Mental Health Awareness Month With Family Nurse Practitioner Sarah Gustafson
May is Mental Health Awareness Month.
At BIO Girls, we are committed to helping girls learn about and improve their mental wellness. In fact, mental wellness is one of the four key pillars of the BIO Girls program. During the month of May, BIO Girls Director of Programming and Research, Beth Salafia, will be discussing mental health and wellness topics that are relevant to parents and adolescents in our community.
Sarah is a Family Nurse Practitioner. She provides clinical care including mental health care at Student Health Services on the University of North Dakota campus. She has over 18 years of health care experience, and is passionate about mental well-being and educating others on recognizing signs and symptoms of mental illness and looking at all available treatment options. Sarah is a past BIO Girls Mentor and a member of the TEARS* Advisory Board at Altru Health System.
*TEARS stands for "Together we educate about the realities of suicide."
This episode covers depression and anxiety.
See below for a few highlights and the link to the full episode.
Rates of depression and anxiety have doubled in recent years. Look for major disruptions in your child’s routines to indicate depression or anxiety.
Social relationships are very important in mental health.
Social isolation can also be the result of exclusion. Now, this is a tough thing to navigate as a parent. Again, working with your child or teen on social skill building and helping them to learn how to reach out to others and build relationships.
Treatment options for anxiety and depression include both:
Pharmacological options: medicine or counseling
Non-pharmacological options: sleep, nutrition, social relationships, positive self-talk, mindfulness
Thank you, Sarah!