Youth in crisis are at risk of self-harm, depression, and suicidal thoughts. These problems can impact their ability to work, go to school, and maintain healthy relationships.
Provide reassurance and support, keeping explanations developmentally appropriate. Vet information and have a critical eye to avoid misinformation. Provide safe spaces where youth can share their feelings.
Trauma-Informed Care
The trauma-informed care (TIC) framework is an effective way to support people who use behavioral health services. TIC aims to help agencies recognize that trauma likely affects many of the consumers they serve; to acknowledge that some standard and unexamined practices can be retraumatizing; to promote an understanding that trauma is multidimensional and affects the whole person.
Using a TIC approach, prevention, mental health, and substance abuse programs can incorporate client safety and self-care skills training, provide opportunities for client choice and empowerment, and offer psychoeducation about the relationship between trauma and mental health and substance abuse problems. This helps clients to understand how trauma continues to impact their lives.
Agencies can also create avenues of professional development and support for their staff in order to address trauma awareness, prevention, and treatment. This includes debriefing processes, employee assistance, referrals for client psychological evaluations, and the incorporation of a trauma-informed culture into organizational policies. This will allow for an environment in which all consumer needs are met and where the focus is on promoting the healing process.
Personalized Care
Many youths are in need of treatment outside of a hospital setting, especially when their mental health is in crisis. In addition to addressing their symptoms, some of the most effective services offer holistic and individualized care.
Personalised support aims to improve people’s experience of mental health and wellbeing, helps join up care across local communities and reduces pressure on stretched NHS services. It also recognises the role of carers, including young people’s families and friends.
Some ESTs seek to change the environments in which young people live, such as their schools, family, and peer groups. Using treatment principles, they leverage the youth’s strengths in these environments to address their symptoms and reduce delinquency or other negative outcomes (e.g., Treatment Foster Care Oregon and Multisystemic Therapy; Henggeler & Schaeffer, 2010). This approach is often more effective than traditional outpatient treatment. Moreover, it can help to create safer discharge plans and ensure that youths have access to the right resources and support after leaving a facility.
Stabilization
A crisis can be a dangerous time for youth, who are more likely to experience feelings of sadness and hopelessness, as well as suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Rates of these symptoms have increased significantly over the past 10 years and are often exacerbated by factors such as poverty, lack of access to care, and social isolation.
To address these challenges, states are exploring how to expand crisis receiving and stabilization facilities as part of a comprehensive system of community-based behavioral health programs, services and supports. These facilities are designed to provide a higher level of safety and treatment for youth in need than is available through home and community-based options.
Stabilization is an important first step on the road to recovery for youth in crisis, helping them gain physical and mental stability and setting a foundation for progress during additional treatments. To learn more, see our fact sheet on stabilization for youth in crisis.
Recovery
Youth are often at the forefront of social movements, and they are also among the most vulnerable groups in crisis. They may be victims of violence or perpetrators of it. They are easily influenced and can become radicalized, making them susceptible to precipitating, fueling or prolonging crises and conflict.
Recovery involves an individual’s commitment to restoring his or her health and well-being and reaching personal goals. It includes a process of change and transformation that is rooted in hope, gratitude, and self-redefinition. It is a person-driven process that encompasses a wide range of services and supports including but not limited to medical care, housing, nutrition, education, vocational training, employment, support groups, primary healthcare, complementary and alternative services, faith, spirituality, creativity, community involvement, transportation, and social networks. It is a journey that begins and ends with hope. It is a process that can, will, and does happen. Recovery is a reality. It happens every day. It is a choice.