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MHA Youth Day in Beaver promotes awareness of mental health issues

Beaver County Times (PA) - 10/21/2014

Oct. 21--BEAVER -- Youngsters and their families delighted in activities this weekend at a local park that also offered information about youth mental health issues.

As the education and children's advocate at the Mental Health Association of Beaver County, Teresa Popp has been passionate about spreading awareness of youth mental health issues for more than five years now, but she said there still is a stigma attached to such designations.

"I think there needs to be more public awareness," Popp said. "A more positive perspective. Mental illness can affect anyone. ... It even affects children."

With that in mind, Popp came up with an idea three months ago and organized the first-ever MHA Youth Day on Saturday in Beaver'sIrvine Park. The event brought together numerous community resources for families who might not otherwise know where to go when dealing with a child with a mental illness.

"We want to bring the families their points of contact in the community," Popp said.

The day also featured live music from local youth bands, face-painting and a K-9 demonstration from the Beaver County K-9 Unit.

"(Teresa) does this every day with the work that she does with schools and advocacy," MHA Executive Director Joe Cook said. "It's almost incredible what (people) don't know exists for them."

Other than major health care providers, Beaver County Family Behavioral Resources, Value Behavioral Health and Beaver County Behavioral Health's Early Intervention Services are programs that are readily available to community members.

"These are the types of programs that we're bringing to parents and children in order to help them understand that you have a resource to go to or a place to go to," Cook said. "You have somebody that you can turn to. That's what we're doing."

On a larger scale, 4 million children and adolescents suffer from a serious mental illness across the nation, according to the National Association of Mental Illness' (NAMI) Children & Adolescent Action Center, and only 20 percent of those youths are identified and receive mental health services each year.

Some more common mental health issues include anxiety disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and pervasive behavior disorders. Failing to diagnose and treat such cases could result in developmental and social problems, especially in school.

"I'm trying to expand mental health programming from the mental health perspective," Popp said. "One of the issues that's a great deal is the bullying that goes on."

Conversely, the narrative that mental health illnesses make one more susceptible to committing crime is one Cook fiercely objects to.

"Here's what bothers me: Every time there's a shooting. Every time there's a negative event. The first thing you hear is he or she had a mental health problem," Cook said. "What that means to the general public is these people with mental health problems do all this.

"Ninety-nine percent of the people that I deal with are more likely to be a victim of crime than commit a crime."

In a recent study published by the American Psychological Association, people with a serious mental illness committed only 7.5 percent of crime out of the 429 crimes committed and 143 offenders that participated.

"Quite frankly, when you get to the area of stigma with mental health, this is a mountain that we're still climbing, and we'll keep climbing until we get over the damn mountain," Cook said.

The MHA provides services to as many as 700 people each year, and those numbers are up, according to Cook.

"They're just simply in recovery and trying to get their lives back," Cook said.

In addition to youth and parent services, the MHA provides programs for people of all ages suffering from mental health illnesses, including a representative payee program, social rehabilitation and support groups.

The MHA will host a bullying and cyber bullying presentation for parents from 6 to 8 p.m.Nov. 13 at the agency's office at 105 Brighton Ave., Second Floor, in Rochester. Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General education and outreach specialist Phillip L. Little will be the speaker.

For more information about the MHA and all its offerings visit the official website at www.mhabc.org.

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(c)2014 the Beaver County Times (Beaver, Pa.)

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