Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week: Reduce the Stigma to Protect Our Youth

Mental health is something not a lot of people take into consideration when it comes to children. Most of us tend to think of kids as happy and carefree. It’s important to recognize that children can also struggle with mental health issues too. Early detection and intervention measures can greatly increase the likelihood of positive outcomes.

Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week

May 1-7, 2022 is Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week, which makes it a good time to up your own awareness of the mental health needs of children. Did you know that according to the World Health Organization, as many as one in six U.S. children ages 6-17 has a treatable mental health disorder such as depression, anxiety problems or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder? What’s more is that half of all mental health conditions start by 14 years of age with most cases undetected and untreated. That is why it’s so important for early diagnosis and treatment.

National Mental Health Awareness Month

Shining light on Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week is not all we can do these next few days, as May is also dedicated to National Mental Health Awareness Month. Unfortunately, there has long been a stigma attached to mental health as well as the treatment of mental illness. However, this has slowly started to shift as more people come to realize that mental health is just one more area of our lives that needs care. 

Participating in Your Child’s Education Helps

Many schools offer screening services to identify and help children who struggle to keep pace with their peers in education. Delayed learning may be related to your child’s mental health. It’s important to form a partnership with the school in creating a plan for your child’s success. Some of these steps include attending individualized education plan (IEP) meetings, keeping open lines of communication with specialists at the school, and, if your child does best on medication, working with the school to ensure they stay on schedule.

Some helpful information

Whether you have a child with some mental health issues, or even you are trying to deal with mental illness, you don’t have to tough it out on your own. There are people and places who can help. Here’s a few: you can call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text ‘MHA’ to 741741. You can also visit the following websites for more information:

Mental Health America

Suicide Crisis Lines

Suicide Prevention Lines

Just remember: one of the best ways to celebrate mental health is by talking about it with your family, elders, community, or even a trusted professional. The more you talk about it, the more normalized it will become. So whether it’s your child, yourself, or someone you know, realize that there is help available, and make use of it. After all, the first step has to be yours!