As the school year kicks off, mental health professionals are preparing to see more adolescent patients.
The University of Kentucky’s Division Director for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Dr. Amy Meadows said it’s important that kids know who to ask for help, and parents know when to see a professional.
“Transitions can be hard and sometimes the beginning of school is fine, and then you get a few weeks or a few months in and you realize that you’re struggling to adjust,” she said. “It can be really stressful for a lot of kids.”
Meadows said teenagers are most often seen for depression, anxiety, or the initial presentation of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Younger kids are seen for disruptive behavior, challenges with impulse control and stress or trauma management.
She said parents should look for signs of mental health struggles and not be afraid to seek help. If you think your child could benefit from seeing a mental health professional, start by having a conversation with your primary care or family physician.
“Some of those early warning signs are often kids who are isolating — so not kind of doing their normal activities. It can be kids who previously enjoyed things withdrawing from them,” Meadows said.
“Adults will say, ‘Well I feel depressed.’ Kids can say things more like, ‘I’m bored,’ or they can be more irritable — which, yes, adolescents can be irritable, but when it becomes the extreme, that’s when I think it may be a reflection of an underlying depression or anxiety.”
How does UK treat child mental health?
At UK, children aged 5 to 17 can get treatment in the Adolescent Behavioral Health Department.
UK doesn’t have a dedicated child psychiatry emergency room. If you are an adolescent or the guardian of an adolescent who needs mental crisis care, Meadows said to go to a standard emergency room.
“There are times when kids are in crisis, when they may have suicidal thoughts or not feel safe in the environment where they are, and for that, we do staff our emergency rooms with psychiatric professionals to be able to see, evaluate and help determine when kids and families are in the midst of a crisis or don’t really know where to go,” she said.
Upon intake at a UK emergency room, child patients may be admitted to the 17-bed inpatient adolescent psychiatry unit. A typical stay in the department can last about one week before transitioning to outpatient care, like psychotherapy and medication.
Meadows said UK added more beds to the unit about a year ago and lowered the intake age to treat more patients. She said UK hopes to open a child behavioral health emergency room in a few years.
“Since before the pandemic, across the nation, there has been a pretty dramatic increase in the number of kids who are presenting in crisis and presenting with things like suicidal ideation,” Meadows said.
“We’ve taken that as an opportunity to notice that there are a lot of areas where we need to shore up our mental health care system for kids and provide added resources.”
She encouraged children in crisis to talk to a trusted adult or use the national suicide hotline by calling or texting 988 for immediate crisis intervention. That hotline connects to a local help center, she said, which in Lexington is New Vista.
“What we want to encourage people to do is to talk about mental health in the same way that we talk about physical health,” Meadows said.
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