Why Parents Hesitate Before Seeking Mental-Health Expertise
Parents who have no problem making a doctor's appointment when their children have a cough, sneeze, or sniffle appear to be resistant when it comes to mental health.
Parents Magazine and the Child Mind Institute conducted a new survey to find out why parents hesitate before getting mental-health expertise for their children.
"If your child has a fever you take them to the doctor, if your child has an emotional pain, it should be the same thing," said Liz Vaccariello, the editor-in-chief of Parents Magazine, in an interview with Cheddar on Tuesday.
A new survey of about 400 parents in the United States found 62% would wait more than five weeks to get their children help with a mood or behavior disorder.
Of the families that said they would think twice before pursuing treatment options, most (83%) said they try to avoid an overreaction and would rather wait to see if symptoms resolve on their own. Other reasons include the perceived cost of mental-health care and the fear that their children would be labelled mentally ill.
"All of these are myths and we're trying to overcome that," said Vaccariello.
She said parents should be vigilant about monitoring their children's behavior for potential warning signs. Doctors describe these potential symptoms as "pink flags" instead of "red flags" because they're often subtle indicators of mental illness.
Vaccariello said symptoms include sleep disturbances, obsessive thoughts, and debilitating fears.
"It's one thing to be scared of a bee, it's another thing to be terrified to go outside because you don't want to be stung by a bee," she said.
There are fewer than 9,000 clinical child psychiatrists in the United States, but Vaccariello said parents can also reach out to child psychologists, therapists, and school counselors.
"Even something like that can be helpful and healing for the whole family," she said.
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/why-do-parents-wait-to-seek-help-on-mental-health-issues).
Bioscience and genetic engineering company, Colossal, raised $60 million in a Series A funding round. Colossal is focused on developing new technologies and genetic tools to restore extinct species, and protect critically endangered species. One of the startup's long-term goals is to resurrect the woolly mammoth, and return it back to the arctic. Colossal also says it is developing technology that expands beyond animals, and has the potential to advance human health. Ben Lamm, co-founder and CEO of Colossal, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Residents were cleaning their homes Thursday after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Fukushima in northern Japan, smashing furniture, knocking out power and killing four people.
A New Zealand couple who believed they had dug up the world’s largest potato had their dreams turned to mash after Guinness World Records wrote to say that scientific testing had found it wasn’t, in fact, a potato after all.
Two years into the pandemic, many of us have regained a sense of normalcy. However, those in the healthcare industry are still confronting the virus every day, dealing with the physical, mental and psychological stress of the ongoing pandemic. Ben Mirtes, CFO of Ingenovis Health and Lydia Mobley, a travel nurse with Faststaff, who has spent the last two years going from hotspot to hotspot, joined Cheddar’s Opening Bell to reflect on their experiences in healthcare, and discuss why they are optimistic about a path forward.
Catching you up on what you Need to Know on March 16, 2022, with updates on Ukraine and Russia, a container ship gets stuck in the Chesapeake Bay, Disney employees stage a walkout over the "Don't Say Gay" law in Florida, and NASA completes its first spacewalk of 2022.
Food technology startup Tender Food raised $12 million in a seed round led by Chris Sacca's Lowercarbon Capital. Tender says it specializes in creating alternative meats with an authentic texture and is on a mission to make alternative meats so delicious, nutritious, and affordable, that eating meat from animals will no longer make sense. Christophe Chantre, co-founder & CEO of Tender Food, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Ryan Shearman, chief alchemist and co-founder at Aether, and Henry Elkus, founder of Helena, join Cheddar News to talk about the completion of an $18 million Series A funding round led by Helena.
As the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to grow, so do concerns over the impact it could have on the international space community, and more specifically, the International Space Station. Those concerns come after Dmitry Rogozin, the director of Russia's state space agency, posted several tweets over the last few weeks in which he threatened to 'destroy Russia's cooperation on the ISS.' Olympia LePoint, rocket scientist and author of 'Answers Unleashed II: The Science of Attracting What You Want,' joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.