By Cristian Carlos. Special for Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
The CDC recently reported on a survey of high school students to learn about mental health among American youth. The results revealed that 55.1?percent of respondents said they had experienced emotional abuse, 44.2?percent said they had persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and 9?percent had attempted suicide to date.
Some groups were more likely to experience certain stressors than others: young women and LGBTTTIQ+ youth saw an increase in suicidal behavior, Asian youth faced racism and hatred, youth of African descent encountered economic devastation along with Native Americans who also dealt with mental stressors caused by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as in Latino communities.
The report also revealed that much of the harassment and abuse reported by students was perpetrated by teachers, school staff and other students. In addition, many of the students felt that teachers did nothing to stop it.
The report includes a recommendation for schools to have anti-bullying policies, and training for teachers and staff on how to deal with bullying and how to recognize it when it occurs. Parents are also advised to help their children deal with bullying at school.
It also recommended that schools provide safe spaces for LGBTTIQ+ and disabled youth. The report stated that these groups of people are more likely to be bullied than others because, in their view, they are different from their peers in some way. It also recommended that schools offer mental health services to students who need them, as well as alcohol and drug abuse programs and suicide prevention programs.
For this reason, Ethnic Media Services offered a briefing to address mental health issues among American youth.
Angela Vasquez, director of Mental Health Policy at The Children's Partnership, said students who fear their parents will be detained or deported show signs of increased anxiety and panic attacks. Teachers at schools across the country have reported students suffering stomach pains and leaving classrooms in tears because they fear their parents will also be taken away.
"Schools across the United States are collecting emergency contact information from families to prevent further harm from happening to them if such a situation occurs," Vasquez said. And she noted that some schools are creating safe spaces where immigrant students can go so they can talk to school counselors about their fears.
Vasquez reported that The Children's Partnership found that children with immigrant backgrounds or immigrant parents suffer emotional distress in response to the political climate. The study also found that immigrant children whose parents have been detained or deported were more likely to suffer "severe symptoms of anxiety and depression" compared to other immigrant children.
The Children's Partnership, Vasquez said, is collaborating with other organizations to conduct a national study on the impact of immigration laws on children and families. The study will examine the effects of detention, deportation and family separation on children's mental health and well-being, including their ability to learn, their health status and their behavior patterns at home and at school.
The study should shed light on how families are coping with the fear of deportation and what services may be needed to support them in the future.
Ilan Shapiro, M.D., pediatrician and director of medical affairs at AltaMed Health Services in Los Angeles said that, in the U.S., there is a need for "communities that are growing together with their society, empowerment with good mental health." Unfortunately, Shapiro notes, "pediatricians are not taught how to deal with a childhood going through a pandemic," such as COVID-19 and other complications.
He further said that "we must create structural changes that address the mental health problem of America's youth."
Dr. Ilan Shapiro emphasized that children must grow up "in a healthy and nurturing environment that provides them with the necessary tools" to succeed as productive and happy adults. Therefore, he said, "we must help our children and adolescents learn to cope with stress. We must teach them how to deal with anxiety, depression and other mental health problems." He said it is important to show them how to overcome the adversities they will inevitably face in their lives.
For his part, Dr. Myo Thwin Myint, assistant professor of psychiatry at Tulane University School of Medicine, said, "It is important for American youth to have access to adequate local mental health services."
Thwin Myint said hopes are pinned on providing adequate funding for mental health programs, increasing awareness of the signs and symptoms of mental illness and changing laws that discriminate against people with mental health problems and their access to minority communities.
The political environment is also another factor affecting the mental health of U.S. youth, especially in the LGBTTTIQ+ community, as in the U.S. "it remains a challenge to show their identity and they go through more adversity and stress" if they are not recognized by U.S. law.
"This can lead to depression and suicide; the isolation and stress to which these communities are subjected are still risk factors."
Sidney McKinney, executive director of the National Black Womens? Justice Institute, said that, as an organization, they seek to "end systemic discrimination against women of African descent." She noted that the legal and criminal system violates the mental health of girls of African descent in the U.S., which produced a 182 percent increase in suicides from 2001 to 2017.
McKinney reported that the arbitrary detention of young women, which has spiked the numbers of mental health and trauma issues in nearly 50 %s, leaves them emotionally vulnerable. In addition, she noted that the impact of the pandemic and the repression of new gender identities are risk factors that "increase the need to seek mental health care for women of African descent," all of which, she said, is a challenge for the current administration in terms of mental health policy.
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