Suicide Prevention Awareness – Trending Issues & Tips for Families with Youth

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Suicide is a complex issue affecting countless families, making awareness essential for prevention. Our Director of Intensive Behavioral Health, Kelly Hwang, LMFT, shared her insights with L.A. Parent Magazine about how recent societal changes have impacted suicidal ideation, particularly among youth and wants to highlight two major influences including the pandemic and social media. While both issues are attributed to rising mental health concerns, they also provide opportunities for dialogue and support.

The Impact of the Pandemic
The pandemic has profoundly affected youth mental health, resulting in alarming increases in suicidal ideation and self-harm. A key driver of this crisis is social isolation including lockdowns which stripped youth of social interactions, leaving many feeling lonely and disconnected.

Additionally, the anxiety and uncertainty surrounding the pandemic shifted conversations about mortality into the forefront of young minds. Children, who may have previously been unaffected by death, were suddenly inundated with news about COVID-related hospitalizations and fatalities, heightening their anxiety and contributing to feelings of despair. Some even experienced the death of a family member as a result of COVID.

The pandemic, however, also sparked a cultural shift towards open discussions about mental health and wellness. The stigma that once silenced these conversations quickly began to dissipate, creating an environment where people felt more comfortable opening up about their struggles. While this openness may explain the uptick in reported rates of suicidal ideation, it also facilitates supportive dialogue.

The Role of Social Media
Social media serves as a double-edged sword for youth. On the negative side, it perpetuates unrealistic standards, leading to unhealthy comparisons and feelings of inadequacy. Social media users tend to showcase their “best sides,” which skews perceptions of reality and can exacerbate underlying anxiety and depression to certain users. Social media can also promote harmful behaviors in schools including bullying and harassment.

Additionally, easy access to content about suicide poses risks to youth. Despite these challenges, social media can be a source of information for mental health and suicide prevention. Online resources can be life-saving – including for parents, who can benefit
from increased awareness of warning signs and strategies to support their children.

Tips for Parents
If you’re a parent concerned about your child’s mental health, consider the following tips:

1) Recognize Depressive Symptoms
• Loss of Interest: If your child no longer engages in activities they once enjoyed.
• Loss of enjoyment: Notice this sign in activities and things previously enjoyed.
• Changes in Eating and Sleeping: Deviations in usual patterns should be noted.
• Preoccupation with Death: Frequent talk about death or suicidal thoughts should not be dismissed.
• Low Energy and Fatigue: Persistent low energy levels.
• Traumatic Exposure: Past traumas that may affect their mental health.

2) Encourage Open Dialogue
Engaging in conversations about mental health and suicide is crucial.
• Ask Directly: Ask if your child has thoughts of self-harm or suicide.
• Validate Their Feelings: Listen empathetically and acknowledge their emotions.
• Connect Them with Trusted Adults: Encourage seeking support from other family members, mentors or counselors.
• Consult a Mental Health Professional: If concerns escalate, don’t hesitate to involve a professional.

Resources
For additional support, organizations like Children’s Institute offer resources and counseling for qualifying families. For families under Medi-Cal with youth 0-21 years of age that are seeking resources, please see here.

Additional Resources:

Kelly Hwang, LMFT Director of Intensive Behavioral Health at Children’s Institute

Get to Know Your Reporter: Elly Yu, Senior Reporter at LAist

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“Get to Know Your Reporter” is a series of interviews we’re having with journalists covering topics that are both timely and relevant to our audiences. Our aim is to advocate for and highlight the issues & policies that affect the children and families we serve, and one way is by providing information directly from experts in the field.

In continuing this series, we had the opportunity to sit down with Elly Yu, the Early Childhood Senior Reporter at LAist and 89.3 FM (LAist radio).

Thank you, Elly, for taking the time to meet with us. I’m looking forward to learning more about you as an early childhood reporter at LAist. Can you start by sharing a little about your background?

I’m local to Southern California. I grew up in San Gabriel Valley and attended the University of Southern California. I left California for graduate school in New York but I’m now back in my hometown.

I’ve been a journalist for more than ten years, having reported in Atlanta, Washington DC and now, back in LA. Before being on the early childhood beat at LAist, I was on the station’s investigative team, covering healthcare, COVID-19 and immigration-related issues.

While you were sharing about being a journalist and a reporter, could you share what differences there are between the two?

The term, journalist, is an all-encompassing one. For instance, a reporter who goes out in the field is a journalist but so are editors, producers and other roles who aren’t necessarily in the field or on air. I’m out on the field as a reporter but I have an editor on my team to help with the development of my stories.

What motivates you to cover the beat of early childhood? What are you most passionate about as a reporter?

The early childhood beat is such an important one because the early years are critical to a child’s life. Making sure children have the right opportunities and experiences to grow while having access to health and quality education really impacts the trajectory of their lives. The early years set up a foundation for the rest of one’s life. We know about ACEs and traumatic experiences and how those things can adversely affect health outcomes – even decades later into adulthood.

I am also a mother to a three-year-old son. I don’t know if he’s given me a window into the policies I cover but I’m learning firsthand that parenting is hard. The United States is very different from other countries when it comes to things like maternity leave and childcare support.

What makes me passionate about reporting is being able to tell stories of my community. At the same time, it’s also important to hold institutions to account for their policies. We are committed to telling the truth and shining a light on issues impacting people’s everyday lives. I believe journalism is a vital public service for our democracy.

Wow, that’s profound. As a reporter, you do have a quite powerful role in keeping institutions in check for the greater good. To dig deeper into your motivations as a storyteller and reporter, what would be a message you’d like to convey to your readers?

That’s a hard one. I’d say I like to connect people to other people’s experiences within their own communities or the neighborhoods they live in. I want to help people relate to their own neighbors and their stories – stories that they may not have been aware of previously. Also, through my work, I would like to explain how policies affect the lives of everyday Angelenos.

Can you share what you are working on that you’re excited about?

I am interested in exploring housing insecurity for families with young children across Los Angeles County where affordability continues to be such a big issue. I want to look into what is and isn’t working for families and learn about the experiences families are going through to get or maintain safe and affordable housing.

Do you see any major issues affecting children & families impacted by some of the more recent policies affecting homeless and clearing encampments?

I don’t have enough information yet, but I do know that families tend to live more in cars and vehicles than in tents or encampments. A UCLA study reported that the largest predictor of someone living in a vehicle was being a family with children. Family homelessness can be an invisible issue.

We also have a housing and homelessness team at LAist that is following all the changes around encampments and Proposition 1 affecting mental health housing. I want to see how the housing crisis is specifically affecting families with children.

If you’re a family with children, you’ll most likely want a two-bedroom home vs. a one-bedroom for example – which can be a challenge to find.

A New York Times article/Princeton study reported that Americans most threatened by eviction were babies and toddlers, particularly Black children. These are just some of the issues I would like to dig deeper on.

For our last question, can you share something interesting about yourself? And, is there anyone person that has been really interesting to report on?

I guess the interesting thing about me is that I have the opportunity to interview very interesting people.

As for hobbies, I like to explore new restaurants and seeing all the cuisine Los Angeles has to offer with all its diversity. At the moment, I don’t have too much time for hobbies – keeping up with my three-year-old takes up most of my time now but I can say I know ALL the different types of dinosaurs that exists because of my son!

In regards to the most interesting person I’ve ever met. I actually can’t pinpoint one person. Yesterday, I sat in on a class in Fullerton – a midwife class. The professor of that class also works as a midwife at the MLK Community Hospital and I’d have to say that class was really interesting.

Most of my days, I have the opportunity to talk and meet with people from all different walks of lives and getting a peek into their daily lives is such a privilege.

Elly Yu can be reached at eyu@scpr.org

 

See below for articles by Elly:

What is child neglect? Training educators to see beyond poverty | LAist

Transitional kindergarten: What can a parent expect? | LAist

Knock, knock. Who’s there? The Department of Public Health | LAist

Business owners divided over how much a struggle childcare is | LAist

 

LAist is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that is also home to L.A.’s largest NPR station, broadcasting at 89.3 FM. Sign up for LAist’s early childhood newsletter here.

Photo credit: Julie Leopo

2024 Gala Honoree: Erin Westerman

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We are excited about our four “Cape & Gown Gala” honorees, who will be celebrated at our upcoming fundraising gala on Sunday, December 8 at the Skirball Cultural Center. As advocates and supporters of underserved children, families and communities, our honorees were selected for their humanitarianism and impact to society.

Today, we will be sitting down to meet Erin Westerman, Co-President of the Motion Picture Group at Lionsgate to better understand her desire to give back. Hello Erin and welcome to Children’s Institute! Thank you for making time to meet with us. Can you start off by sharing a little about yourself?

I am a mother of two – I have a seven-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son. As the Co-President of the Motion Picture Group at Lionsgate, I oversee a team, and our job is to build and manufacture the movies that get put into theaters with the Lionsgate logo on it. That includes Hunger Games, John Wick, Saw and more. Plus, there’s a lot of other smaller, original movies that we make throughout the year.

My proudest accomplishment to date, outside of having my children, is how I impacted Lionsgate’s maternity leave policy. While I was negotiating my contract, I found out that our maternity leave policy was the state minimum. While this is not uncommon for corporations given that that’s what the government suggests as a starting place, having just had a child, I was super aware that it wasn’t enough time off.

I decided to put into my contract that the company change their policy to allow for longer maternity leave if I was going to accept the offer. What’s amazing about Lionsgate is that, when faced with the data that supports all the good that a longer maternity leave can have and how little it actually costs the company, they changed their policy to give birth mothers five months of full pay plus four months of pay for the non-birth parent.

I will always feel so good that I found myself in a position to hold up a mirror and see that I helped create real change for the people that work at Lionsgate. I would say this is both the reason that I work at Lionsgate and have worked there for almost a decade.

Our North Star consists of four pillars which include educational success, emotional well-being, economic mobility and lifelong health. What part of our North Star resonates with you?

I grew up in the south side of Chicago and I’m very aware that many of the kids that I grew up with didn’t have what I had, which were parents who had the capacity to provide opportunities for me – not just financially but also emotionally and with their time. My parents put a lot of effort into creating opportunities for me to feel whole, to be challenged and to see opportunities.

That may look different for others but the possibilities that exist for people to succeed are impacted by whether or not they have someone in their life who’s capable of doing that for them. Because of my childhood and because of where I grew up in Chicago, I’m hyper-aware that the biggest indicator of my success has been having parents who believed in me. I can now look back on a lot of the kids I grew up with who were no less smart, no less deserving but who have not found themselves to be as lucky as me. One person who believes in you can change their life.

What’s amazing about Children’s Institute is that they look at the whole child, the whole family and can create capacity for parents to create those opportunities by filling in the holes or pointing people in directions to provide resources that that child or family need.

If you had a message to share with those who are better off and have more resources, what would it be?

I think that, especially if you have children, you become very aware of how important it is to provide for your children. It’s something I feel all the time. Whenever my children need something, nothing will stop me from helping them. No amount of money, resources, or time would stop me from doing what I can for them. Unfortunately, a lot of mothers, fathers and caregivers are not able to do that.

Now, for a more lighthearted question. If you were granted one wish, for the people we serve, what would that be? And why?

That’s a hard question! Well, I wish that we were more child friendly. I think that there are countries in Europe where everybody lifts up families and children. And I think in a lot of places, children are seen as being a burden. Even as somebody with resources, I feel like it’s still hard to raise children.

So, my wish would be that we had a community that did more of that.

One last question! When we were looking at the dresses we collect and hand out for our annual Prom2Go event, I noticed you had a reaction to them. Can you share what you were feeling in the moment?

Oh yeah! I love that you have an event focused on prom, because often, things like prom are deemed as extra and unnecessary. But when I look back on my own high school experience, I remember prom being one of the most joyous experiences I had.

The idea that Children’s Institute would take seriously something in a high schooler’s life like prom and provide resources for that while knowing that a new dress matters gets me very emotional.

 

If you would like to give back to the community while enjoying an evening celebrating our honorees at our 6th Annual “Cape & Gown Gala”, you can purchase corporate sponsorships or individual & group tickets here. Our “Cape & Gown Gala” will take place on Sunday, December 8 from 5-8pm at the Skirball Cultural Center.

Proceeds to the gala will go towards the services and programs helping the underserved children and families in our community.

Advancing Early Childhood Mental Health through Secure Attachments & Interventions

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At the recent Clarity Conference in San Antonio, Texas, Rosette Lee, a Senior Clinical Supervisor for our Behavioral Health and Wellness School-Aged team, led an insightful session that delved into the critical role of early childhood mental health. The session highlighted the profound and enduring impact of secure attachments, positive parenting and early interventions on a child’s long-term development and psychological well-being.

Drawing from her extensive clinical experience here at Children’s Institute, Rosette demonstrated the techniques employed by our therapists in addressing the mental health needs of babies and young children. She emphasized how early exposure to stress, trauma, and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can significantly hinder a child’s cognitive, emotional and linguistic development. Without timely and appropriate intervention, these experiences may lead to lasting detriments in an individual’s overall health and growth.

The session underscored the importance of fostering mental health during the earliest years of life – a practice that is not yet widely implemented nationally despite its proven benefits. Rosette presented compelling evidence from both research and practice, reinforcing the necessity of early intervention as a protective measure against the adverse effects of childhood trauma.

The primary objectives of the session were as follows:

  1. Highlighting the importance of early childhood relationships and mental health as fundamental to future growth and development.
  2. Understanding the impact of early childhood trauma on cognitive, emotional, and linguistic development.
  3. Raising awareness of protective factors and best practices in treating young children affected by stress, trauma and ACEs.

This session reaffirms our ongoing commitment to pioneering early intervention strategies in mental health care, aiming to promote healthier developmental outcomes for children.

Presented by Rosette Lee, Senior Clinical Supervisor (Behavioral Health & Wellness in Service Provider Area (SPA 6)

About the Clarity Conference: Claritycon is an annual educational conference that explores the internal and external factors that impact the emotional, psychological and social well-being of young people. Since its creation in 2013, the conference has grown to reach over 500 attendees ranging from educators, therapists, nurses, social workers and mental health professionals. The conference is hosted by Clarity.