Youth, Bipolar, Parent Screenings

Adolescent 

When we think about cancer, heart disease, or diabetes, we don’t wait years to treat them. We start way before Stage 4. We begin with prevention. And when people are in the first stage of those diseases, and have a persistent cough, high blood pressure, or high blood sugar, we try immediately to reverse these symptoms.

This is what we should be doing when people have serious mental illnesses, too. When they first begin to experience symptoms such as loss of sleep, feeling tired for no reason, feeling low, feeling anxious, or hearing voices, we should act.

Youth Screening: http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/mental-health-screen/youth

Bipolar

Bipolar disorder, is an illness involving one or more episodes of serious mania and depression. Sometimes a person might only experience symptoms of mania. If a person only experiences feelings of sadness, this is considered depression.  During episodes of bipolar disorder, a person’s mood can swing from excessively “high” and/or irritable to sad and hopeless, with periods of a normal mood in between. More than 3.3 million American adults (1.7%) suffer from bipolar disorder in a given year. (KESSLER, R. C., PETUKHOVA, M., SAMPSON, N. A., ZASLAVSKY, A. M., & WITTCHEN, H.-U. (2012))

Bipolar disorder typically begins in adolescence or early adulthood and continues throughout life. It is often not recognized as an illness and people who have it may suffer needlessly for years.

Bipolar Screening: http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/mental-health-screen/mood-disorder

Parent Screening

The Parent Screen is for parents of young people to determine if their child’s emotions, attention, or behaviors might be signs of a problem.

This screening test looks at disorders from anxiety to depression and attention and conduct problems.

Parent Screening: http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/mental-health-screen/parents

*This screen is not meant to be a diagnosis.  Having emotional, attentional, or behavioral problems is different than having a diagnosable mental illness.  In addition, emotional, attentional, or behavioral problems can be caused by other factors like recent life changes, trauma, or health problems.  Only a trained professional, such as a doctor or a mental health provider, can make this determination. Taking time to get the right diagnosis and care of mental health conditions in children is important. Printing out or emailing the results of this screening and showing them to a mental health professional can help in getting the right treatment.