PREVENTING SELF-HARM

In an ideal world, a teenager will grow up living with their biological parents, is happy, self-regulated and living a care-free, stress-free lifestyle. But, as everyone knows, the world is not ideal. What pushes a child from being care-free and happy to self-harming and contemplating completing suicide?

For parents, legal guardians and caregivers, there are often warning signs indicating your child may be entering into a dangerous situation. If your child has a change in clothing styles, friends, music or experiences mood swings or possibly noticing the child with a cut on their arm here and there may indicate the child is considering harming themselves.

‘There are a number of things that contribute to a client getting to the point that they are engaging in high risk behaviors such as self-harm and suicidal behaviors,” wrote Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health (C&A) Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) Program Manager Stacey Pancher Rippey. “Such behaviors are most commonly the result of feelings of sadness/depression, distress, anxiety or confusion. Teenagers have unique challenges that stem from the teen culture and the increasing stressors associated with social media. In recent months, there has also been a huge shift in their lives with the rise of the COVID pandemic which has resulted in increased isolation and constant uncertainties, which is further effecting the social and emotional health of youth.”

For parents who are noticing these tendencies in their child, help is available through C&A’s DBT Group sessions.

Pancher Rippey said clients are usually referred to the DBT Group through their C&A provider. We also welcome referrals from outside our agency. “If a referral is made from outside the agency, the client must receive an intake assessment with a C&A assessor, which would provide background about the client’s symptoms as well as document medical necessity for the service. The C&A assessor then refers the client to DBT group. The client must be working with an individual therapist to be referred to and participate in DBT group as this is a vital part of the treatment model.”

A typical DBT Group consists of no more than eight participants. The DBT group runs three days a week for three hours each day and generally runs for four weeks. Youth ages 13 and up are appropriate for the group, with the oldest group members being around age 20. Groups sessions are run at C&A’s Plain office and the agency is seeking to start a group at our Alliance location.

WHAT DOES A DBT GROUP SESSION LOOK AND FEEL LIKE?

If your child is placed in a DBT Group, what will the experience be like? Every group session is different based on the age of the participants, the number of participants and if participants are male or female, but what doesn’t change is the skills that are learned and emotions that are shared. Pancher Rippey provided insight on a session.

Participants are encouraged to focus on their strengths and to identify areas with which they struggle.
Participants are discouraged from sharing any intense emotional experiences that would include cutting and suicide attempts to prevent members of the group from being overwhelmed or traumatized.
Participants sharing suicidal tendencies may trigger other groups members who are struggling with urges to self-harm or attempt suicide themselves.
Group members who have a desire to discuss such incidents of self-harm or suicidal behaviors are encouraged to discuss this with their individual clinician.
The DBT Group lead will maintain contact with client’s individual therapist to make sure that any such needs or concerns are addressed in individual treatment.

WHAT SKILLS WILL YOUR TEENAGER LEARN?

If your child is part of a DBT group, what skills will he/she learn to help them foster resiliency skills to help cope with life’s challenges? Participants in the group report having few, if any close or trusting relationships, they often feel alone and misunderstood by others and feel that they have no support as a result of their inability to appropriately manage their emotions. The child’s difficulty with appropriately communicating with others and often acting out these emotions often leads to further feelings of isolation and distress.

Participants will learn about distress tolerance and mindfulness to encourage more healthy ways of coping with intense emotions and to encourage more positive ways of outwardly responding to the world around them as a result of such intense emotions.
Participants in group allow group members to feel connected and understood as the group offers the opportunity for these clients to come together and see that others are having similar experiences.
Participants like the experience of being able to meet and share struggles with others like themselves and indicate that it decreases feelings of loneliness and isolation.
Participants are encouraged to share how they are using their DBT skills outside of group sessions and how they are experiencing success in doing so.
Participants are also able to engage in processing with the group around difficulties they are having with using these skills as well as to problem solve with fellow group members around how to overcome these difficulties.
Participants can provide meaningful encouragement and also serve as role models in demonstrating positive change based on their use of learned skills.

The client’s individual therapist will follow up with the client regarding skills they are learning in DBT group. The role of the individual therapist is to encourage and reinforce the continued use of these skills throughout the clients group experience and beyond.

WHAT HAPPENS AT THE END OF THE GROUP SESSION?

At the completion of group, each group member is to have the tools that they need to be to successfully manage emotions in a way that is safe as well as in ways that are socially acceptable, including the ability to communicate in an effective way with others to get their needs met.

Pancher Rippey said due to the intensity of the group itself and the amount of material that is covered as well as the severity of symptoms being treated, some group members who continue to struggle with symptoms, are encouraged to return for a second round of DBT Group. Group members who are able to repeat the group a second time, demonstrate a better mastery of the skills and are able to more thoroughly absorb material that they may not have fully grasped the first time around.

A PARENT’S ROLE?

Parents are encouraged to communicate with the group leader about any concerns that they or the client may have as the client is attending group. Parents are encouraged to attend the final group session to get a snapshot of what their child has learned during their participation in DBT Group and so that they can actively encourage skill utilization at home and become more active in their child’s treatment.

If you suspect your child is experiencing self-harming or suicidal ideations, please contact C&A’s Stacey Pancher Rippey at 330-470-4061. C&A’s DBT Group is run by staff member Jordan Kester and Kayla Johnson.

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STARK COUNTY SCHOOLS MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS

16 Apr, 2024

The sixth annual Stark County Schools Mental Health Awareness Week is May 6-10 Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health (C&A), CommQuest Services and Pathway Caring for Children will partner to bring positive mental health awareness to more than 53,000 students and 7,000 support and administrative staff in all 18 Stark County School districts.

UNDERSTANDING RACE IN SOCIETY AND THERAPY: CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS’ EXPERIENCES

By Chris Alpert • 16 Nov, 2023

In the film, I’m Not Racist… Am I? as introduced and explored in first of this three-part blog post series, the participants engaged in multiple workshops that address race and racism. Interpersonally, the group of students grapple with their own differences and similarities, which impact the content and emotions they share with each other. There are several moments in the film that demonstrate the clear differences in the participants’ understanding of race. In the first workshop, the students were exposed to the idea that all white people are inherently racist seeing as American society was founded on principles meant to support white people (see more on structural racism here, here, and here for further understanding). Several white students in the film became emotional during that workshop. Most students remained quiet. Following this workshop, a black student and a white student were filmed independently of each other in their own homes and discussed the workshop and what they learned with their families. The white student discussed the differences between structural racism and bigotry with her mother and struggled to identify with the principles taught in the training. The black student stated to his mother how almost everything spoken in that workshop applied to him. The student further discussed his feelings by stating how overt racism is and yet how “subliminal” it is at the same time. How can something be so in your face and yet under your feet simultaneously? I immediately reflected on the dialectic of something being so clear and yet so vague. The film continued to grapple with student differences. At the beginning of the film, one white male student discussed with his mother how he feels that all individuals, if they apply themselves wholeheartedly, have the same chance of success regardless of their skin, gender, sexuality or other demographic factors. As a white man myself, I must confess that when I was in high school, I had the same mindset. How could it be different? Especially when I was reading mythic bootstrap literature in high school classes. Sure, the harder you work the more you deserve, but that statement does not work for all Americans. I had not accounted for racial factors that inhibit the growth of others, not to mention socio-economic factors, nationalities, citizenship status, gender and age. I continued to reflect on these statements and connected them to my experience in high school in New York City. In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement responding to the murder of George Floyd, multiple private progressive schools in New York, including the one I went to, suffered scrutiny from students and alumni who identify as black, indigenous people of color (BIPOC). Multiple Instagram accounts surfaced with the handle “BLACK AT [school name].” I read the posts in 2020, and again before writing this post, and remembered feeling horrified knowing these acts of racism, bigotry and microaggressions happened all around me. This was subliminal to me, yet overt to others.

UNDERSTANDING RACE IN SOCIETY AND THERAPY

By Chris Alpert • 01 Nov, 2023

When I first came to Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health (C&A), I was unsure what to expect regarding race and diversity at both the organization and in Ohio. Having grown up in Harlem in New York City and attended graduate school in San Diego, CA, I had heard stereotypes about Ohio, specifically that Ohio was a very white state. At C&A during orientation, we discussed the role of first impressions for clients and discussed how the front desk staff are considered, “the directors of first impressions.” I loved this term. After orientation, I wondered, why we didn’t discuss demographic factors such as race and gender? We generally pick those up upon first impressions and have implicit biases and judgements in those first impressions. It was odd to me that we did not discuss these demographic factors. As the summer and fall progressed, I noticed that there were few discussions about race as it impacts C&A and the kids and families we serve. I noticed the number of white staff at C&A and reflected on my own privilege as a white man who can easily avoid the discussion of race because I do not suffer discrimination on an individual or systemic level. I reflected on my first experiences discussing race in high school. When I was in high school at the Calhoun School, my father received a grant to create a film and workshops that addressed race and racism seen through the eyes of high schoolers in New York City. My dad had completed a training hosted by the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. This training opened my father’s eyes to his own white privilege and motivated him to teach kids, specifically white kids, about their privilege earlier in life. I first saw the film, I’m Not Racist… Am I? (see more here ), toward the end of high school after it had come out in 2014.

THE DANGERS OF MARIJUANA USE

By Dr. Karita Nussbaum • 20 Oct, 2023

Ohio is at a crossroads once again with marijuana on the ballot next month. The following article is from Every Brain Matters, an organization that believes that the THC in marijuana is a dangerous and addictive drug. Every Brain Matters is a trusted source of educational material based on the latest scientific evidence. One of the major criticisms of expanded marijuana legalization is that it makes the drug more accessible to minors. A brand-new study just published in JAMA Pediatrics shows that it has become a valid concern.

LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE – SOUTHERN NIGHTS: ILLUMINATING HOPE AND MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS FOR THE YOUNGER GENERATION

By Savannah Okray • 11 Sep, 2023

For the last few months, C&A has been diligently preparing for the 18th Annual Let Your Light Shine – Southern Nights presented by The Repository by organizing auction items, printing tickets and using their creativity to make sure that eventgoers feel as though they are walking into an evening in the south, with barrels and lanterns to boot. The committee, led by chair Jen Frey and co-chair Molly Sperling and auction chair Stacy Remark are hard at work, it’s crucial to remember that this event raises awareness and dollars to support the agency’s programs and services amid suicide prevention and awareness month.

GROWING WITH YOUR CHILD AS A PARENT

By Dan Mucci • 30 Aug, 2023

I have grown up as a parent for the last four and half years! As luck would have it, a little more than four and a half years ago, I started at Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health (C&A) in the mission advancement department with my responsibilities being the marketing and development coordinator. Some might say, I did a good job of raising my two kids, who were teenagers at the time. But, boy, if I had known of the services C&A offered and even some of the parenting tools for my toolbox, parenting might have been even better.

WHAT DID YOU DID THIS SUMMER?

By Dr. Karita Nussbaum • 09 Aug, 2023

This summer I attended a Marijuana Prevention conference near Denver, Colorado. I was curious to know what the locals were saying after 10 years of legalization. The speakers included a Denver Police Commander, school resource officer, medical doctor, residential treatment program CEO, deputy from the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), Executive Director of the National Drug and Alcohol Screening Association and others related to educating the community and defending children’s rights. In the audience were parents, professionals and advocates for children from all over the United States. The conference was geared toward the protection of children.

FROM DARKNESS TO DISCOVERY: MY COLLEGE JOURNEY OF SELF-TRANSFORMATION

By Savannah Okray • 24 Jul, 2023

When I arrived on campus, I tried to immerse myself in college culture. I joined a sorority, the speech and debate team, and two other clubs which were extensive time commitments, factoring in no time to relax or focus on bettering my mental health. This lack of attention to my mentality, combined with my low self-esteem that prevented me from making friends led me down a dark hole in which some days I thought it would be better if I wasn’t here. About four weeks into school (at Ohio University), I realized that I had to do something, as I knew it was not safe for me to continue down the road I had been on. From there I moved home and attended an inpatient treatment center where I worked with counselors for five hours a day, learning coping skills and other ways in which I could help mend my suffering mental health. Through the lessons I learned I was able to get the skill set and help I needed and returned to school three weeks later.

THIS IS WHY WE CELEBATE

By Mary Kreitz • 19 Jun, 2023

This time of year there are a lot of celebrations happening in our communities – Memorial Day, Pride Festivals, Juneteenth celebrations, 4th of July and many more. These events aren’t just frivolous excuses to have parties, backyard barbecues or festivals. They are important cultural and civic events we need these celebrations.