Adolescents

Back-to-School Anxiety in Kids & Teens

Available for Interviews: Dr. Pete Loper

Dr. Pete Loper, MD, MSEd, FAAP, is a triple board-certified physician in pediatrics, psychiatry, and child psychiatry. He is also a professor and executive coach and is dedicated to mental health and wellness advocacy.

What Dr. Loper could say on
Back-to-School Anxiety:

- Not all anxiety is bad. It can be very helpful in supporting healthy adaptations for kids. In times of change, it is normal and expected, but alternatively, there are behaviors that can be more concerning.
- Watch for signs your child may be experiencing anxiety: not getting up for school, not engaging in typical routines, somatic complaints: headache, belly ache as cause for not going to school.

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How Parents Can Handle Back-to-School Anxiety in Their Kids

Available for Interviews: Dr. Pete Loper

What Dr. Loper could say on
Back-to-School Anxiety:

- Not all anxiety is bad. It can be beneficial in supporting healthy adaptations for kids. It is typical and expected in times of change, but alternatively, some behaviors can be more concerning.
- There has been an increase in the number of patients needing mental health services since the pandemic. We have seen an uptick in the Adolescents age group.

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8 Mental Health Activities to Best Support Kids and Teens

Available for Interviews: Dr. Pete Loper

What Dr. Loper could say on
Mental Health Support of Our Children:

- It is important to teach our children about mental health early in life because mental health is health. Human behavior is a manifestation of feelings and thoughts that then elicit specific actions and activities. The epidemic of chronic physical diseases that ail us as a society can be prevented, cured, or managed by lifestyle modification, or by simply changing our behaviors. Therefore, good mental health is a necessity for the consistent and sustained behaviors required for lifelong physical health and overall well-being.
- It’s often challenging to identify a child’s specific mental health needs. Unlike physical health needs, mental health needs are difficult to target because they are often invisible, and hidden inside the individual until disclosed through direct communication or maladaptive behaviors.

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Grades and Self-Esteem in School-Aged Children

Available for Interviews: Dr. Pete Loper

What Dr. Loper could say on
Grades and Self-Esteem:

Consistent with Carol Dweck’s research on “growth mindset,” struggle is a normal part of development. According to John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory, struggle in the context of the approach and exploration of new experiences is the rate-limiting step to healthy human development. Further, both Bowlby and his successor in Attachment research, Mary Ainsworth, identified the relationship between a child and their “experienced others” (parents, teachers) as the fundamental ingredient required to support continued approach and exploration in the context of struggle. Put simply, outcomes such as grades are a manifestation of the process, and your child’s willingness and motivation to engage in the process, i.e. to try, try again (growth mindset) is informed by a child’s interactions with parents and teachers.

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Testing for ADHD and 3 Treatments That Can Help

Available for Interviews: John Rodriguez, MD

Dr. John Rodriguez is a Chief Medical Officer of Healthcare2U and is passionate about the care provided to their patients. He manages all the care providers in Healthcare2U’s network of clinics and oversees care protocols and training.

What Dr. Rodriguez can say in an interview about
ADHD:

ADHD, or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, is one of the most common mental disorders affecting children. Depending on the severity, it can be a truly debilitating illness for some. Now that people realize that mental health is just as important as physical health, why don’t we start testing sooner?

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Taking Must-Needed Social Media Breaks for Well-Being

Available for Interviews: Dr. Pete Loper

What Dr. Loper could say on
Social Media:

82% of the US population currently uses social media. However, as a psychiatrist, I have observed first-hand the negative impact of excessive social media use on my patients’ mental health and well-being. I have published my observations on this topic in Medscape and Current Psychiatry (please see links below). These are the talking points that I have found most effective when educating my patients, regardless of age, about the necessity of taking a “social media break”:

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What’s Your Parenting Style? Why It Matters.

Available for Interviews: Dr. Pete Loper

What Dr. Loper could say on the
4 General Parenting Styles and Why It Matters:

It’s very helpful for parents to know where they fall when it comes to parenting styles. Awareness can help parents carry out their parenting responsibilities more effectively and support healthy emotional growth in their children. How parents communicate, relate, and discipline has lasting effects and can influence their behavior not only through their childhoods but also throughout adulthood as well.

While we can separate parenting into four general styles, it’s important to note that parents rarely fall into one specific category. In general, parents may favor one style over the rest. There are generally four main parenting styles per the research:

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4 Simple Strategies to Support your Child’s Mental Health

Available for Interviews: Dr. Pete Loper

What Dr. Loper could say on
How to Support Your Child’s Mental Health:

On the acute crisis stabilization unit where Dr. Loper works as a pediatrician and a child and adolescent psychiatrist, they have witnessed first-hand the pediatric mental health crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Consistent with national trends, over the course of the pandemic their unit has experienced an unrelenting surge in admissions for kids as young as 5 with suicidal ideations, often with accompanying attempts. The demographic most impacted have been adolescents.

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Talking to Our Children About School Violence

Available for Interviews: Dr. Pete Loper

What Dr. Loper could say on
How to Best Support Our Children’s Mental Health
When Tragic Current Events Unfold:

The horrific school shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas has brought trauma and anxiety at once to a community that is now mourning the loss of 19 children and two teachers—and has brought collective trauma to our country as the conundrum concerning violence at our educational institutions rages on year after year.

Some ways that we can best support our children’s mental health and to help them process and cope with the often unpredictable and upsetting news events can fall into three categories:

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