EP #421: What Can Parents Do to Impact Mental Health Issues? — With Keri Cooper

In this week's episode, Keri Cooper, licensed clinical social worker and author of the book Mental Health Uncensored, discusses the teen mental health crisis that has been making headlines. She emphasizes the importance of parental involvement and shares some tried and true methods that she's used in her own practice for the past 20 years.What You'll Learn From This Episode:1:46 How Keri became involved in the mental health field.3:30 Five simple things that can have a huge impact on your mental health.4:51 How gadgets and social media contribute to mental health problems.7:05 Educating children about the dangers of excessive use of mobile devices and social media.12:38 How parents handle peer pressure and keep their children's best interests in mind.14:20 Learning to say no and dealing with your children’s disappointment.16:10 Using mental health as a crutch.17:15 What parents can do to help their children avoid suicide.Quotes:3:11 “If we, as our own being, are not taking care of our physical body, we can't have optimal mental health.”4:08 "Sleep, I think is crucial. That's how your body really restores itself, and if we're not on top of that and setting up good sleep habits for these kids from an early age, I think we're missing a big piece of this.”5:12 “You have to get the devices out of the bedroom. There is nothing good happening on your child's device at three in the morning.”9:42 “As teenagers, you want to fit into a social circle—this is very normal. So, of course, you're going to compare, it's really the hardest part of life for that, but to give them the perspective that you're not in competition with anybody.”12:51 “Parents really need to start thinking, is this what I want? Is this what's best for my family? Or am I just going along with what everyone else does?”17:00 “Yes, you have anxiety. And yes, that's real. But we need to be able to learn the skills to work through it, and to be able to enjoy our life and not just throw our hands up and say I can't.”3:11 “If we, as our own being, are not taking care of our physical body, we can't have optimal mental health.”4:08 "Sleep, I think, is crucial. That's how your body really restores itself, and if we're not on top of that and setting up good sleep habits for these kids from an early age, I think we're missing a big piece of this.”5:12 “You have to get the devices out of the bedroom. There is nothing good happening on your child's device at three in the morning.”9:42 “As teenagers, you want to fit into a social circle—this is very normal. So, of course, you're going to compare, it's really the hardest part of life for that, but to give them the perspective that you're not in competition with anybody.”12:51 “Parents really need to start thinking, is this what I want? Is this what's best for my family? Or am I just going along with what everyone else does?”17:00 “Yes, you have anxiety. And yes, that's real. But we need to be able to learn the skills to work through it, and to be able to enjoy our life and not just throw our hands up and say I can't.”Enjoy The Show?Don't miss an episode, subscribe via iTunes, Stitcher or RSS.Leave us a review in iTunes (here's how)Join the conversation by leaving a comment below!