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In recognition of mental health awareness month, El Camino Health has highlighted a youth therapy program that has resources available to help families detect and address anxiety and depression in their children.
“We want our youth to access mental health early so that they don’t get to a point of suffering and to the point of hopelessness or thinking about suicide,” said Jennifer Zumarraga, medical director of adolescent and child psychiatry at El Camino Health, in an online media interview.
In 2009, El Camino Health launched an intensive outpatient therapy program for youth called ASPIRE (After School Program Interventions and Resiliency Education). The program helps young people, between the ages of 11 and 25 years old, struggling with anxiety and depression and has a separate track for youth with substance abuse challenges.
The program emerged in response to a series of community tragedies in the early 2000s related to youth suicide, Zumarraga said. At the time, there were not many mental health resources available for young people. The ASPIRE program aimed to change that by helping youth develop coping skills in crisis moments.
Since then, the program has expanded from Mountain View to other parts of the Bay Area, including Los Gatos where a new ASPIRE clinic opened last month.
The ASPIRE program, which runs for eight to 10 weeks at a time, provides support in areas of distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, mindfulness and emotional regulation. It teaches coping skills through individual and group therapy, paired with expressive art and recreation activities.
The program also helps parents communicate better with their children, Zumarraga said, adding that they are the main resource for their kids while at home.
Validation is another key component of the program and is used to promote positive behavior changes, according to Carrie Shulman, an El Camino Health outpatient manager who also discussed the ASPIRE program in a media interview. This approach is particularly effective for adolescents, she said, noting that their emotional regulation “isn’t the greatest” at this developmental stage.
Adolescence is a time when parents often struggle to support their children and validation can help parents “get their kids to do things that they want them to do in a way that feels good for everybody,” Shulman said.
These strategies have become even more important in recent years with an upsurge in social media use. Shulman identified screen addiction as particularly detrimental to young people’s mental health, with cases of teens not able to function at home or at school because of their dependence on their phones.
In March, Zumarraga spoke with this news organization about the state of young people’s mental health, soon after the Silicon Valley Health Index came out with an annual report, stating that young adults, between the ages of 18 to 29 years, had reported a greater prevalence of anxiety and depression (29%) as compared to those who were older (19%) last year.
The findings were consistent with Zumarraga’s clinical observations, she said, noting that there are a lot of stressors affecting young adults, as it is a time of great transition for them.
Like Shulman, Zumarraga identified social media as a big factor in mental health challenges, not just for young adults but also for teens, who are especially impacted by unrealistic expectations and images promoted by social media, as well as cyberbullying.
Communication is key to addressing these issues, Zumarraga said, which also can help decrease the stigma and shame often associated with mental health challenges.
“I can’t stress that enough, just bringing awareness to others about depression or anxiety. If you’re noticing any changes or depressed mood in someone, talking to them and reaching out to them, those are opportunities to provide education,” she said, referring to programs like ASPIRE.
Help is available
Any person who is feeling depressed, troubled or suicidal can call 988, the mental health crisis hotline, to speak with a crisis counselor. In Santa Clara County, interpretation is available in 200 languages. Spanish speakers can also call 888-628-9454. People can reach trained counselors at Crisis Text Line by texting RENEW to 741741.
