Utah (ABC4 News) — According to Intermountain Healthcare, parents should be carefully evaluating their teenagers’ emotional stability during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Related: 2020 anxiety: Mental health resources to help manage stress, boost resilience
Officials at crisis hotlines and police agencies throughout the country are experiencing a spike in call volumes in light of COVID-19 from people who are struggling emotionally from the effects of social distancing and anxiety about the virus.
Teens are likely struggling with missing their friends, graduation ceremonies, and sporting events.
The video below shows nine questions that Travis Michelson, MD, associate medical director of mental health integration for Intermountain Healthcare, said parents should be asking their teens to assess their mental health.
Concerning the questions, Dr. Michelson said the following:
“One of the things I want our listeners to be aware of is it’s much more common for children and adolescence to express depression with an irritable mood rather than a sad mood. What you’ll also see in these nine questions are other signs that go along with depression such as apetite changes, sleep changes, energy changes, concentration changes… That very last question, that ninth question, asks are you having thoughts about wishing you were dead or having thoughts about wanting to hurt yourself in any way.”
In the video below, Dr. Michelson answers questions about teens and mental health.
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