The Westchester Children’s Association hosted a Youth Mental Heath Roundtable on April 3rd. The event was sponsored by Morgan Stanley. Laura Caruso, Executive Director of Pelham Together, was invited to participate.
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A few members of our Pelham Together Youth Council traveled to Albany for Mental Health Matters Day to advocate for more resources and policy related to youth mental health. They heard speakers from different NYS positions and advocates from other schools and spoke individually with their elected officials, Senator Nathalia Fernandez and Assembly Member Amy Paulin. Youth leaders are the BEST leaders!!
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By Melissa Ronan, LMSW, Pelham Together Executive Board Member, and Chair of the Pelham Together Mental Health Committee
It’s not just that your teen is drinking. The bigger issue with teenage drinking is that many kids drink to cope instead of learning to cope. And teens with mental health problems often drink to self-medicate, camouflaging the symptoms of underlying issues that are developing. Studies show that the later kids start drinking, the less likely they are to ever develop a substance abuse problem. So delaying or minimizing teen drinking has significant long-term benefits to their physical and emotional well-being.
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What a great way to de-stress from the tests!! PMHS, PMHS PTA, and Pelham Together Youth Council organized some much-needed time with the most adorable dogs on Thursday, May 11th. Lulu, Addie, and Minka were so lovable! We look forward to doing this again in the future!
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Second in our series for Mental Health Awareness Month is this podcast by Lisa Damour, PhD, "How Do I Tell If My Child Has An Eating Disorder." While the episode first aired during the pandemic, the topic and her suggestions are still relevant, insightful, and actionable. We have been asked for information on this topic more and more, among all genders, across ages, races, and ethnicities.
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During the month of May, we will be posting weekly about a variety of mental health issues . We chose these topics because they are brought to us by parents most frequently. Each week we’ll post them on social media, and add them to this blog post, so keep checking back!
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On March 8, 2023, Make Caring Common of Harvard University hosted a webinar with bullying expert, Dr. Dorothy Espelage, to discuss bullying prevention and intervention. It was EXCELLENT. Check out a write up of key takeaways—including a discussion of what is bullying? What does and doesn’t work to prevent it?—and a recording of the full webinar is at the end.
This event was chocked full of resources, recommendations, and fabulous information for parents, schools, and communities.
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We’re so proud to announce this new collaboration between Pelham Together and Pelham Rec Camps! By working together we will be able to help Rec camps be as responsive as possible to the mental health of their campers - a win all around!
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Pelham families are well aware of how difficult it can be to find available, affordable counseling. Add to that the great need for mental health support for our young people right now, and many find themselves in stressful and difficult circumstances. Pelham Together is facing the situation head on by launching Pelham Together Counseling.
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There is plenty of research on the connection between gratitude and happiness—some of those experts and studies are found in this article, Giving Thanks Can Make You Happier, published by Harvard Health Publishing.
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Our compilation of all our social media posts during Suicide Prevention Month.
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More about Mental Health. We hear parents talk about concern over how much time their child spends alone. Alone doesn't always mean lonely, but it can feel uncomfortable. This resource from the Child Mind Institute is a good place to start understanding this better and pick up some tools for how to support your child. The photo is a young one, but the article is really for children through adolescence.
Read MoreMay is Mental Health Awareness Month. Stay tuned for some helpful resources, events, and youth plans throughout the month, starting with this video from NAMI—it is a great way to kick off a discussion about and raise awareness of mental health, the signs of struggle, and the reminder that we are not alone. Watch it, forward it, talk about it.
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How do we “bottle up” hope? With so many things in the news that are hard to hear, hard to process, and hard to talk about with our kids, I think we all need a way to bottle up hope to make it easier to move forward. After our schools were closed last Friday and yet one more person in my circle was affected by Covid, I felt myself giving up hope…
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Did you know that Pelham Together’s Mental Health committee connects families to local mental health providers who are vetted, affordable and individually matched to the family’s needs? In 2021, we’ve matched over 50 families to therapists for child, adult, couples and family therapy.
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On Monday October 5, 2021, Chris Herren, former professional basketball player, author, and wellness advocate, spoke to the Pelham community about how to support our youth in making healthy and safe choices. Herren, who has dedicated his life to substance abuse prevention education, has impacted millions through his 2019 documentary The First Day, and his travels to schools and professional sports teams around the country.
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On October 5, 2021, former NBA star, Chris Herren, spoke to all 9th - 12th graders at PMHS about substance abuse, self-esteem, and taking care of one another. The night before, Chris addressed the Pelham community with a related message of overcoming adversity and challenging parents to “ask why” if their children come home high. Click here for an article by the Pelham Examiner covering the student assembly.
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September is Suicide Prevention Month. For many of us, this calls to mind loved ones we’ve lost to suicide and all we’ve learned about suicide in the wake of that loss.
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Pelham Together’s Melissa Ronan shares some hard-earned wisdom as the mother of three….embrace the struggle! Kids will inevitably struggle -- socially, academically, athletically, emotionally. How should we,
as parents, deal with our children’s struggles? We need to expect them, to accept them, and to
adapt them into valuable lessons.
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