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How to prevent student depression at home

Posted at 8:15 AM, Aug 29, 2018
and last updated 2018-08-29 10:15:50-04

As our students settle into their new routine, we all know this can be a stressful time causing overwhelming anxiety and sometimes depression.

We all remember the tragic number of student suicides we’ve seen in our community recently and it’s something we want to help stop!

According to a report released from Safe2Tell Colorado earlier this year. They got over 2,000 reports in just one month about school attack threats, suicidal thoughts, and bullying. This is a 150% increase from the same month last year. We spoke to a child psychologist about curbing these numbers.

“The first thing is just have a family meeting, ” says Danny Huerta the Vice President of Parenting and Youth with Focus on the Family. “You can make that very fun. You can have root beer floats, whatever you want to do to make it a fun event together as a family and begin to look at what are the things that are gong to help us win as a family?”

Sit down with your family. Make sure there’s an open line of communication and support, and as Mr. Huerta pointed out routine is key for kids.

Establish a set bed time, meal time and chores!

Huerta recommends making a pie chart with 3 categories – rest, relationships and work. Make sure you’re addressing all three categories on a regular basis. Rest – that one is too often set aside, which can result in extreme consequences.

Always keep in mind what works best for your family.