By Lori Butterworth
When I gave birth to my first child, a well-meaning friend said, “You’re in for it now, parenting is not for the faint of heart.” Although alarming to my new-mommy ears, truer words were never spoken…they ring especially true now as we face unprecedented challenges finding ways to support our children amid the burgeoning youth mental health crisis.
For the complexities that face our youth, there is no single answer, no one-shot solution. We need a multi-faceted approach, one in which every one of us can contribute.
On Friday, April 29th, AIM Youth Mental Health is presenting the AIM Scientific Symposium: Care in the Crisis at the Sunset Center in Carmel from 9 am to 5 pm, with a Design Challenge reception immediately following. At 4 pm, five brave parents will take the stage to share their experiences and how they found hope when none appeared. Parents and community members will then be invited to join the conversation with a focus on strategies for supporting our children when finding a qualified and available therapist is getting harder and harder. The panel will be moderated by Katherine Ellison, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of several books on ADHD, parenting, and youth mental health.
Throughout the day, hear from an array of experts, including the youth themselves:
9 am: Dr. Tom Insel, known as “The Nation’s Psychiatrist” and California’s “Mental Health Czar” will speak about how and why the system is failing our children and what we can do about it. 10 am: Dr. Walter Kaye (UCSD), one of the leading experts on eating disorders, will share new treatments and approaches families can take to help youth with anorexia nervosa.
10:45 am: Dr. Stephen Hinshaw (UCBerkeley) will break down ADHD, sharing new insights on teen girls with ADHD, an often-neglected group.
11:30 am: Dr. John Piacentini (UCLA) will speak about anxiety and other anxiety-related disorders like OCD.
1:00 pm: Dr. Shasank Joshi (Stanford) will shed new light on suicide prevention.
2:00 pm: Join the doctors for a panel question and and answer discussion
3:00 pm: Six youth representing various high schools and demographics will share their own research findings from a peer-to-peer survey conducted throughout the AIM Ideas Lab.
4:00 pm: The Parents’ Perspective – see description above.
At 5:00 pm deeply meaningful works of art, created through the AIM Design Challenge, will be on display and the youth artists will share their experiences designing the pieces. The creative expressions from Chartwell students are awe-inspiring; you will be proud and impressed.
By definition, being “faint of heart” means, “lacking the courage to face something difficult or dangerous.” Our hope is that by coming together on the 29th, listening, learning, and engaging with one another will give each of us the courage to help our youth – and ourselves – face the difficult challenges ahead with courage.
