No one seems to know that the second leading cause of death for children 10-24 in the United States is suicide, because nobody wants to know. Second to accidents, this is how our children and grandchildren are dying. Not dissimilar to AIDS in the 80s, people do not want to talk about mental health in children, especially suicide, but there are fatal consequences to ignoring the problem. It doesn’t have to be this way.
As Founder and CEO of a kids’ mental health nonprofit, I can personally tell you, kids’ mental health issues affect everyone, whether they own them or not. It is in my daily conversations and we receive requests for help from all socio-economic backgrounds, whether you have access to the best of the best or have no access at all. And while mental health is sadly “on trend” right now and becoming more acceptable to talk about, it’s still not an open conversation the way that physical health is.
We at YourMomCares are using the power of mothers to rally together to support groundbreaking technology like RxWell to treat depression, anxiety and suicide prevention, eliminate stigma, change the dialogue from mental illness to mental wellness and no longer distinguish mental health from physical health – they are one and the same.
The reason we created our Back to School Mental Wellness checklist is because back to school is a documented time of high anxiety for kids and today, kids’ lives have become so inconsistent, it is no longer “buy your pens and pencils, put them in your backpack and off you go.” One day you’re wearing a mask, next day you aren’t; one day you’re in remote learning, the next day you’re in person. This is uncharted territory for everyone, so parents need advice from experts on how to deal with this constant change and the everyday challenges that transitions and school present.
Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to kids that are suffering. This crisis in our children is not going to go away by pretending it isn’t there. We need to take action.