Make Mental Health a Priority for You and Your Child

The pandemic has highlighted the enormous challenges our kids face today.  For kids, with everything from school pressures to social media to extracurricular activities, life can feel hard.  However, ensuring their mental health can often be achieved by something as simple as intentionally talking to your kids. Parents showing interest and being involved can be substantial. Doing so will allow kids to open up to topics of conversation – even tough conversations – in a safe environment.

It’s not just about being there for your kids though, parents and caregivers must also ensure their own mental health.  According to Dr. Anat Geva, a Clinical Psychologist at the HealthONE Behavioral Health and Wellness Center, there are some tips to care for yourself so that you can care for others:

1. Put the oxygen mask on yourself first – you can’t help someone when you’re gasping for air. Sleep, eat nutritiously and regular exercise in addition to social engagement can do wonders to recharge your batteries.
2. Know your limits – knowing when to say ‘no’ to things that you value less allows you to say ‘yes’ to things that are more important to you.
3. Expand your sense of self so that there is more to your day and identity in addition to being a caregiver.
4. Take breaks – schedule these if you can. During these breaks, do things that make you happy and have nothing to do with your caregiving duties.
5. Connect with like-minded people who are positive and who are supportive.

The HealthONE Behavioral Health and Wellness Center is committed to providing expert care and comprehensive support for patients of all ages with mental health needs. We believe this kind of health care should be accessible and convenient, which is why we provide locations throughout metro Denver, including Aurora, Centennial, Denver and Littleton. Our newest location in Aurora at Saddle Rock provides intensive outpatient programs for children (9-11) and adolescents/teens (12-17).

The newly opened program at Saddle Rock is a one of its kind in the region and provides an intermediate level of care for children and adolescents with needs too complex for individual therapy alone, but who do not require inpatient care.  The unique program for children and adolescents ages 9-17 is physician-led and includes art therapists, behavioral analysts, behavioral health technicians, certified addiction and mental health counselors, discharge planners, licensed social workers, music therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, physicians and nurses, psychologists, recreational therapists, staff psychiatrists and nurses.

This intensive outpatient program (IOP) is designed to help patients ages 9-17 who are affected by:

Depression and/or anxiety	Difficulty regulating feelings
Management of daily living skills	Short attention span, inability to concentrate on tasks
Medication management and compliance	School failure
Self-injury	Substance abuse

Participants attend a minimum of three sessions per week to learn how to achieve a healthy life balance. Sessions are available four days a week, with flexibility for involvement in school and extracurricular activities when appropriate. Our intensive outpatient program may include:

Structured therapy	Interpersonal effectiveness training and life skills
Cognitive behavioral therapy	Group-based therapy
Dialectical behavioral therapy	Individual counseling interventions
Trauma-informed therapy

Make mental health a priority for you and your child. 

Learn more: HealthONEcares.com/balancedwellness or

schedule an assessment and consultation by calling 844-556-2012