The unprecedented number of stressors in the lives of children and teens — further compounded by a pandemic — and the fragile state of youth mental health has not gone unnoticed by Naperville police and local youth nonprofit KidsMatter.
On Thursday evening, the two agencies and other local mental health professionals/advocates talked mental health, parents’ roles in helping their children, and stressors at a KidsMatter and Naperville police forum on youth mental health.
Police chief Jason Arres said teen suicides in Naperville and surrounding communities last fall made him realize “an immediate call to action” was needed — culminating in Thursday’s event.
“I knew we had work to do in our community to do everything we can in hopes of avoiding another tragic situation,” Arres said.
Both Naperville police and KidsMatter have conducted several joint events/projects over the years. It was one of KidsMatter’s first in-person events since the start of the pandemic but one KidsMatter Executive Director Nina Menis said was needed.
“Everybody is struggling in different ways, so we wanted to help families, empower them, and help them find the resources needed,” Menis said.
Thursday’s in-person and virtual forum included panelists Ryan Lauterwasser, manager for the adolescent inpatient unit and eating disorder services for Linden Oaks Behavioral Health; Fox Valley Institute counselor Matthew Caston; and Naperville police detective Theresa Stock.
Lauterwasser said local youth are more stressed than ever with social media, acceptance, schoolwork, parental involvement, and other stressors at fault. Naperville police responded to nearly 1,000 mental health-related calls in 2021, many of them involving youth.
COVID-19 became a major stressor the last couple of years, Lauterwasser said. Since April 2020, the admission rate in the emergency department for suicidal adolescents is up more than 35%.
“COVID really did shift our community and shaped it in a lot of ways,” Lauterwasser said.
“Our kids are isolating, they are depressed, they are more suicidal — not all kids, but some kids are,” he said.
Both Lauterwasser and Caston told families and others to look for warning signs in their children for depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. According to data presented at the forum, just over 7% and 3% of children 3-to-17-years-old are diagnosed with anxiety and depression, respectively.
Caston told parents and guardians they should also keep tabs on themselves and their own well-being.
“How often can we say that as adults we neglect these aspects of our lives when it comes to physical health, when it comes to emotional health, when it comes to financial support, when it comes to providing supervision for our children,” Caston asked.
“It is not easy to always be present in our lives, let alone the lives of children,” he said.
Stock focused on social media’s role in the mental and physical health of youth. A vast majority of children and teens have smartphones and access to social media apps and platforms where child exploitation, bullying, and more are risks.
Stock’s advice to families? Create some form of online user agreement with their children to better establish boundaries and rules to ensure online safety and mental health well-being.
“When you do this, be open and transparent … that does take out a lot of the stress when a child does violate those expectations. Talk to them about it,” Stock said.
The forum also included a resource fair with organizations like Naperville police, Linden Oaks, Alive Center, and school districts 203 and 204 setting up booths for attendees to get more information on available resources.
raguerrero@tribpub.com
