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According to a recent Report from The Child Mind Institute and Center on Addiction / Partnership for Drug-Free Kids over 2.3 million adolescents (aged 12-17) and 7.7 million young adults (aged 18-25) used illegal drugs or misused prescription medications in the U.S. in 2014. About 2.9 million adolescents and 20.8 million young adults — over 50% of the young adult population — consumed alcohol in the past month. One in five adolescents has a mental health disorder. There is a health crisis in America affecting our teenagers and young adults, but luckily there are organizations that are helping parents and children find the help they desperately need.
Elevations RTC is a unique residential treatment center that works with all students ages 13 – 18. Elevations RTC offers guidance, support and relief to students struggling with issues like trauma, depression, anxiety, mood disorders, behavioral problems, and substance use.
Elevations RTC is located in Utah and provides specialized, clinically intensive programs to struggling teens.
We recently had the opportunity to hear from Judi Jacques, M.Ed , Executive Director of Elevations RTC and Jennifer Wilde, LCSW, Executive Clinical Director of Elevations RTC to learn more about one of America’s best residential treatment centers for adolescents and the unique challenges facing teenagers today.
How does the teenage population differ from other groups, such as adults or seniors?
Jennifer– Most importantly teenagers differ in that they really are going through a lot of developmental changes during adolescence. We now know that the brain isn’t fully developed until mid to late 20’s. We also know that adolescents have a lot of changes going on with their sexual hormones and body changes. Most importantly the tasks of adolescents are very different than they are for adults or seniors.
Adolescents are charged with creating independence, formulating their identity, and individuating away from their family system. Those are three very stressful developmental processes, which do require a lot of support and a lot of structure around those tasks in order for an adolescent to be able to go through them in a healthy and productive manner. Several of these tasks of adolescence also directly conflict with the therapeutic process in that it just makes it more difficult.
Adolescents are meant to be creating independence for themselves and start to take on more decision-making, which can often be interpreted as defiance or opposition to those around them who are establishing the path for them. Their family is also a large part of the treatment process, which often is not what the adolescents prefer. Because they are not of age and they are not able to make medical decisions for themselves, and most importantly most adolescents will return to live within their home environment with their parents, we have to involve the parents in the treatment process almost as much as we involve the students. This can make a very complicated structure for the therapeutic process.
Part of this is also when the adolescent’s goals for themselves are not in line with what the parents would like for them. This can create a lot of disruption when the adolescent’s version of their journey differs from the parents. We have to help them navigate that, and we have to help all of our clients find a way to make therapy productive and progressive, and something that can benefit every member of the family system.
What are some of the unique challenges facing today’s teenagers?
Judi– I think one of the biggest challenges that is unique to this generation of teenagers is just the constant barrage of information. I am not just talking about social media, but that certainly is a huge component of what I am talking about here.
I’m also talking about the fact that the students have access to know what is going on in the world at any and all times, and that can be overwhelming for everyone but especially for teenagers. To learn about and have such immediate access to the political problems we have in our country, or what is going on in a third world countries, I think it leads to some of that heightened anxiety that we see amongst our teenagers.
And then, in addition to that access to information, social media provides a convenient way for teenagers to disengage from the real world, hide inside their rooms, and have a relationship so to speak with their computers, with their phones, and with the social media that they think is the same as a real life relationship.
Then they are confronted with reality when they try to have relationships with real people – that it doesn’t really work the way that they think it should or can, and there is a heightened sense of being judged or not knowing how to interact with people. I think the access to information and the access to social media has really created a challenge for our youth today.
Jennifer– The other thing that I have experienced over my career in working with adolescents is that we really do have a culture that is limiting people in general, but specifically this is showing in adolescence. It is limiting people’s ability to self-soothe from an internal place. Most of our kids have grown up in an environment where there are lots of things outside of themselves that have been provided to help them deal with and manage their emotions.
Things as simple as blankets, toys, and other pacifying kinds of things, entertainment in the vehicle for long car rides, and entertainment while you wait at the restaurant table. Little things throughout all aspects of life have been presented for the kids, and so in a lot of ways adolescents are used to externalizing their frustration and really haven’t learned the internal skills to manage and tolerate frustration, as well as other emotions.
Overall, we are really limiting within our culture the ability to self-soothe for what is going on with us emotionally and do the internal work to address our emotional upheavals. We want to thank Judi Jacques, M.Ed , Executive Director of Elevations RTC and Jennifer Wilde, LCSW, Executive Clinical Director of Elevations RTC for sharing their thoughts and perspectives about recent trends in mental health care and today’s treatment options for teenagers.
To learn more about Elevations RTC, please visit: https://www.elevationsrtc.com/
