My essential question is: how can a parent best help their suicidal youth. My three answers are knowing the suicidal symptoms, seeking treatment, and becoming a part of the youth's life. My best answer is seeking treatment because treatment is what will ultimately help the youth. Treatment is referring to antidepressants and therapy, more specifically CBT, cognitive behavioral therapy. The combination of these two will allow the youth to improve mentally and learn new ways of thinking, ultimately allowing the youth to stabilize their thoughts. This is most important in helping suicidal youth. Seeking treatment and becoming a part of the suicidal child's life is also important, but will not obtain the outstanding results that actual treatment will have.
2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?
The process I took to arrive at this answer was first and foremost defining my senior project topic. I narrowed it from child psychology to suicidal youth and changed my EQ to what it is currently. (Refer to 1st sentence to the question above.) There was no doubt in my mind that my best answer would revolve around something treatment related. Treatment is vital to suicidal people, especially kids. There were no other potential best answers for me other than treatment. This is because in all of my research, treatment is not only mentioned, but recommended as well.
3) What problems did you face? How did you resolve them?
The first problem I encountered was finding mentorship for my project. I must have contacted 10-15 different child psychologists and none of them even responded to reject me. This made me feel inferior and unsure of where to move next in my senior project. Ortega knew I was struggling to find mentorship and decided to jump in and help me out. She contacted Patti Azevedo, a past mentor, and asked her if she would be willing to take me under her wing. She was happy to help and set up an interview with me, and I was in! I have now been there since October. Because of Ortega's initial help of finding me mentorship, I have ventured into a topic I never would have thought of without Patti.
The second problem I have come across with my project is making my activities work for my 2 hour presentation and fit the P criteria. It's been difficult mostly because people know what suicide is. It's hard to teach a topic that is generally understood. Of course the specifics are unknown, but teaching them is difficult as well. Through the difficulties of finding activities, I went to tumblr. I happen to follow a lot of depression/suicide blogs and through scrolling through thousands of posts a day, I have found videos, pictures, and activity ideas to work into my 2 hour. They're eye catching, informative, and I think they will get my message across. These blogs have even helped me with my own issues.
4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?
1- My first most important source is my mentorship at the Pomona Unified School District of School Mental Health because without it, I most likely wouldn't have focused on suicide at all. The idea of suicide only came along because of Patti when at my first day of mentorship, I attended a crisis meeting with her where she discussed how to deal with suicidal youth with administration members of a local elementary school. Working at the district office of mental health has allowed me to work with treatment resources for mentally ill students. Helping these families find resources to help them with their mental issues has allowed me to see the importance that treatment has.
2- My second most important source is an article from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. I chose this particular article because it goes into detail what treatment does for suicidal/mentally ill people and why it's necessary. It even specifies what treatments are best for certain illnesses and why they're the best choices. It stresses the importance of treatment, backing up the best answer to my essential question.
5) What is your product and why?
1- My first most important source is my mentorship at the Pomona Unified School District of School Mental Health because without it, I most likely wouldn't have focused on suicide at all. The idea of suicide only came along because of Patti when at my first day of mentorship, I attended a crisis meeting with her where she discussed how to deal with suicidal youth with administration members of a local elementary school. Working at the district office of mental health has allowed me to work with treatment resources for mentally ill students. Helping these families find resources to help them with their mental issues has allowed me to see the importance that treatment has.
2- My second most important source is an article from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. I chose this particular article because it goes into detail what treatment does for suicidal/mentally ill people and why it's necessary. It even specifies what treatments are best for certain illnesses and why they're the best choices. It stresses the importance of treatment, backing up the best answer to my essential question.
5) What is your product and why?
My product is learning the importance of finding an outlet, or some type of treatment, because this will ultimately allow the youth to get better and recover from suicidal symptoms and thoughts. I found my outlet through writing short passages about how I felt when those suicidal thoughts came to mind. Instead of making plans to kill myself, I wrote why I felt the need to no longer live and it made a difference. How do I know it made a difference? Well, I'm still here today. I went through some serious dark times over the last year, where I made legitimate plans to end my life early, but I didn't go through with them because I found what made me feel better. Without finding that outlet, I would not be here to write this blog post or be in this interview.
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