The effort seeks to raise awareness about the importance of children’s mental health and that positive mental health is essential to a child’s healthy development from birth. Last year, the national theme focused on building resilience in young children dealing with trauma.

Communities around the country participated by holding their own Awareness Day events, focusing either on the national theme, or adapting the theme to the populations they serve.

www.samhsa.gov/children

New this year, CCPS will host a silent auction offering works donated by art students and art teachers, the proceeds to benefit a local non-profit organization, Beacon Tree Foundation.  

The Beacon Tree Foundation provides scholarships to young adults who are diagnosed with mental health issues. Many of these children are sent to expensive schools throughout the nation, while their families spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for admission costs, quality patient care and road mapping the resources that can best help their child. As these children are ready to begin college, the financial burden can be too much for families to bear. Beacon Tree and their advisory board allow the youth in our region to receive an education and give back to their community.

 The chronic underfunding of child, adolescent and family mental health services and a related undersupply of specialized clinicians creates a scarcity of children’s mental health services. 

•  One in five children suffers from mental issues or substance abuse.
•   Almost one-third of six to twelve year old children diagnosed with major depression will develop bipolar disorders within a few years.
•  For every older teen and young adult who takes his or her own life, 100-200 of their peers attempts suicide. Between 500,000 and 1 million young people attempt suicide each year.

 There is little doubt that the families of these children are burdened with the cost of receiving the care they need. Time off from work, specialized facilities, and hefty medical bills stress families to the brink.  Often college, vocational school or any secondary education is out of the question.  However, it is imperative these young people have the same opportunities to receive an education and become productive members of our workforce.

Thomas Leahy, founder and director of Beacon Tree Foundation points out, “you only have to look to the Virginia Tech tragedy to understand the gravity of not addressing children’s mental health.”

Beacon Tree Foundation has partnered with the Virginia Treatment Center for Children and other mental health professionals in the Richmond metro area to create a gateway for families to find the resources and assistance they need to help their children combat their issues.  The Children’s Mental Health Resource Center will provide an entry point for families in Central Virginia that provide a detailed review of the mental health system, custom treatment plans for patient care, and links to families with similar mental health issues. This support network will allow families to go on-line through a custom web-portal and find convenient, live support at a physical location.

The mental health system can be cavernous and confusing, especially for families dealing with immediate crisis situations. There are over ten local organizations that have agreed to work together to build an alliance of quality mental health care for our youngest citizens and their families who suffer from mental illness. The National Alliance for Mental Health, Voices for Virginia’s Children, Mental Health America of Virginia, Virginia Federation of Families, Psychiatric Society of Virginia, and the Virginia Association of Community Service Boards, VCUHS Department of Psychiatry’s Virginia Treatment Center for Children, and the Beacon Tree Foundation are proud to work together to provide access to information, support systems, and excellent diagnostic.

CCPS places a premium on community service and encourages students to volunteer through a variety of in school service clubs, and other school sponsored opportunities.  Lin Ferrell, Visual Arts Instructional Specialist for CCPS, commented, “Chesterfield County Public Schools is placing greater emphasis on community service with our students and this auction is a wonderful opportunity for them to help a local charity that is doing something important for our community.”

       The Arts and Sciences Festival will be held at Clover Hill High School this year (13301 Kelly Green Lane, Midlothian, VA 23112).  The opening ceremony is at 10:30 am Saturday morning.  Hours are 10: am to 4:30 pm Saturday and 12:00 noon to 4:30 pm Sunday.  The closing ceremony will be a 3pm Sunday. 

Beacon Tree Foundation is proud to have Bon Secours Health Systems as the major sponsor of the event.

The following information is taken from the National Asssociation of Mental Illness (NAMI) web site and provides a good perspective on the serious state of children’s mental health.

The reports by the U.S. Surgeon General¹ and the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health offer great hope to the millions of children and adolescents living with mental illness and their families.² Through appropriate identification, evaluation, and treatment, children and adolescents living with mental illness can lead productive lives. They can achieve success in school, in work and in family life. Nonetheless, the overwhelming majority of children with mental disorders fail to be identified, lack access to treatment or supports and thus have a lower quality of life. Stigma persists and millions of young people in this country are left behind. 

Prevalence of Child and Adolescent Mental Disorders

• Four million children and adolescents in this country suffer from a serious mental disorder that causes significant functional impairments at home, at school and with peers. Of children ages 9 to 17, 21 percent have a diagnosable mental or addictive disorder that causes at least minimal impairment.¹
• Half of all lifetime cases of mental disorders begin by age 14. Despite effective treatments, there are long delays, sometimes decades, between the first onset of symptoms and when people seek and receive treatment. An untreated mental disorder can lead to a more severe, more difficult to treat illness and to the development of co-occurring mental illnesses.³
• In any given year, only 20 percent of children with mental disorders are identified and receive mental health services.⁴

Consequences of Untreated Mental Disorders in Children and Adolescents

Suicide

• Suicide is the third leading cause of death in youth ages 15 to 24. More teenagers and young adults die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza and chronic lung disease combined.⁵ Over 90 percent of children and adolescents who commit suicide have a mental disorder.⁶
• In the United States in the year 2002, almost 4,300 young people ages 10 to 24 died by suicide.⁷
• States spend nearly $1 billion annually on medical costs associated with completed suicides and suicide attempts by youth up to 20 years of age.⁸

School Failure

• Approximately 50% of students age 14 and older who are living with a mental illness drop out of high school. This is the highest dropout rate of any disability group.⁹

Juvenile and Criminal Justice Involvement

• Youth with unidentified and untreated mental disorders also tragically end up in jails and prisons. According to a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health—the largest ever undertaken—an alarming 65 percent of boys and 75 percent of girls in juvenile detention have at least one mental illness.¹⁰ We are incarcerating youth living with mental illness, some as young as eight years old, rather than identifying their conditions early and intervening with appropriate treatment.

Higher Health Care Utilization

• When children with untreated mental disorders become adults, they use more health care services and incur higher health care costs than other adults. Left untreated, childhood disorders are likely to persist and lead to a downward spiral of school failure, limited or non-existent employment opportunities and poverty in adulthood. No other illnesses harm so many children so seriously.

Early Identification, Evaluation and Treatment are Essential to Recovery and Resiliency

• Research shows that early identification and intervention can minimize the long-term disability of mental disorders.²
• Mental disorders in children and adolescents are real and can be effectively treated, especially when identified and treated early.
• Research has yielded important advances in the development of effective treatment for children and adolescents living with mental illness. Early identification and treatment prevents the loss of critical developmental years that cannot be recovered and helps youth avoid years of unnecessary suffering.¹¹
• Early and effective mental health treatment can prevent a significant proportion of delinquent and violent youth from future violence and crime.¹² It also enables children and adolescents to succeed in school, to develop socially and to fully experience the developmental opportunities of childhood.

July 2010

¹ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  Mental Health:  A Report of the Surgeon General.  Rockville,
MD:  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health, 1999.

Their website is www.natsap.org.

They can assist in find the right program to help the child.   ”Choosing the right place for your child is an important step in getting the help he or she needs. To many parents it appears there are a multitude of options that can seem overwhelming. Others may feel there are no options and don’t know where to turn.

The members of the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs offer a variety of different schools and programs. For further definition of the facilities available to you, please go to our NATSAP Program Definitions. 

Our members are located in over 30 states, east to west, north to south. The ages served range from under 12 years old up to 25 years old. Your options will include the age range the school/program serves as well as gender specific or coed.”

 Six months earlier, our daughter had been a straight A student, wining the presidential scholars award as she graduated eight grade.   She was a starting defensive back on a U-16 girls travel soccer team, ranked among the top 10 in the state.  But it was a house of cards.   Hammered by depression, which began earlier on in eight grade, She finally gave into it late fall her freshman year of high school.   No longer able to cope, anti-depressants and counseling ineffective, she dropped out of school by that Christmas and we struggled to get her into home-bound, hoping she could finish the year as we tried different doctors, different counselors and different medications.  By March she’d been in and out a short-term psychiatric ward three times, having attempted suicide on several occasions.  There would be no home-bound study.   My wife and I had every sharp instrument and every bottle of medicine under lock and key.  We took turns leaving the house.  And now completely isolated, she focused only on incessant macabre music and gothic dress.   She became increasingly violent, not only to herself but to those in her family.  She physically attacked her mother, her sister and made no qualms about her desire to see us dead.  We were spat on and cursed at regularly.  

 We feverishly began to explore alternatives, knowing we needed help.  Through a educational consultant, referred to us by her therapist, we found Island View RTC.  The reports were stellar and their documented results with troubled teens, miraculous.  We began a dialog with the staff and looking for financial assistance.   Our insurance coverage was meager at best and if used, it would invoke a higher daily rate by Island View.  We made inquiries with the state department of education, and spoke with the high school counselors, the mental health professionals we engaged and an administrator at treatment facility in Northern Virginia.  Nobody seemed to have a clue as to how to proceed.  Hints of Medicaid assistance prompted us to look at the eligibility requirements, which lead us to believe that we wouldn’t be considered.  Not one of those many professionals said the words “Comprehensive Service Act.”   After hours of phone calls and research we threw in the towel and applied for an educational loan to cover the extraordinary cost of the Island View treatment facility.   You can’t put a price on your child’s health and we knew our daughter needed to be at Island View.   We had no choice but to take on the $7,500 a month cost.  

 She stayed for 18 months during which time she was escorted back twice for refusing to return after a home visit and running away from the Dulles airport, surfacing two days later in downtown DC.  In August 2006 we transferred her to Auldern Academy, a therapeutic boarding school in Siler City, North Carolina.  There was some financial relief, as Auldern was only $4,500 a month.   Our daughter thrived there, graduating Val Victorian in May 2008 but not without another short stay in a hospital because she went off her medication and became suicidal once more..    

 She is currently attending Lynchburg College and is still on medication for depression, and may be for some time. The prognosis is good but the depression will always be a concern.   

 Unfortunately, these parent’s story is not unique, but it has a happy ending.  There many more stories that don’t.  “Depression is believed to occur in approximately one in seven children.  More than 70 percent of these children or teens do not receive the necessary diagnosis and treatment. 

  A recent report exploring youth risk behaviors from the Centers for Disease Control revealed these statistics: 28.5 percent of all teenagers nationwide felt so sad or hopeless almost daily for more than two weeks they stopped their daily routine; 16.9 percent seriously considered suicide; 13 percent made a suicide plan; and 8.4 percent had actually attempted suicide within the 12 months preceding the survey.

 How do some teens handle depression or anxiety that goes undiagnosed?  They often turn to drugs or alcohol to “numb their pain.”  The CDC report provides disturbing statistics on drug and alcohol use among our young people: 43.3 percent of all high school students had had at least one drink in the last 30 days (prior to the survey), and 25 percent had engaged in episodic heavy drinking.  Furthermore, from 2 to 8.5 percent of high school students had admitted experimenting with drugs and had tried one of the following drugs at least once: cocaine, injected drugs, inhalants, hallucinogens, heroin, methamphetamine, and ecstasy.

 A teen’s method of coping with depression, in addition may be to withdraw, become angry and resentful, or to become destructive to self or others.  Eating disorders may also be seen in depressed teens: The CDC reports that 6.3 percent of youths take diet pills and 4.3 percent vomit or take laxatives. Teens may also turn to self-mutilation like cutting or burning as a way to control the pain in their lives.

 Some teens, like adults, cope with depression by working.  Instead of withdrawing into their bedrooms, video games or televisions, they may become overachievers in school or athletics.  Just like alcoholism, workaholism is a method of avoiding despair and sadness. 

 Unfortunately, adolescents are likely to be even less informed than adults about depression.  Teens are even more vulnerable to falling between the cracks when it comes to diagnosis and treatment

 Once a diagnosis of major depression is made, it is important to determine the severity of the depression and to look for co-existing problems like substance abuse, anxiety, or attention deficit disorder.  These conditions often require referral of the patient and family to health professionals with experience treating adolescents and children.   Some data indicates that patients who are also in therapy tolerate their medications with fewer side effects.  Getting the correct diagnosis, getting the right combination of medication and counseling started, and  achieving remission of symptoms are critical.  As parents, our role is to help our adolescents maintain good communication with their health care providers, to look for opportunities to reduce the stresses they face, to help watch for signs of recurrent depression during and following treatment, and to be their best advocates at home and in the health care system.” (Excerpts from an article by Susanna Wu-Pong, Ph.D., I1l1d David Wu-Pong,M.D. All About Kids Magazine, June 2008)

 As we help our children prepare to face this daunting world, we must also be ready to catch them when they fall, providing the resources, both private and public, to reclaim them.  We  need to focus on assisting families financially to achieve this end because without proper care and facilities, these children might never finish high school let alone go on to college.  

 These privately run programs are very expensive.  Insurance coverage, if available, is limited at best.  For families, the alternative is to turn control of their child over to the system, which usually won’t happen until there is cause.  Because they cannot financially provide the treatment their child requires, they are doomed to watch helplessly as their child becomes institutionalized, imprisoned, or worse, lose their life to suicide or drugs.  Children who could otherwise lead productive successful lives are lost each year.    

 On the pure educational front, the foundation’s mission is to provide a single source of credible educational information, effective resources and pro-active assistance to families to help them provide their children the necessary tools to be successful academically and socially.  The result then, when reaching the college application years, they can compete effectively for admissions and financial assistance. 

 Children are faced with academic and social challenges at a progressively younger age in order to be successful.  The major challenge in preparing a child to lead a successful and productive life is not finding information.  As a culture, we’re drowning in it.  The challenge is rather how to process it.  The family must be able to manage that information, bring a focus to it and make it meaningful to their student.  They must be able to use that information to make good educational and financial decisions.     

 The family must be able to control the process and not let the system take its own course.  There are too many variables and not enough effective communication between families and our educational institutions and governmental agencies.     

 This early pressure on our children to cope academically, socially and sexually at levels they are not emotionally mature enough to handle, as a triggering process, has contributed to the increase in teen depression and it’s associated manifestations of  suicide or self-harm, self-medication through drug or alcohol abuse, and eating disorders. 

 We must be able to provide for all young people who stumble along the way, the ability to access professional intervention — all young people, not just those whose families are wealthy or are  otherwise financially able to access private care.  We must salvage all children and the tremendous potential they represent.

At least two – and, in all but a handful of states, three – forms of court-ordered treatment are authorized by state law. States use different names to describe each form of treatment.

• Emergency hospitalization for evaluation (sometimes called “psychiatric hold” or “pick-up”) in a treatment facility for psychiatric evaluation; typically short intervention of fixed duration (e.g., 72 hours).
• Civil commitment – inpatient. Also labeled differently in different states, civil commitment is a process whereby a judge orders a person with symptoms of mental illness who meets the state’s legal criteria to be held in a hospital beyond the emergency detention period. Civil commitment exists in all states, but the standards that must be met for it to occur vary from state to state. It is essential to know the standards for civil commitment in your own state.
• Civil commitment – outpatient. Assisted outpatient treatment (AOT), which also goes by different names in different states (e.g., outpatient commitment or mandated outpatient treatment), is a process whereby a judge orders a qualifying person with symptoms of mental illness to adhere to a mental health treatment plan while living in the community. AOT laws have been passed in 44 states, but the standards for ordering it vary from state to state. It is essential to know the standards for court-ordered outpatient treatment in your own state. ”

State-by-state information about each form of civil commitment laws, standards and procedures may be found at:  http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/get-help/know-the-laws-in-your-state

http://1in5kids.org/

• ASSUME that any suicide threat is serious and treat it as a danger to the person’s life. A previous suicide attempt increases the likelihood that the person will act on the threat.
• ASK the person in a calm, quiet setting whether he/she is thinking about suicide. Your questions can be indirect (“Do you ever think you should never have been born?”) or direct (“Do you feel like you want to die?”)
• FOLLOW UP if the answer to these general questions is “Yes” and ask about specific suicide plans. When does the person plan to commit suicide? How? Has the person already acquired the means, e.g., pills, gun, etc.
• DETERMINE the imminence of the danger based on the answers to these questions. A college freshman who describes a suicide plan for graduation day in four years is probably not in imminent danger. A college senior who is graduating the next day is. Act accordingly. 
• CONTACT the person’s mental health or medical providers and repeat exactly what the person has told you.
• HIDE all vehicle keys and any means that could be used for self-harm, e.g., medications (including over-the-counter drugs), knives including kitchen knives, guns, ropes. 
• KEEP the person sober. Suicide completers have high rates of positive blood alcohol. Intoxicated people are more likely to attempt suicide using more lethal methods. Be aware that the combination of alcohol and Tylenol can be lethal. Be sure there is no Tylenol available if the person is drinking.
• DO YOUR BEST to persuade the person to get help voluntarily. Dial the hot-line number, drive to the clinic, take a taxi to the ER. Do whatever is necessary to make getting help easy. 

Call 911.

Thanks to the Treatment Advocacy Center for this information.

Voices’ summary of the findings include:

• While some Virginia communities offer kids the comprehensive mental health services they need and deserve, many more do not.
• Across the state, shortages of services mean many kids have long waits for the community-based treatments they need, if the treatments are available at all. 

The recommendations that the report offers were: comprehensive system reform which will result in increased availability of community based services for kids.  You can acces the entire report here .

Each year Beacon Tree Foundation awards five four-year scholarships to high school seniors who are graduating from special therapeutic schools, having successfully overcome their mental or emotional issues and are going on to college.   

Beacon Tree Foundation, as its name implies, is to be a guiding light to nurture growth.  It is our vision to be able to offer grant money to families to keep their children in special programs when they can’t handle it financially, to establish a loan program to offer low-interest K-12 loans to families to finance such programs, and to expand our scholarship program to provide more and larger awards.

“You can’t put a price on your child’s health.”   It’s easily said and almost everyone agrees with the statement, but for many families faced with the daunting cost of residential treatment facilities or therapeutic boarding schools, for their at-risk teenager, the words ring hallow because they don’t have the financial resources or credit ability to back them up.  

 The cost of a residential treatment facility for a high school student is over $80,000 a year and therapeutic boarding schools cost more than a year of college at the most prestigious institution.  On the lower end of the financial spectrum is simple medication and out-patience therapy, a burden still, for low-income families. 

 Insurance pays little if at all and most government programs are extremely underfunded and focused on dealing with those youth that come through the system as an offender or ward. 

 Many families are left with no choice but to watch helplessly as their child implodes due to depression or other mental illness, and takes the family down as well.  The future for so many children is the street, jail, or suicide.  One in five children is suffering from some form of depression or mental illness.   And they put others at risk as well.  According to the CDC, over 70 percent of our young people between the ages of 10 and 22 who lose their lives each year do so as  result of unsafe behavior directly or indirectly associated with depression or other mental illness.  The child that is killed in an automobile accident because the driver was drinking to self-medicate is an example.  How many lost their lives at Virginia Tech due to the metal illness of one student who didn’t get the help he needed?

 Beacon Tree Foundation was formed to address this issue head-on – with students, with parents, with educators and government officials; and through financial assistance for families struggling with an at-risk child.