‘Move Beyond the Stigma’ to improve child mental health

Tatum Thurstone, a first-grader in DMIS' Spanish-language program, joined other students at the studio of Blue Onion, an advertising agency in Lakewood that produced online videos about a campaign that is raising money to support research.

By Avery Bleichfeld

DMIS Star Staff

Some kids have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD. Some kids experience depression and anxiety. Some kids struggle with substance abuse and addiction. Some kids have schizophrenia. What do they all have in common? Mental illness.

One in five children struggles with mental illnesses, and two-thirds of those kids don’t get the help they need, according to physicians at Denver Health. Even worse, those doctors say, is that Colorado is one of the country’s most underserved states when it comes to the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness — especially in children. Also, Colorado’s suicide rate is about 40 percent higher than the national average, and mental illness has been identified in 90 percent of teenagers who kill themselves.

These are big problems that a lot of people find it hard to talk about, but a few students at Denver Montclair International School have challenged our state to open up. They have appeared in a video produced by The Denver Health Foundation’s Level One Society that urges everyone to “Move Beyond the Stigma,“ a campaign by the same name that is trying to raise $1.5 million to advance research in child mental health. The DMIS students in the video are Sylvia Lacher, Nathaniel Lacher, Tatum Thurstone and Asa Thurstone. Serenity Vafeades, a former student at Denver International School, is also in the video, which you can watch here:

Dr. Christian Thurstone, Tatum and Asa’s father, coaches DMIS’ middle-school tennis team. He is also a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Denver Health, and he explains some of the bigger problems associated with child mental illness:

DMIS is always trying to help its students, and you may be wondering how it works to help students who might have mental health problems. The school’s assistance usually starts with a teacher who thinks a student needs help. The teacher shares information with a program coordinator and, in more severe cases, with DMIS’ academic director, Francois Penalver. If the program coordinator and Mr. Penalver determine that a child needs more help than the school’s staff members can provide, they contact the student’s parents. Sometimes, DMIS points the parents in the right direction to find help. Sometimes, the school might bring in a counselor the parents pay for. DMIS always tries to work hard with students and their parents to find a good solution.