kids know that they can go to a special site at school and send that they need help and it's a very private thing and and they'll be contacted and um a lot of the schools have psychologists and therapists on site now
SPEAKER_00:can a kid call you directly like your office directly or do they need a parent to do that
SPEAKER_01:um unfortunately here in kentucky yes you need a parent um But the parent just has to consent. After that, they don't have to always be in the office. Other states have different rules. What I learned just this week as I've been here on campus at Frontier is that in Oregon, the consenting age, especially for mental health, is 13. So I highly encourage any adolescent to do that research of wherever you're at right now and to see what age you have to be to take care of your own mental health.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, so having that school resource is super important if they need to perhaps bypass it. And more
SPEAKER_01:than 90% of schools have that now. So that's why I bring that up because a lot of, and they are also already spilling it into the elementary and for the fourth and fifth graders.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. As we're approaching summer, school's out, what do we do for our kids when they're home alone? And especially if there are things that are stemming from family family life exactly um
SPEAKER_01:and so for for those students um hopefully they've already been kind of flagged at school and and has some of those resources but they need to figure out who their support person is who your person is that you can talk to and again parents need to make sure that they're not isolating all the time that we're not on social media all the time um If they were to come see me, I give them workbooks, mental health workbooks. So that's something that we can work on. But we need to figure out what makes you tick, what makes you happy, and those type of hobbies and things like that. Because what that does is it makes your own dopamine. Dopamine is your happy. It's one of your happy neurotransmitters in your brain. So if you like to go outside, we need to get you outside regularly. Plus, that's also going to give you vitamin D. Vitamin D helps with energy and things like that. So if you're going to be home all summer, let's make sure that they're not isolated. Let's make sure that they have somebody to talk to or to really in adolescence they don't play but hang out with. Just having that person is going to be the world of difference.
SPEAKER_00:And as community members, too. noticing those kids and making sure that they know that you are there for them yes as neighbors as friends
SPEAKER_01:yes and that and that's that's that's one thing it takes a community to raise a kid right and so um hopefully that person has you know neighbors and and things like that and we need to we just need to listen um if somebody comes up to your and thinks they're they're concerned about your kid you know take it into consideration talk to your kid and and because the best thing for that kid is is to figure out what's going on and see if we can get them some help
SPEAKER_02:yeah
SPEAKER_01:any final thoughts um just Just know what your state resources are of where you're at. And especially for kids. They're so tech savvy these days. And there's even podcasts. There's podcasts out there for adolescents and mental health. Look those up. That's something that YouTube, YouTube channels. There's all kinds for
SPEAKER_00:kids. And there are ways to cope online. on your own so like the calm app I know yes we've recommended that on the show before the
SPEAKER_01:calm app yes that's that's a definitely a good one um the mindfulness um there's a mindfulness app for adolescents and all they have to do is put mindfulness on their on their phone but also those um those coloring books and things I highly recommend them I always have them in my office and and give them a couple sheets if if they don't have any um but just keeping that mind active and and not so much on the computer and the video games and the social media. Well, thank you
SPEAKER_00:so much for joining me today for this. Well, thank you for having me. Thank you for joining us for today's episode. If you or someone you know is dealing with a mental health crisis or suicidal thoughts, please call 988 and we'll see you next time. This podcast is brought to you by Frontier Nursing University and the Woodford County Chamber of Commerce and is part of the What's Up Woodford Network.
