Medical experts answering parents questions about youth mental health Thursday

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) – Medical experts are answering parents questions about youth mental health Thursday.

11 News spoke with the Children’s Hospital Colorado, who says May is historically stressful for kids and families, due to end-of-year activities like testing, graduation or prom, as well as the uncertainty of the summer. This year, could be worse than in years past.

“Any kind of transition can be difficult for kids, but our kids have experienced so many transitions and have experienced so little stability over the last several years,” said Dr. Jessica Hawks of Children’s.

Children’s reports that mental health issues like depression and anxiety have doubled in the last two years. Suicide remains the number one cause of death in Colorado youth.

Across the Children’s Hospital Colorado pediatric system, from January to March 2022, there was a 47% increase in patients visiting emergency departments for behavioral health concerns compared to the same time period in 2021.

The May Mental Health Awareness Month Children’s Hospital Colorado’s Mental Health Town Hall is Thursday, May 5th from 6 p.m. – 7 p.m. Children’s encourages all families to register through Eventbrite to get the Zoom link for the town hall.

Attendees in Zoom can ask questions for the open Q&A at the end of the forum and listen to live interpretation in Spanish. For those unable to access Zoom, the event also will be streamed live on the Children’s Hospital Colorado Facebook page.

“When we have mental health concerns that aren’t addressed in youth, they are set up for all sorts of concerns later on in life… poorer health outcomes, poorer education outcomes, poorer occupational outcomes,” said Hawks. “We want to help intervene early because the great news is that if we do get kids the mental health supports that they need, those trajectories can completely change.”

Copyright 2022 KKTV. All rights reserved.