4 minute read
Please Talk About Mental Health
from April 21, 2023
In the United States, at least one in five adolescents lives with a mental health condition and less than half receive the support they need. Many young people report that they are afraid to ask for help, their concerns are ignored, or that adults tell them it is “just part of being a teenager.” These reactions show that there is a gap in understanding by adults of the mental health challenges facing young people.
Helping the one in five youth and their families learn how to navigate these symptoms of depression and anxiety is key to increasing positive long-term outcomes and healthy adulthoods.
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• Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: 988
WELLNESS & PREVENTION
BY SUSAN PARMELEE
Unfortunately, this gap in understanding and a prevailing culture of silence lead to stigma surrounding mental health symptoms and results in fewer young people getting the help and support they need.
This leads to more serious mental health diagnoses, crisis situations, and suicide. The team at the Wellness & Prevention Center aims to help both adults and teens get the support they need to have open and honest discussions about the stressors and very real mental health symptoms they experience.
Talking to teenagers is tough; there are many important topics that adults need to discuss with the young people they love. In 2020, the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory calling on all of us to protect youth mental health—noting that in 2020, 25% of young people were struggling with symptoms of clinical depression and 20% with symptoms of anxiety.
Talking to the young people in your life about their well-being is crucial to keeping them safe and healthy.
It is important for youth to have safe places to discuss their questions and concerns about their mental well-being. It is the responsibility of all adults in our community to be prepared to talk about mental health.
Here are some tips for adults about talking with young people:
• Practice talking about mental health with other adults in your life
• Remain curious and open to queries from youth about mental well-being—listen to their questions and ask them what they think
• Listen more than you talk
• Empathize with their feelings and behaviors; do not minimize their emotions or encourage anyone to “move on”
• Be open to a conversation on the young person’s schedule
Here are some online resources:
• Mental Health First Aid: mentalhealthfirstaid.org/2017/06/ 5-tips-talking-teenager
• American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: aacap.org
• Crisis Text Line: 741741
The month of May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and there will be activities in many communities that support mental health. The Wellness & Prevention Center and the Ocean Institute will hold a Mental Health Town Hall, The TALK, on May 10. Ocean Institute exhibits open at 5:30 p.m., The TALK begins at 6:30 p.m. To register for free tickets go to bit.y/talktownhall.
Also, Orange County Community Foundation hosts its first annual Mental Health Giving Day on May 17 called Imagining Mental Wellness. Please consider donating to the Wellness & Prevention Center that day or any of the very worthy nonprofits that support the mental wellness of our community.
The Wellness & Prevention Center, is here to help as well. Please feel free to reach out with any questions you may have about supporting healthy teens. DP
Susan Parmelee is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and executive director of the Wellness & Prevention Center: wpc-oc.org. She can be reached at susan@wpc-oc.org.
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OBITUARY Marie Theresa Brady Brendecke
Marie Theresa Brady Brendecke, better known as Theresa, Terry, Mom, Grandma Terry, Gram Cracker, GG and many other loving names, passed into the Kingdom of our Lord on April 5th where she is dancing with the angels. She was born in St. Louis, MO to Eleanor Karst Brady and Dr. Ewing Paul Brady DDS, in September of 1928. The exact date has been controversial; she celebrated her birthday on September 28th until she ordered a copy of her birth certificate at retirement age and found it saying she was born on the 29th. That just made for celebrating two days or even a whole month.
Theresa was the youngest of three daughters including Rose Hortense Brady and Mary Eleanore Brady McTavish. She married Robert Edwin Brendecke on February 24th, 1951. They had four children: Bobbi Brendecke Nelson (Larry), Geri Guilbert (deceased) (John), Steve Brendecke (deceased) (Lorie) and Patty Spacciapolli (Mike). Her ten grandchildren include Tina Nelson Powell, Sarah Nelson Kirschmann, Anna Estrada, Preston Estrada, Julia Estrada, Mike Brendecke, Phillip Brendecke, Kristine Brendecke Crandall, Michelle Spacciapolli Rake, and Monica Spacciapolli and great grandchildren Hudson Kirschmann, Packard Kirschmann, Gunnar Powell, Rieger Powell, Dean Brendecke, Clark Brendecke, Viviane Brendecke, Max Everette Crandall, Connor Stephen Brendecke, Ava Rose Rake, Zayda Estrada, and Alaya Langston-Estrada. Along with Darwin and Marie Gamboa, her full-time caregivers, who became extended family.
Terry was a strong woman who prided herself in surviving having four children under four and later four teenagers at the same time. She achieved her goal of going into the medical field when she earned her Medical Assistant degree. She was very active walking with the Feet Fleet group in Dana Point, taking exercise and yoga classes. She played bunco and cards and dominoes. She loved picnic lunches and spending afternoons with grandkids at the beach. She also enjoyed going to concerts at the park and Mission San Juan Capistrano. You could always find her dancing in a line dance or to good jazz music. Traveling was a joy for her- taking the train to Santa Barbara and San Diego, hiking the Grand Canyon, getting lost in San Francisco, and attempting to buy her oldest grandkid alcohol.
Services will include a mass and internment at Mission San Luis Rey on April 20th at 1:30 p.m.