Today I sit down for a two-part episode with Dr. Susan Swick. Dr. Swick, a psychiatrist specializing in child and adolescent health, first shares her personal connection to mental illness through her mother's late-onset psychotic illness. For Dr. Swick, getting her mother good care shaped her approach to youth mental health and her development of programs at the Ohana Center in Monterey, California.
Dr. Swick highlights how mental illnesses are very common in children, and they are always treatable, and most often preventable. Psychiatric illnesses affect 20-25% of children before age 18, and are twice as common as asthma. Unfortunately, anxiety and mood disorders have increased by 50% among 12-24 year-olds in recent decades and Ohana’s mission is to bend the curve and decrease mental illness in youth.
Mental illnesses are diseases of youth, with 50% of lifetime mental illnesses emerging by age 15, and 75% by age 25. Ohana's innovative approach includes family-centered therapy and building mental fitness--which works like a psychological immune system--helping youth manage adversity. Interestingly, 50% of children with pre-pubertal depression may develop bipolar disorder. Structured sleep, regular biorhythms can even protect against manic episodes.
Stay tuned for Part 2.
Ohana Crisis Resources
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Music composed and performed by guitarist, JD Cullum
Edited by Brandon Moran
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