Children's Mental Health in Essex County
The program called "Families First" of Essex County is a support network for families whose children suffer from mental health issues. I could not find whether or not mental health among children was a predominant issue in this county, however, I think it is an important medical issue among any community. Specifically, I would imagine that rural communities such as Essex County would suffer disproportionately from mental health-related issues given the fact that communication and access to resources is scarce. Indeed, this program was founded in 1992 to provide services to a growing part of the community whose needs were unmet. Families First facilitates opportunities to meet other families whose children have similar emotional or behavioral challenges. They also provide a family support specialist who meets with individual families in their homes and coaches and educates parents on how to deal and manage their children's needs. In addition, they also provide a case worker to prevent residential placement of such children.
As a "local medical expert" I would love to get involved in this program that Essex County has established. I think that the support system is a great way for parents to network with other families and family support specialists. As a physician, I would do my best to screen for emotional and behavioral issues among my younger patients and would strongly advocate this program. I think it is a great preventive program that targets the issue in its infancy, instead of addressing more severe circumstances down the road. While mental health issues are not necessarily preventable, I think that they can be managed in a such a way as to prevent the issues from becoming debilitating. In addition, this program would have a great impact on the community as it would raise awareness about children's mental health and promote greater compassion and support.
This program sounds amazing and I agree that it is very important. Mental health issues is something that I thought of too, as a major issue we would have to deal with as medical directors in schools and colleges. Helping families and those affected understand their illness can help prevent further complications and even death.
ReplyDeleteI have a very strong interest in pediatrics and thus was inclined towards this post in particular. Mental health is such an ignored area of health care and it can be particularly challenging for a parent to learn to navigate with a child. Having programs like this that are dedicated to just helping them learn the system, get the assistance they need, and bringing families together to support each other can really help the parents resurface from their overwhelmed feeling of drowning. It is crucial that health care providers are always area of all the available services, such as this one, so that they can inform the families to ensure they take advantage of such a wonderful and useful service. I really love that they connect families with similar situation. This can have such a remarkable impact for everyone involved as the greatest worry and fear is that feeling of battling something alone.
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