Youth experience a unique set of challenges. Consistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness — often paired with suicidal thoughts or actions – have been on the rise.
Keep your eyes and ears open for drastic changes in your teen’s behavior. Talk of suicide, feeling like life isn’t worth living and other disturbing changes should always be taken seriously.
1. Know the Signs
Youth who live with mental health challenges can often have a mental or emotional crisis for a variety of reasons. These include:
Biological factors (like hormonal changes during adolescence) and life events such as a relationship breakup, loss of a friend or family member, natural or large scale disasters, a traumatic accident/incident, school failure, substance use/abuse and bullying can all contribute to a teen’s mental health crisis.
If a teenager is exhibiting signs of an immediate danger to themselves or others, this is an emergency and they should be taken to a local emergency room or behavioral crisis center. A trained crisis worker can conduct an assessment to determine if the person is in a crisis and provide appropriate care. This can include creating safety plans, holding family therapy sessions, and referring them to step-down care options.
2. Know Your Options
Youth often require different care than adults, including more community-based services. They may need to visit a mental health crisis center, have a mobile crisis team come to them or be hospitalized for a brief time. They also may need a supportive home environment or residential treatment.
Unlike adults, most children and youth live with families, which means any child or youth crisis must also involve the family. New guidelines from SAMHSA recognize this and call for developmentally appropriate, family-centered crisis services for youth.
State policymakers will want to consider how to incorporate these recommendations into their local systems of care. For example, they may explore how to reimburse crisis receiving and stabilization facilities under a capitation model that is aligned with this firehouse approach.
3. Listen
While it’s not always possible to change the circumstances around youth in crisis, you can create space for them to talk about their feelings and concerns. Listening and showing empathy can help build trust. Asking them how they are doing (not just “How are you?”) can demonstrate that they are taken seriously.
Encourage them to participate in activities that are developmentally appropriate, like fundraising, donating clothing and personal items, attending vigils or protests, writing supportive letters to those affected by tragedy and/or volunteering with local crisis organizations. Maintaining routines can also be comforting for young people during a crisis event.
The most important thing to remember is that children in crisis are facing not just one, but 2 crises. They are experiencing their own emotional turmoil, but they are also supporting family members or caregivers who are struggling to cope.
4. Offer Support
Youth services often involve multiple agencies, and coordination between these groups is critical. This is particularly true for youth crisis response. Children and most youth do not live alone, and their families are a crucial part of any crisis. As such, addressing the recommendations of SAMHSA’s guidelines for children and youth requires a family-centered approach that addresses their needs.
This includes promoting helplines/hotlines for children and adolescents, and providing outreach workers who are trained to support young people in crisis and their families. It also includes creating an environment that is safe and supportive and establishing clear boundaries, as well as connecting families to peer support specialists. These interventions can significantly mitigate the long-term impact of a teen’s crisis. Learn more.
5. Encourage Recovery
Youth in crisis often have multiple needs and may require services provided by several different organizations. Coordinating among agencies is important. Frequently, the same young person will be seen by multiple providers – behavioral health, schools and child welfare or juvenile justice. Ideally, these agencies will communicate with one another and collaborate closely, so that they can all be aware of the same information about the same youth.
Providing youth with mental health care that addresses their unique needs is essential. This includes providing them with therapeutic supports like counseling and therapy, which can help to strengthen their coping and self-sufficiency skills. Additionally, the use of family and group therapy can also be helpful. States are exploring ways to incorporate crisis receiving and stabilization facilities as part of a comprehensive system of care, including connecting them to intensive wraparound support upon discharge from these facilities.