Teen Mental Health

This essential book shows practitioners how they can engage with teens' online lives to support their mental health. Drawing on interviews with young people it discusses how adults can have open and inquiring conversations with teens about both the positive and negative aspects of their use of online spaces. For most young people there is no longer a barrier between their 'real' and 'online' lives. This book reviews the latest research around this topic to investigate how those working with teenagers can use their insights into digital technologies to promote wellbeing in young people. It draws extensively on interviews with young people aged 12-16 throughout, who share their views about social media and reveal their online habits. Chapters delve into how teens harness online spaces such as YouTube, Instagram and gaming platforms for creative expression and participation in public life to improve their mental health and wellbeing. It also provides a framework for practitioners to start conversations with teens to help them develop resilience in respect of their internet use. The book also explores key risks such as bullying and online hate, social currency and the quest for 'likes', sexting, and online addiction. This is essential reading for teachers, school counsellors, social workers, and CAMHS professionals (from psychiatrists to mental health nurses) - in short, any practitioner working with teenagers around mental health.

Specifically designed to meet professional practice needs, Introduction to Mental Health for Child and Youth Care encourages practitioners to participate fully in integrated mental health teams; knowledgeably advocate for accessible and quality care; and understand mental health from different perspectives, including Indigenous wellness, attachment theory, resilience, trauma-informed care, and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The first half examines the practitioner’s role in mental health care, Indigenous perspectives on wellness and cultural safety, the epidemiology of mental disorders, the brain and its functions, the ascertainment of diagnoses, and suicide intervention. The second half explores symptoms and interventions of various disorders common in child and adolescent populations, including mood disorders, anxiety disorders, feeding and eating disorders, psychotic disorders, and autism spectrum disorders. Additionally, the text features links to additional readings and online videos, questions for reflection, and activities. Recognizing the importance of mental health literacy in the child and youth care field, this pedagogically rich and practical resource is essential for students and practitioners in child and youth care as well as human services and social work.

Young adults face health challenges that are vastly different from those of previous generations. While their parents benefited from new vaccines, antibiotics, and other medications, today's teens are learning that lifestyle choices also play a central role in health maintenance. The decisions they make and the habits they adopt form the foundation for lifelong wellness. Omnigraphics' Teen Health Series is a specially focused set of volumes within the highly acclaimed Health Reference Series. Each volume deals comprehensively with a topic selected according to the needs and interests of people in middle school and high school. While many young people recognize that physical fitness is important for maintaining a healthy body, the importance of mental fitness for maintaining a healthy mind and emotions is sometimes overlooked. Statistics suggest that nearly one out of every five teens struggles with a mental health concern, and one in ten suffers from a mental disorder severe enough to cause some level of impairment, including poor academic performance, loss of friends, family conflict, faulty body image, and difficulty making decisions. Compounding the problem is that fact that many young people experience a long delay-sometimes decades-between the onset of their symptoms and when they eventually seek treatment. Mental Health Information for Teens, Third Edition offers updated information about maintaining mental wellness and coping with a host of problems that commonly occur during the adolescent years, including self-esteem issues, stress overload, family problems, heartbreak, and grief. It describes the warning signs that may accompany mental health disorders such as depresion, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, phobias, behavioral disorders, personality disorders, psychoses, and schizophrenia. It also discusses the types of treatment most commonly used by mental health professionals. Facts about alternative approaches to mental health care are included, and the book concludes with directories of resources for help and support and suggestions for additional reading. Book jacket.

This comprehensive book provides a framework for healthcare providers working with the dual challenges and opportunities presented by the intersection of mental health and technology. Technology and Adolescent Mental Health provides recent, evidence-based approaches that are applicable to clinical practice and adolescent care, with each chapter including a patient case illustrating key components of the chapter contents. Early chapters address the epidemiology of mental health, while the second section of the book deals with how both offline and online worlds affect mental health, presenting both positive and negative outcomes, and focusing on special populations of at-risk adolescents. The third section of the book focuses on technology uses for observation, diagnosis or screening for mental health conditions. The final section highlights promising future approaches to technology, and tools for improving intervention and treatment for mental health concerns and illnesses. This book will be a key resource for pediatricians, family physicians, internal medicine providers, adolescent medicine and psychiatry specialists, psychologists, social workers, as well as any other healthcare providers working with adolescents and mental health care.

From two of the top child and adolescent psychiatrists at The Hospital for Sick Children comes an accessible guide to common mental health struggles, such as anxiety and depression, for any parent wondering how to help their child. Is my child okay? Is she eating and sleeping enough? Is he hanging out with the right people? Should I be worried that she spends all her time in her room? Is this just a phase? Or a sign of something serious? As parents, we worry about our children—about their physical health, performance at school, the types of friends they have, and, of course, their mental health. Every day seems to bring new and expanding issues and disorders and troubling statistics about the rise of mental illness in children and teens. It’s usually obvious what to do for physical injuries like broken bones, but when it comes to our children’s mental health, the answers are much less clear, and sometimes even contradictory. Pier Bryden and Peter Szatmari, top child and adolescent psychiatrists, are here to help. Using their combined six decades working with families and kids—and their own experiences as parents—they break down the stigma of mental health illness and walk parents through the warning signs, risk factors, prevention strategies, and the process of diagnosis and treatment for mental health challenges arising from: –Eating disorders –Anxiety –Psychosis –Sleep Disorders –Substance Use Disorders –ADHD –Autism –Depression –Trauma –Suicidal thoughts and behaviors The most important thing to remember as a parent is that you and your child are not alone. Wellness is a continuum, and there is a lot parents can do to bring their child back to a place of safety. The road ahead isn’t always easy or straightforward, but this guidebook offers essential advice that every parent needs to advocate for their child.

"Today's teens face and are expected to deal with a wide array of personal, social, and other issues involving home-life, school, dating, body image, sexual orientation, major life transitions, and in some cases physical and mental problems, including eating disorders and depression. This volume examines how many teens have learned to cope with and survive these often stressful trials and tribulations of modern youth"--Provided by publisher.

Everything clinicians need to know about the emotional well-being of kids. With the number and type of mental health issues in kids on the rise, and as more and more clinicians and counselors are being pushed to the front lines of defense, now more than ever there is a need for a comprehensive, practical resource that guides professionals through the complexities of child and adolescent mental health. This practical, comprehensive book answers that call.