(upbeat music) ♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪ Hey hey, hey ♪ Hey, hey - Good evening and welcome to Horizonte, a show that takes a look at current issues through a Hispanic lens.

I'm your host Catherine Anaya.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health statistics, the suicide rate among US youth and young adults increased 60% since 2011.

Historically, Latinos have faced additional barriers when seeking mental health services compared to non-Latinos and cultural dynamics contribute to Latinos not seeking support.

Here to talk more about mental health among young Latinos is Dr. Daniel Castellanos, the founding associate Dean of Graduate Medical Education at Creighton University Health Sciences campus in Phoenix.

So nice to meet you.

Thank you so much for joining us, Doctor.

- Thank you for the opportunity.

- You are a psychiatrist who specializes in child and adolescent psychiatry.

A 60% increase is astounding, but the study did not reveal any reasons behind that increase.

So based on your experience, you deal with adolescents a lot.

You talk to them, you listen to them.

What do you think is behind the increase?

Is it depression, social media?

- What would you say?

- Well yeah, so we know depression is by far, the most common issue, clinical disorder that teens suffer with, right?

But if you combine all the anxieties, anxiety is very prevalent as well.

But depression rates have gone up.

We also know that Latinos and Latino youth kind of have a whole wealth of health disparities that have get dealt with by Latinos and their families, such as things like poverty, suboptimal education, issues with access to appropriate healthcare and mental health services, right?

As well as a bunch of stressors that are unique to Latinos and other minorities such as discrimination, even racism, exposure to things like community aggression and violence and issues related to immigration and acculturation, which are fairly common in the Latino community.

- So when we're talking about mental health and our youth, our Latino youth, what part does stigma play in the conversations?

Because I think as a whole, society is getting better about talking about mental wellness and mental health, but there still is some stigma in our community, is there not?

- Oh, absolutely.

And that's very particular to the Latino community.

But in general, certain principles are important to help teens, such as identifying at-risk populations.

So not only Latino population but within those Latino adolescents, how to identify at-risk teens and things like public communication.

That's why it's so important, the program you're doing right here, that work on providing de-stigmatizing messages.

'Cause stigma is a big issue, especially in the Latino community, that interferes with not only the recognition but the taking the next step of accessing and dealing with our systems of care to get services.

So it really is important.

- So when you're talking about issues like depression, anxiety, social media, even the pandemic leading to these higher suicide rates, and when you're talking about our community in particular and the barriers, like you mentioned, you know, there's the language barrier, there's access barriers.

How do we reverse any and all of those trends?

- Yeah, again, very fundamentally, is working on stigma, right?

'Cause just what you're doing, helping inform individuals that depression can be a health problem, just like any other health problem, like diabetes, that you would want to get care for, right?

Helping families understand that sometimes just being sad, triste alone, is it typical that it becomes clinical or a parent needs to look at obtaining treatment when that depression gets more severe and or interfering with that adolescent's functioning, right?

So suicidal thinking, right?

That's a flag, right?

And that should alert a parent to say, gee, maybe I should get my child evaluated.

- When you say evaluated, what does that look like?

Are there screenings that that you can do for depression, suicide, and what have you?

And then the other side of that question is, you know for parents, I am one, it's a little difficult sometimes to understand the difference between is it depression or is it that my, you know, son or daughter is just sad today.

There's just, there's a lot of gray area, is there not?

- There is, there is, but there is a difference, right?

And obviously the more severe, the clearer it is.

But again, as those symptoms, that sadness and in teens, a lot of irritability, right?

We call it being mad sad, gets more and more severe.

And it interferes with different aspects, like I said, health, like sleep, eating, academic functioning, social functioning with peers, functioning within the family, that becomes clinical.

So the issue is to educate our whole healthcare force to not only be aware of this, but also be culturally informed on this from the front end of any health system, all the way back to the clinicians.

And we at Creighton University School of Medicine are really trying to do that to meet the needs of the population.

And so it's accessing that care.

In pediatrician's offices, a lot of the pediatric clinics now do screenings for this.

And they're very good screenings to alert the family and the providers about the need for further assessment and, or treatment.

- But of course, accessibility is a big part of that.

And so how do we as a community, advocate for more accessibility and, you know encourage each other to seek support?

- That is a really important issue, right?

Having access to good high quality healthcare, regardless of the ability to pay.

And it's not just insurance, right?

'cause you could be underinsured as well.

But to really make it available to all and to help individuals qualify for whatever coverage they can qualify.

And if not, to get services in places where there are no fees, like the St. Vincent De Paul Clinic.

- When are young people most at risk for some of these trends we were talking about?

Say for example, if it's 15, should we be waiting to have conversations when they're at that at-risk period?

Or we should be having those sooner?

- Those should be sooner, right?

A lot of this is foundational parenting, right?

Even before, about healthy development, about resiliency, about coping skills, about how to deal with issues, how to be open and communicate with each others.

And those form the basis to when an issue does arise, that the possibility of having a more informed discussion and or accepting it as well.

So they really shouldn't happen.

Why, because we know depression can occur at any age.

Now it becomes more common as a youngster hits adolescents, we know that, right?

So we want to do as many protective things early to help prevent that.

- And of course, talking about it is a great place to start.

So what would be your suggestions for parents to initiate that conversation?

To engage with their child about something that, you know not everybody is comfortable talking about?

- Oh, yes.

And ultimately that's an individual or family-specific response.

But especially with teens when they open the door, because as we know, certain teens may not be open to discussion, but if the door is open like, "I don't feel good," then that's an opportunity for a parent to say, aha let's let me probe or inquire more what that really means.

Right, or, gosh, this is the third time you're not going out and doing this.

That's an opportunity to say, Hey you said you're not going out.

Well wait, before you used to.

To try to again, probe, and try to get more information and see what's going on, including asking about thoughts of death and or suicide.

Because that's a myth.

The myth is sometimes people say, oh, if I inquire about it, it'll put the thought in the teen's mind.

And that's not true, right?

It's a way of understanding and better assessing, and hopefully intervening if that individual's suffering.

- Yes, and seeking support and seeking some help.

And my final question just kind of relates to that and that is, you know, do you think there needs to be better representation in your industry for situations like this where you do have some of those cultural barriers?

- Oh, absolutely.

And so ideally, it would be helping train more professionals, mental health professionals, physicians that are Hispanic, that are Spanish speaking, if not, but at the very least, that are aware of the cultural differences and they're culturally competent to provide the care to the needs of our community.

- Well thank you so much.

You have certainly presented some very important information for us, and it's a topic that we need to continue to have.

So thank you so much.

I really appreciate you joining us.

- Thank you very much.

- Good to meet you.

- Same here.

- That's our show for tonight.

For Horizonte and Arizona PBS, thanks so much for watching.

I'm Catherine Anaya.

Have a great night.

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