There are many dimensions related to promoting positive health and wellness in our children.\u00a0 Parental involvement, support and consistent monitoring and supervision are critical to overall healthy physical, mental and emotional development.\u00a0 Conversations regarding promoting positive mental, physical and behavioral health need to start early with children and should be on-going dialogues.<\/p>\n
Generally, we speak openly about the incidence of physical conditions (heart disease, cancer, diabetes) but are reticent to talk with candor about issues surrounding mental and behavioral health. The stigma often associated with mental illness or substance abuse stems from misperceptions.\u00a0 Starting a public dialogue, seeking policy support, educating others and initiating conversations with children can help overcome this stigma so that substance abuse can be discussed in the same way as diabetes, heart disease or any other illness. \u00a0Starting this dialogue with children early on is a significant step towards promoting positive mental and behavioral health.\u00a0 When discussing issues related to substance abuse with younger children, the parental tone is usually prohibitive in nature.\u00a0 This may be warranted when children are young.\u00a0 As children approach elementary, middle and high school however, they are experiencing not only physical developmental changes but emotional developmental changes as well.\u00a0 During these periods, it is important that the parental tone shift to a truly conversational one\u2014one that invites dialogue and discussion.<\/p>\n
On-going conversations related to promoting positive lifestyles should also happen in unison with educators, counselors, community leaders and youth. We need to work collaboratively and without borders to ensure that we are reaching positive, sustainable outcomes for our children.<\/p>\n
Abuse and addiction to alcohol, nicotine and illicit drugs cost us more than $700 billion a year in increased healthcare costs, crime and death.\u00a0 Each year, more than 90,000 deaths are the result of alcohol, illicit and prescription drugs while tobacco is linked to an estimated 480,000 deaths per year.\u00a0 These statistics as well as the ones outlined below should be shared with children:<\/p>\n
Our collective prevention efforts need to start early.\u00a0 Teachers, parents and healthcare professionals can shape children\u2019s perceptions about the risks of drug abuse, and its negative impact on adolescent brain development.\u00a0 The frontal lobe of the brain\u2014the part of the brain that enables us to assess situations and make sound decisions– is continuing to develop and mature during adolescence.\u00a0 Introducing and more importantly abusing drug during the fragile developmental period can cause profound and long-lasting changes within the brain.<\/p>\n
Here are eight steps that we can take to promote positive lifestyles in children:<\/p>\n
The sooner we can start the dialogue with children, the better.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are many dimensions related to promoting positive health and wellness in our children.\u00a0 Parental involvement, support and consistent monitoring<\/p>","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":2340,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[359],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-youth"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n