May 18, 2024 • 29 mins
Ryan Gorman hosts an iHeartRadio nationwide special featuring Laura Dunn, NHTSA Highway Safety Specialist. Laura Dunn joins the show to discuss the partnership between the Ad Council and NHTSA on preventing hot car deaths, the leading cause of non-crash, vehicle-related fatalities for kids 14 and younger. Dr. David Anderson, Senior Psychologist & VP of Public Engagement and Education for The Child Mind Institute, also checks in for Mental Health Awareness Month to discuss the Child Mind Institute’s Positive Parenting, Thriving Kids series aimed at helping parents navigate the mental health issues impacting today’s youth. Finally, we talk to Schroeder Stribling, President & CEO of Mental Health America. Schroeder Stribling breaks down new data from MHA’s Online Screening Program, which revealed rates of anxiety and risk for psychosis remain higher than before the pandemic.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a publicaffairs special focusing on the biggest issues impacting
you. This week, here's RyanGorman. Thanks so much for joining us
here on iHeartRadio Communities. I'm RyanGorman, and we have a few very
important conversations lined up for you.In a bit, we'll talk to a
couple of great organizations for Mental HealthAwareness Month. But right now, to
(00:21):
get things started, let me bringin highway safety specialist Laura Dunn, who's
with us to discuss the AD Counciland the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's hot
car death prevention campaign. Laura,thank you so much for taking a few
minutes to come on the show,and first of all, give us a
sense of the scope of the problemwhen it comes to hot car deaths here
in the US each year, sounfortunately, an average of about thirty seven
(00:44):
children die of heatstroken cars every yearafter being left or getting into a hot
car, So during the summer months, that's about two children per week.
Since nineteen ninety eight, nearly ninehundred and seventy kids have died because they
were easier left to a hot cator they gained access to that car and
then couldn't get out. You know, all of these deaths are preventable,
(01:04):
so it's really something that we wantto rease awareness of. Now. I'm
assuming the majority of these debts arehappening in southern states where it's the hottest
during the summer, but this issomething that can happen anywhere across the US.
Right. Yes, there unfortunately,have been heatstroke deaths in every state
in the United States except for three. So this is something that everybody is
(01:30):
susceptible to, and heatstroken cars canhappen when it's only sixty degrees outside.
In just ten minutes, a carcan heat up by about twenty degrees and
cracking a window or parking in theshade really does very little to help.
Everyone can learn more about all ofthis at NHTSA dot gov slash heat Stroke.
Again, that's NHTSA dot gov slashheat Stroke. So what are some
(01:56):
of the steps that have been takenin recent years, because I know there
have been some safety measures that havebeen taken on the part of automakers to
try to prevent these debts. Canyou tell us a little bit about that.
Yeah, automakers have started incorporating morebackseat reminders, and I know our
agency has evaluated several of those technologicalinterventions, so we hope that that's something
(02:22):
that continues to develop over the nextseveral years to have several different safeguards in
place to prevent these kind of fatalities. Is there a reason that's given more
often than not as to why achild was left in a hot car.
The priory way that hot car deftshappen is from a parent or a caregiver
forgetting their child in a vehicle.And it's important for people to know the
(02:43):
most common factor in those deaths isa changing routine. So a parent taking
a child to daycare or school whotypically doesn't maybe there's a doctor's appointment,
there's something else going on that daythat kind of averts your attention from what
you would normally be doing, andparents and caregivers get into that autopilot mode
cognitively, where you're driving to work, you're thinking about things that you have
(03:07):
to do, and during that trip, they just lose awareness that their child
is in the vehicle. Many times, these very young children in the back
seat, you know, they tendto fall asleep and they're quiet, they're
not making noise, and you know, unfortunately that is a common scenario in
some of those forgotten cases. Now, something I didn't know about all of
(03:27):
this. Apparently kids' bodies heat upfaster than the bodies of adults, Is
that right? They do. Kidsbodies heat up at a rate about three
to five times faster than an adults. They are less able to regulate their
thermoregulatory system. So those very youngchildren newborn to five really are most susceptible
(03:49):
to heatstroke. And that's why it'snever safe to leave your child in a
vehicle for any amount of time,now, even for a minute, because
these events really do happen quickly.And you alluded to this earlier, but
the rate of time it takes forcars, the inside of vehicles to reach
(04:10):
temperatures that I think would surprise alot of people. It happens very quickly.
It does so in just about tenminutes, the inside of a car
can keet up by about twenty degrees. So, for example, it's an
eighty degree day outside and ten twentythirty forty minutes have passed. When an
hour passes the inside of that vehicleis about one hundred and twenty three degrees
(04:32):
So this is something that becomes adangerous situation in a very short amount of
time for folks. I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by highway safety specialist Laura Dunn
here to talk about hot car debts, which are the leading cause of non
crash vehicle related fatalities for kids fourteenand younger. So tell us about this
partnership between the NHTSA and the ADCouncil on preventing hot car debts ahead of
(04:58):
these upcoming hot summer mon Well,we've titled this campaign never Happens because it's
important for parents and caregivers to understandthat this is something that can happen to
them anadotally. We hear a lotfrom folks that would never happen to me.
I'm a good parent. This onlyhappens to bad parents, and that's
just something that's not true. Weare all susceptible to this phenomenon. So
(05:23):
this new campaign is called never Happens, and we want to remind parents that
when they park that car to stop, look and lock. You'll be seeing
those new advertisements very soon and youcan do some safety measures behaviorally also to
try to prevent these events for yourfamily and keep kids safe. Can you
(05:44):
offer a few of those behavioral tipsfor us, because they are all kinds
of little different things to help createreminders when especially when you change your routine
something that you mentioned before, whichis often a big part of why these
tragedies happen. Right, So,when you park your car, always check
that back seat for your child beforelocking and leaving. When you're driving with
(06:06):
your child, always make sure thatyour child has been dropped off at school,
childcare center, wherever they're supposed tobe. And sometimes parents set up
a system with their childcare provider tohave them the childcare center call them to
say, oh, I haven't seenyour child yet this morning. It is,
you know, later than they wouldnormally be here. Is everything okay?
(06:28):
Are they coming today? So that'san extra sort of safeguard that parents
can set up to have, youknow, an outside party call. Another
tip is to keep an item inthat vehicle, like the child's toy,
and you put that toy up frontwith you when your child is in their
car seat, so that's a visualqueue to you that your child is still
in the car. And often manypeople like to put something that they need
(06:51):
for the day in the back seat. A purse, a work bag,
their phone, put that in theback seat with a child, so you
have to open that back door andcheck for your child. Another thing that's
important for this issue are when childrenget into vehicles and then they're not able
to get out and to prevent that. You know, we always talk about
(07:14):
how important it is to lock yourcar when you're parked, even if you're
at home and your driveway. Lockthat car when you park, put your
keys and key fobs up and outof reach, and always teach children that
the car is never a safe placeto play. It's not a play place.
It's only for going places, becauseunfortunately, that's about a quarter of
these desks when children access a vehicleand then they're unable to get out.
(07:36):
And finally, what are some ofthe resources that you have for parents and
caregivers At NHTSA dot um slash heatstroke. We have statistics information about this
issue. We have all of theseprevention tips that we have talked about,
and you can see our ads andget some more information there. Highway Safety
(08:00):
specialist Laura Donn with us to talkabout hot car deaths and how to prevent
them. A big priority on thepart of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
and the ad Council. Again,you can learn more at NHTSA dot gov
slash heat stroke. Laura, thankyou so much for the time and insight
into all of this. We reallyappreciate it. Thank you. All right,
I'm Ryan Gorman here on iHeartRadio Communities, and now let me bring in
(08:22):
my next guest for Mental Health AwarenessMonth. I'm joined by doctor David Anderson,
senior psychologist and vice president of PublicEngagement and Education for the Childmind Institute.
You can learn more at Childmind dotorg. Doctor Anderson, we thank
you so much for ticket a fewminutes to come on this show, and
I want to start with a senseas to the mental health issues that we're
(08:46):
seeing in this country as they relateto kids in particular. What can you
tell us about the trend line.I mean, we were in the midst
of a youth mental health crisis beforethe pandemic started, and it's only really
gotten worse. This is one ofthe reasons why the Surgeon General fears back
put out advisory on the youth mentalhealth crisis, and why so many organizations
like us at the Child My Instituteare trying to bring attention to these issues
(09:09):
and the kinds of drivers that wesee across the country as kind of worsening
the mental health of children adolescents whilealso increasing the stress of their parents.
What is it that makes this acrisis? Is it just the amount of
children across the country who are inneed of some sort of mental health care?
(09:31):
I mean, the real reason whywe see in the crisis is we
as a society have gotten a lotbetter at messaging around mental health and bringing
down stigma, making it so thatpeople are more aware of what depression looks
like, what anxiety looks like,what ADHD looks like, what trauma exposure
looks like. And as we becomemore aware of the effects of those things,
what we're also seeing is this hugegap between the people who could utilize
(09:54):
mental health support and the amount ofmental health support they're getting. So,
in that sense, you know,the drivers of this crisis are that as
people become more aware of the kindof support that they might need, they
don't have access to providers. Theydon't see those providers covered by insurance.
We don't have enough providers. Weespecially don't have enough providers in rural areas
or in areas where there's a highnumber of adverse childhood events. So really,
(10:18):
what we're seeing is that this crisiskeeps getting worse because as you get
a population that is more and moreaware of the help they need, but
not seeing a societal movement toward gettingthat help, it becomes that much more
stressful. Are there certain issues thatare driving the depression and anxiety that we're
seeing in kids these days? Specificissues that you've been able to pinpoint that
(10:46):
are part of this mental health crisis? Absolutely? So in general, you
know, there's a wide variety ofissues that drive the mental health crisis,
and it's important to kind of thinkabout that because all too often in media,
what we're finding is that the argumentaround the youth mental health crisis is
centered around sort of what's present inthe societals like geist, like we're talking
(11:09):
a lot about tech, or we'retalking a lot about social media. And
to be clear, there's research showingthat social media does worsen mental health for
certain vulneral groups of youth. Sofor example, teams who are prone to
depression, we're teams who're having bodyimage issues. There's you know, very
solid research showing that social media canexacerbate those mental health struggles. But the
(11:31):
issue that we have is as society, we tend to suggest that the most
present thing in our mind must bethe cause of the problems we're seeing,
and in reality, there's a lotmore nuanced to the argument. We're in
the midst of an increase in pressureon this generation. We're seeing incredible kind
of increases in terms of achievement pressureand college admission. We're seeing a country
(11:52):
that's grappling with a political divide,with racism and discrimination, with increasing income
inequality, and with climate change.And we're seeing increased stress on our workforce
and on parents that also is tricklingdown to kids. So, you know,
what we want to be thinking aboutis how do all those factors combine
(12:13):
to contribute to perhaps the worstening ofmental health, and then also how do
we provide the care to meet it. You know, we're not seeing universal
screening across schools, which could bereally helpful in identifying kids who are at
risk. We're not seeing prevention curriculaacross all schools where we teach kids the
key mental health and wellness skills thatcould prevent mental health and learning disorders later.
(12:37):
And we're not seeing access to treatment. We're not seeing enough in school
providers, we're not seeing enough telehealth, we're not seeing enough access to care
in rural areas, and we're notseeing enough providers just in general. So
there's so much that can be donewithin this crisis around workforce development, around
access to care, around providing youknow, access to support for kids who
(13:00):
might be at risk, or evenfor parents who might be experiencing extreme stress,
or even the educators that are withour kids, you know much of
the week. All of these thingscan be bettered and at the same time
we can tackle some of the bigissues as society, including technology. I'm
Ryan Gorman joined by doctor David Anderson, senior psychologist and Vice president of Public
Engagement and Education for the Childmind Institute, which you can learn more about at
(13:24):
childmind dot org. Can you giveus an overview of the work that you
do specifically at the Childmind Institute.Sure. So, the childmin Institute is
focused on three major mission areas,and you know, it's exciting to kind
of talk about we're focused on care. So what that means is helping to
develop the best models of evidence basedcare for different mental health and learning disorders
(13:46):
that might affect children in adolescents,and then making sure that not only do
kids get access to those services withinour practices in New York and San Francisco,
but also with schools and communities thatwe partner with to try to bring
those services at low cost to studentsand kids who most need them. The
second major aspect of our work isscience, so we focus on kind of
(14:09):
both long term and short term workin science. In the short term,
we're working, for example, withthe State of California on a project called
Next Generation Digital Therapeutics, where ourfocus is on building out digital products that
amplify the effects of therapy and helpto arm educators or parents with the tools
they need to improve the mental healthof the students or the children in their
(14:30):
schools or homes. And then thelong term kind of bet with our research
is in thinking about how we helpto do the research for the sort of
breakthroughs of tomorrow, where we lookfor objective markers of mental health learning disorders
and collect data on thousands of youth, where our focus is on collecting these
large data sets and then sharing themopenly across the world. So the Chalman
(14:52):
is too, we're about big dataand open science, and we're really proud
of the fact that by sharing allof our data, we've seen more articles
published in our data by researchers acrossthe world than even within our own house.
And that's something we think can helpus to make sure that scientific discovery
is made possible within our lifetime.And then the last piece that we really
focus on, which I'll delve intoa little bit deeper here, is on
(15:13):
education. So we want to makefree, evidence based information available to the
village that surround our kids across thecountry and across the world, so that
they can help to support the mentalhealth of their children and teens. And
so what that means is we've builta website that has hundreds of articles for
educators and for parents on all kindsof mental health topics and topics related to
(15:35):
mental health, and that's childmind dotorg. And then we've also focused on
programs that we've released across the countryin partnership with the state of California and
in partnership with organizations within the stateof Ohio, where we're focused on making
sure that we're scaling the kind ofrelease of evidence based educational information and the
mental health across entire states and soonacross the entire country. You released a
(16:00):
series of free videos and also someother resources called Positive Parenting Thriving Kids.
Can you dive into that a bit? Absolutely so. Positive Parenting Thriving Kids
is a resources development partnership with theGovernor and first Partner of California as well
as the Department of Health and HumanServices in California, and our focus was
(16:22):
in trying to think through the challengesthe twenty first century parents face and in
bringing as much expertise to bear increating a lightlift curriculum that parents can access
and really utilize with their families.So we consulted thirty leading experts around the
country. We did a survey ofa thousand caregivers across California. We did
focus groups with one hundred youth becauseI think it's really important as you're developing
(16:44):
curricula that you also center the feedbackyou're getting on the voice of you to
say, is this right? Isthis what you want your parents and caregivers
and educators to know? And fromthat we distilled it down to about twenty
key topics that we thought were mostessential for parents and care givers to have
information about in raising their kids andwhat that meant was. We created twenty
videos in English, twenty videos inSpanish, along with tip sheets and a
(17:07):
curated content library on childline dot orgslash Positive Parenting where parents could access this
for free see all the videos andaccess all the resources, and the topics
really range. They're across four categories, Rental, self care, and parent
child relationships, Healthy child adolescent growthwith topics like building self esteem and coping
with stress, and building warm andpositive relationships with a child or teen,
(17:32):
Big changes and challenges like videos andtips focused just on the teenage years,
or focused on having those tough talkswith kids around sex, consent and safety,
or about healthy use of technology,or about alcohol and drugs. And
then family and community stressors, howto really support kids who are experiencing or
responding to racism and discrimination, communityviolence, a parent who has a mental
(17:52):
physical health concern or say death andgrief for separation of divorce. And so
we really focused in on this likeheat topic list that we felt like was
going to be most especially from allthe expert feedback that we got, most
relevant for parents and characters of todayand making sure that they had bite sized,
actionable practical strategies they could use withtheir families. I'm Ryan Gorman,
(18:15):
joined by doctor David Anderson, seniorpsychologists at the Child Mind Institute. You
can learn more about the video seriesand resources we were just talking about at
childmind dot org slash Positive Parenting.We talked about the challenges that kids face
these days and some of the mentalhealth issues that are resulting from all of
that. But you also interact,like you've explained with parents. Can you
(18:38):
describe the pressures that parents are feelingthese days. Yes, absolutely, I
mean, we've watched these pressures justcompound in the sense that because we live
in a digital age, because welive in a twenty four hour news cycle,
what we're watching is a parenting generationthat's getting more and more messages about
the right way to do things andthe kinds of things they should be doing
(19:02):
for their kids than any generation beforeit, and feeling like, because of
the accessibility of information the Internet age, the right answers must be out there,
and that puts an incredible amount ofpressure on parents. Parents who are
working two or three jobs, parentswho are trying to figure out how to
get their kids to the right schoolparents who are trying to just answer general
questions about, you know, howto support their kids at different developmental stages.
(19:23):
And that's really what we're here for, is trying to make sure that
we create programs where if you're abusy parent and you know you've only got
you know, five minutes in theevening time to yourself, where you might
be able to either watch a videoor read a particular thing. It's this
question of can we have that interventionmoment where someone views a resource that we
have and says, you know what, I'm going to tweak something for tomorrow
(19:45):
at the breakfast table, I'm goingto focus on this particular strategy, or
when I'm getting my kid ready forschool, I'm going to do this.
When my teenager seems to give methat attitude once again, this is going
to be what I think about thatmight just help us to build a closer
relation ship and help us to feellike we can maybe talk about a few
of the tougher things again. Andthose are the moments that we really want
(20:06):
to be there for parents. Andfinally, how can everyone listening support the
work you're doing at the Childmind Institute, not just during mental health Awareness Month,
but all year round. Well that'sexactly it is if for us,
this is a twelve month long,twenty four hour a day thing, not
just mental health Awareness Month, andwe along with partners across the country within
the nonprofit government you know, andcorporate partner world, are all working to
(20:30):
kind of figure out how we solvethese issues together. So really, if
people want to be able to helpus with this, it involves going on
childmind dot org looking at different waysthat you might be able to contribute to
these efforts, to get involved,to spread these resources, to make sure
that your family and your friends areaware of them, and importantly follow us
(20:51):
on social media and check out ourresources online on childmind dot org and on
YouTube. And if you can,please feel free to make a donation and
on childline dot org to the workat the Childmind Institute. And this month
all gifts are going to be matchedthree times to help the Childmind Institute continue
to do the tremendous work this instituteis doing. Doctor David Anderson, Senior
(21:12):
psychologist and Vice president of Public Engagementand Education for the Childmind Institute. You
can learn more at childmind dot org. Doctor Anderson, thank you so much
for taking a few minutes to comeon the show. We really appreciate it.
Thanks so much for having me.All Right, I'm Ryan Gorman here
on iHeartRadio Communities. And now letme bring in our final guests joining us
(21:33):
for Mental Health Awareness Month. Wehave the President and CEO of Mental Health
America, Schroeder Stribbling. You canlearn more and support this organization at MHA
National dot org. That's MHA Nationaldot org. Schroder, thank you so
much for taking a few minutes tocome on the show. And I'm really
interested in this new data that youhave. Mental Health America does an online
(21:56):
screening program that takes a look allkinds of different things, and you've got
some fascinating results on the state ofthe mental health crisis in this country.
You mind starting with some of theheadlines from that survey. Yeah, well,
thanks for having me, Ryan,and especially now, as you said,
we just released some of this newdata, as you may know,
(22:19):
and it's especially good timing to doit during Mental Health Awareness months. As
you know, we have a nationalprevention and screening program which is actually ten
years old this year, and itis an online digital screening prevention program which
(22:40):
is free and anonymous for anyone whowants to take a screen. It has
this past year, about six anda half million people went to the site
to take one of our eleven differenttypes of screens, and so that's how
we get the information that we havein the report that we just released that
(23:00):
gives us kind of a pulse pointon the health and mental health of the
country, and it's been enormously valuableover these ten years for trend identification and
especially valuable during the COVID years.So a couple of the high points from
this year are that we remain concernedabout the rates of people who are scoring
(23:27):
at moderate to high risk for depressivedisorders and for suicidal ideation in particular.
Another thing that we saw was thatthere was a real skyrocketing and the number
of people who were taking our screenfor ADHD attention deficit or hyperactivity conditions.
(23:49):
So those are a couple of thehighlights that we that are really standing out
to us. The issue involving ADHDQ furious is that potentially something that has
to do with just our shorter andshorter attention spans, in part driven by
some of these social media consumption andtech consumption that especially younger people are dealing
(24:15):
with these days. Well, thatwould be my theory. I think there
are we're all trying to figure thisout, and it's we're still in the
middle of whatever is happening to us. Yeah, something a worsening of our
mental health across the board, youknow, elevated levels of risk for all
(24:36):
mental health conditions and with regard tothe eighty eight however, you're what you
just laid out would be my theoryat present, or at least a leading
contributor, because if you think about, you know, the amount of information
that technology has enabled us to consumeand respond to in a day, and
(24:59):
the changes to all of our thinkingand thought processes and planning activities and coordination,
it really is different. You know, I'm in my late fifties and
I can tell you compared to whatit was like to work when I was
in my twenties, just the amountof information that we're processing every day,
I think has a natural tendency tomake us feel more distractable and have more
(25:26):
difficulty with focus and concentration. SoI think that's most likely the case.
And as you say, then thereare parallels to what's going on with youth
and technology that then get into theadditional risks around social media and stuff.
I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by SchroederStribbling, President and CEO of Mental Health
America. You can learn more andsupport the work this organization's doing for Mental
(25:49):
Health Awareness Month at MHA National dotorg. One thing I want to key
in on from all of this datafrom your online screening program is LGBTQ plus
youth of color. They really seemto stand out among a group having a
major mental health crisis right now.Yeah, well, you've zeroed in on
(26:12):
the right thing in terms of priorities. As I mentioned earlier, everyone remains
at elevated risk for depression and suicidalideations, elevated from before the pandemic and
on trend with where we've been headedfor some years before that, including youth.
(26:33):
If you drill down even farther,you find that those youths who are
at greatest risks are LGBTQ and bipockuse youth of color. And that's because
we know this because on the screeningsite there are optional demographics, so it
is free and anonymous, and ascreener can choose to tell us their demographics.
(26:55):
We know that these groups have someof the highest rates of suicidal ideas,
and youth in general are telling usthat they are having frequent suicidalized meaning
most of the days or more thanhalf of the days, which is alarming,
and LGBTQ and use of Schollers comein highest amongst all of us.
(27:17):
Now, more broadly speaking, beyondthe online screening program that we've been talking
about, can you give us asense of some of the other work that
you do at Mental Health America?Delighted too. For one thing, Mental
Health America has one hundred and fortythree affiliate sites across the country, So
there may be a Mental Health Americain your area, and to find out
if there's one in your neighborhood,you can go to our same site that
(27:41):
you mentioned, m ASA National dotord. Those affiliates are delivering direct services
which you're customized to meet the needsof their communities. Also at our national
office, in addition to our preventionand screening program, we have other research,
public education, in public policy,and state and level advocacy that we
(28:03):
work on. The online screening program. The assessment that you were talking about
earlier is that something that everyone cango online to MHA National dot org and
take or if they want to takeit a second time. Is that something
that everyone can do, because Ithink a lot of people listening right now
might be interested in doing just that. Absolutely, put in a Mental Health
(28:29):
America screening into Google and you willget right to it. It is free
and it is anonymous. But toanswer the other question, you can also
create an account there and or youcan return there without creating an account.
You can go as many times asyou want. You can crack your progress.
It's really you can get connected toother articles, the resources navigation to
(28:55):
help from the screening site. Sowe encourage folks to please use it as
a resource both to check in withyourself and then also to get connected to
supports that you might want your need. President and CEO of Mental Health America
Schroeder stribbling with us for Mental HealthAwareness Month. Again. You can learn
(29:17):
all about the work this organization doesat MHA National dot org. That's MHA
National dot org. Schroder. Iwant to thank you so much for taking
a few minutes to come on theshow and for all the great work your
organization is doing. We appreciate it. Thank you so much. Ryan,
all right, and that's going todo it for this edition of iHeartRadio Communities.
As we wrap things up, wantto offer a big thanks to all
(29:37):
of our guests and of course toall of you for listening. I'm your
host, Ryan Gorman. We'll talkto you again real soon.
Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a publicaffairs special focusing on the biggest issues impacting
you. This week, here's RyanGorman. Thanks so much for joining us
here on iHeartRadio Communities. I'm RyanGorman, and we have a few very
important conversations lined up for you.In a bit, we'll talk to a
couple of great organizations for Mental HealthAwareness Month. But right now, to
(00:21):
get things started, let me bringin highway safety specialist Laura Dunn, who's
with us to discuss the AD Counciland the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's hot
car death prevention campaign. Laura,thank you so much for taking a few
minutes to come on the show,and first of all, give us a
sense of the scope of the problemwhen it comes to hot car deaths here
in the US each year, sounfortunately, an average of about thirty seven
(00:44):
children die of heatstroken cars every yearafter being left or getting into a hot
car, So during the summer months, that's about two children per week.
Since nineteen ninety eight, nearly ninehundred and seventy kids have died because they
were easier left to a hot cator they gained access to that car and
then couldn't get out. You know, all of these deaths are preventable,
(01:04):
so it's really something that we wantto rease awareness of. Now. I'm
assuming the majority of these debts arehappening in southern states where it's the hottest
during the summer, but this issomething that can happen anywhere across the US.
Right. Yes, there unfortunately,have been heatstroke deaths in every state
in the United States except for three. So this is something that everybody is
(01:30):
susceptible to, and heatstroken cars canhappen when it's only sixty degrees outside.
In just ten minutes, a carcan heat up by about twenty degrees and
cracking a window or parking in theshade really does very little to help.
Everyone can learn more about all ofthis at NHTSA dot gov slash heat Stroke.
Again, that's NHTSA dot gov slashheat Stroke. So what are some
(01:56):
of the steps that have been takenin recent years, because I know there
have been some safety measures that havebeen taken on the part of automakers to
try to prevent these debts. Canyou tell us a little bit about that.
Yeah, automakers have started incorporating morebackseat reminders, and I know our
agency has evaluated several of those technologicalinterventions, so we hope that that's something
(02:22):
that continues to develop over the nextseveral years to have several different safeguards in
place to prevent these kind of fatalities. Is there a reason that's given more
often than not as to why achild was left in a hot car.
The priory way that hot car deftshappen is from a parent or a caregiver
forgetting their child in a vehicle.And it's important for people to know the
(02:43):
most common factor in those deaths isa changing routine. So a parent taking
a child to daycare or school whotypically doesn't maybe there's a doctor's appointment,
there's something else going on that daythat kind of averts your attention from what
you would normally be doing, andparents and caregivers get into that autopilot mode
cognitively, where you're driving to work, you're thinking about things that you have
(03:07):
to do, and during that trip, they just lose awareness that their child
is in the vehicle. Many times, these very young children in the back
seat, you know, they tendto fall asleep and they're quiet, they're
not making noise, and you know, unfortunately that is a common scenario in
some of those forgotten cases. Now, something I didn't know about all of
(03:27):
this. Apparently kids' bodies heat upfaster than the bodies of adults, Is
that right? They do. Kidsbodies heat up at a rate about three
to five times faster than an adults. They are less able to regulate their
thermoregulatory system. So those very youngchildren newborn to five really are most susceptible
(03:49):
to heatstroke. And that's why it'snever safe to leave your child in a
vehicle for any amount of time,now, even for a minute, because
these events really do happen quickly.And you alluded to this earlier, but
the rate of time it takes forcars, the inside of vehicles to reach
(04:10):
temperatures that I think would surprise alot of people. It happens very quickly.
It does so in just about tenminutes, the inside of a car
can keet up by about twenty degrees. So, for example, it's an
eighty degree day outside and ten twentythirty forty minutes have passed. When an
hour passes the inside of that vehicleis about one hundred and twenty three degrees
(04:32):
So this is something that becomes adangerous situation in a very short amount of
time for folks. I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by highway safety specialist Laura Dunn
here to talk about hot car debts, which are the leading cause of non
crash vehicle related fatalities for kids fourteenand younger. So tell us about this
partnership between the NHTSA and the ADCouncil on preventing hot car debts ahead of
(04:58):
these upcoming hot summer mon Well,we've titled this campaign never Happens because it's
important for parents and caregivers to understandthat this is something that can happen to
them anadotally. We hear a lotfrom folks that would never happen to me.
I'm a good parent. This onlyhappens to bad parents, and that's
just something that's not true. Weare all susceptible to this phenomenon. So
(05:23):
this new campaign is called never Happens, and we want to remind parents that
when they park that car to stop, look and lock. You'll be seeing
those new advertisements very soon and youcan do some safety measures behaviorally also to
try to prevent these events for yourfamily and keep kids safe. Can you
(05:44):
offer a few of those behavioral tipsfor us, because they are all kinds
of little different things to help createreminders when especially when you change your routine
something that you mentioned before, whichis often a big part of why these
tragedies happen. Right, So,when you park your car, always check
that back seat for your child beforelocking and leaving. When you're driving with
(06:06):
your child, always make sure thatyour child has been dropped off at school,
childcare center, wherever they're supposed tobe. And sometimes parents set up
a system with their childcare provider tohave them the childcare center call them to
say, oh, I haven't seenyour child yet this morning. It is,
you know, later than they wouldnormally be here. Is everything okay?
(06:28):
Are they coming today? So that'san extra sort of safeguard that parents
can set up to have, youknow, an outside party call. Another
tip is to keep an item inthat vehicle, like the child's toy,
and you put that toy up frontwith you when your child is in their
car seat, so that's a visualqueue to you that your child is still
in the car. And often manypeople like to put something that they need
(06:51):
for the day in the back seat. A purse, a work bag,
their phone, put that in theback seat with a child, so you
have to open that back door andcheck for your child. Another thing that's
important for this issue are when childrenget into vehicles and then they're not able
to get out and to prevent that. You know, we always talk about
(07:14):
how important it is to lock yourcar when you're parked, even if you're
at home and your driveway. Lockthat car when you park, put your
keys and key fobs up and outof reach, and always teach children that
the car is never a safe placeto play. It's not a play place.
It's only for going places, becauseunfortunately, that's about a quarter of
these desks when children access a vehicleand then they're unable to get out.
(07:36):
And finally, what are some ofthe resources that you have for parents and
caregivers At NHTSA dot um slash heatstroke. We have statistics information about this
issue. We have all of theseprevention tips that we have talked about,
and you can see our ads andget some more information there. Highway Safety
(08:00):
specialist Laura Donn with us to talkabout hot car deaths and how to prevent
them. A big priority on thepart of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
and the ad Council. Again,you can learn more at NHTSA dot gov
slash heat stroke. Laura, thankyou so much for the time and insight
into all of this. We reallyappreciate it. Thank you. All right,
I'm Ryan Gorman here on iHeartRadio Communities, and now let me bring in
(08:22):
my next guest for Mental Health AwarenessMonth. I'm joined by doctor David Anderson,
senior psychologist and vice president of PublicEngagement and Education for the Childmind Institute.
You can learn more at Childmind dotorg. Doctor Anderson, we thank
you so much for ticket a fewminutes to come on this show, and
I want to start with a senseas to the mental health issues that we're
(08:46):
seeing in this country as they relateto kids in particular. What can you
tell us about the trend line.I mean, we were in the midst
of a youth mental health crisis beforethe pandemic started, and it's only really
gotten worse. This is one ofthe reasons why the Surgeon General fears back
put out advisory on the youth mentalhealth crisis, and why so many organizations
like us at the Child My Instituteare trying to bring attention to these issues
(09:09):
and the kinds of drivers that wesee across the country as kind of worsening
the mental health of children adolescents whilealso increasing the stress of their parents.
What is it that makes this acrisis? Is it just the amount of
children across the country who are inneed of some sort of mental health care?
(09:31):
I mean, the real reason whywe see in the crisis is we
as a society have gotten a lotbetter at messaging around mental health and bringing
down stigma, making it so thatpeople are more aware of what depression looks
like, what anxiety looks like,what ADHD looks like, what trauma exposure
looks like. And as we becomemore aware of the effects of those things,
what we're also seeing is this hugegap between the people who could utilize
(09:54):
mental health support and the amount ofmental health support they're getting. So,
in that sense, you know,the drivers of this crisis are that as
people become more aware of the kindof support that they might need, they
don't have access to providers. Theydon't see those providers covered by insurance.
We don't have enough providers. Weespecially don't have enough providers in rural areas
or in areas where there's a highnumber of adverse childhood events. So really,
(10:18):
what we're seeing is that this crisiskeeps getting worse because as you get
a population that is more and moreaware of the help they need, but
not seeing a societal movement toward gettingthat help, it becomes that much more
stressful. Are there certain issues thatare driving the depression and anxiety that we're
seeing in kids these days? Specificissues that you've been able to pinpoint that
(10:46):
are part of this mental health crisis? Absolutely? So in general, you
know, there's a wide variety ofissues that drive the mental health crisis,
and it's important to kind of thinkabout that because all too often in media,
what we're finding is that the argumentaround the youth mental health crisis is
centered around sort of what's present inthe societals like geist, like we're talking
(11:09):
a lot about tech, or we'retalking a lot about social media. And
to be clear, there's research showingthat social media does worsen mental health for
certain vulneral groups of youth. Sofor example, teams who are prone to
depression, we're teams who're having bodyimage issues. There's you know, very
solid research showing that social media canexacerbate those mental health struggles. But the
(11:31):
issue that we have is as society, we tend to suggest that the most
present thing in our mind must bethe cause of the problems we're seeing,
and in reality, there's a lotmore nuanced to the argument. We're in
the midst of an increase in pressureon this generation. We're seeing incredible kind
of increases in terms of achievement pressureand college admission. We're seeing a country
(11:52):
that's grappling with a political divide,with racism and discrimination, with increasing income
inequality, and with climate change.And we're seeing increased stress on our workforce
and on parents that also is tricklingdown to kids. So, you know,
what we want to be thinking aboutis how do all those factors combine
(12:13):
to contribute to perhaps the worstening ofmental health, and then also how do
we provide the care to meet it. You know, we're not seeing universal
screening across schools, which could bereally helpful in identifying kids who are at
risk. We're not seeing prevention curriculaacross all schools where we teach kids the
key mental health and wellness skills thatcould prevent mental health and learning disorders later.
(12:37):
And we're not seeing access to treatment. We're not seeing enough in school
providers, we're not seeing enough telehealth, we're not seeing enough access to care
in rural areas, and we're notseeing enough providers just in general. So
there's so much that can be donewithin this crisis around workforce development, around
access to care, around providing youknow, access to support for kids who
(13:00):
might be at risk, or evenfor parents who might be experiencing extreme stress,
or even the educators that are withour kids, you know much of
the week. All of these thingscan be bettered and at the same time
we can tackle some of the bigissues as society, including technology. I'm
Ryan Gorman joined by doctor David Anderson, senior psychologist and Vice president of Public
Engagement and Education for the Childmind Institute, which you can learn more about at
(13:24):
childmind dot org. Can you giveus an overview of the work that you
do specifically at the Childmind Institute.Sure. So, the childmin Institute is
focused on three major mission areas,and you know, it's exciting to kind
of talk about we're focused on care. So what that means is helping to
develop the best models of evidence basedcare for different mental health and learning disorders
(13:46):
that might affect children in adolescents,and then making sure that not only do
kids get access to those services withinour practices in New York and San Francisco,
but also with schools and communities thatwe partner with to try to bring
those services at low cost to studentsand kids who most need them. The
second major aspect of our work isscience, so we focus on kind of
(14:09):
both long term and short term workin science. In the short term,
we're working, for example, withthe State of California on a project called
Next Generation Digital Therapeutics, where ourfocus is on building out digital products that
amplify the effects of therapy and helpto arm educators or parents with the tools
they need to improve the mental healthof the students or the children in their
(14:30):
schools or homes. And then thelong term kind of bet with our research
is in thinking about how we helpto do the research for the sort of
breakthroughs of tomorrow, where we lookfor objective markers of mental health learning disorders
and collect data on thousands of youth, where our focus is on collecting these
large data sets and then sharing themopenly across the world. So the Chalman
(14:52):
is too, we're about big dataand open science, and we're really proud
of the fact that by sharing allof our data, we've seen more articles
published in our data by researchers acrossthe world than even within our own house.
And that's something we think can helpus to make sure that scientific discovery
is made possible within our lifetime.And then the last piece that we really
focus on, which I'll delve intoa little bit deeper here, is on
(15:13):
education. So we want to makefree, evidence based information available to the
village that surround our kids across thecountry and across the world, so that
they can help to support the mentalhealth of their children and teens. And
so what that means is we've builta website that has hundreds of articles for
educators and for parents on all kindsof mental health topics and topics related to
(15:35):
mental health, and that's childmind dotorg. And then we've also focused on
programs that we've released across the countryin partnership with the state of California and
in partnership with organizations within the stateof Ohio, where we're focused on making
sure that we're scaling the kind ofrelease of evidence based educational information and the
mental health across entire states and soonacross the entire country. You released a
(16:00):
series of free videos and also someother resources called Positive Parenting Thriving Kids.
Can you dive into that a bit? Absolutely so. Positive Parenting Thriving Kids
is a resources development partnership with theGovernor and first Partner of California as well
as the Department of Health and HumanServices in California, and our focus was
(16:22):
in trying to think through the challengesthe twenty first century parents face and in
bringing as much expertise to bear increating a lightlift curriculum that parents can access
and really utilize with their families.So we consulted thirty leading experts around the
country. We did a survey ofa thousand caregivers across California. We did
focus groups with one hundred youth becauseI think it's really important as you're developing
(16:44):
curricula that you also center the feedbackyou're getting on the voice of you to
say, is this right? Isthis what you want your parents and caregivers
and educators to know? And fromthat we distilled it down to about twenty
key topics that we thought were mostessential for parents and care givers to have
information about in raising their kids andwhat that meant was. We created twenty
videos in English, twenty videos inSpanish, along with tip sheets and a
(17:07):
curated content library on childline dot orgslash Positive Parenting where parents could access this
for free see all the videos andaccess all the resources, and the topics
really range. They're across four categories, Rental, self care, and parent
child relationships, Healthy child adolescent growthwith topics like building self esteem and coping
with stress, and building warm andpositive relationships with a child or teen,
(17:32):
Big changes and challenges like videos andtips focused just on the teenage years,
or focused on having those tough talkswith kids around sex, consent and safety,
or about healthy use of technology,or about alcohol and drugs. And
then family and community stressors, howto really support kids who are experiencing or
responding to racism and discrimination, communityviolence, a parent who has a mental
(17:52):
physical health concern or say death andgrief for separation of divorce. And so
we really focused in on this likeheat topic list that we felt like was
going to be most especially from allthe expert feedback that we got, most
relevant for parents and characters of todayand making sure that they had bite sized,
actionable practical strategies they could use withtheir families. I'm Ryan Gorman,
(18:15):
joined by doctor David Anderson, seniorpsychologists at the Child Mind Institute. You
can learn more about the video seriesand resources we were just talking about at
childmind dot org slash Positive Parenting.We talked about the challenges that kids face
these days and some of the mentalhealth issues that are resulting from all of
that. But you also interact,like you've explained with parents. Can you
(18:38):
describe the pressures that parents are feelingthese days. Yes, absolutely, I
mean, we've watched these pressures justcompound in the sense that because we live
in a digital age, because welive in a twenty four hour news cycle,
what we're watching is a parenting generationthat's getting more and more messages about
the right way to do things andthe kinds of things they should be doing
(19:02):
for their kids than any generation beforeit, and feeling like, because of
the accessibility of information the Internet age, the right answers must be out there,
and that puts an incredible amount ofpressure on parents. Parents who are
working two or three jobs, parentswho are trying to figure out how to
get their kids to the right schoolparents who are trying to just answer general
questions about, you know, howto support their kids at different developmental stages.
(19:23):
And that's really what we're here for, is trying to make sure that
we create programs where if you're abusy parent and you know you've only got
you know, five minutes in theevening time to yourself, where you might
be able to either watch a videoor read a particular thing. It's this
question of can we have that interventionmoment where someone views a resource that we
have and says, you know what, I'm going to tweak something for tomorrow
(19:45):
at the breakfast table, I'm goingto focus on this particular strategy, or
when I'm getting my kid ready forschool, I'm going to do this.
When my teenager seems to give methat attitude once again, this is going
to be what I think about thatmight just help us to build a closer
relation ship and help us to feellike we can maybe talk about a few
of the tougher things again. Andthose are the moments that we really want
(20:06):
to be there for parents. Andfinally, how can everyone listening support the
work you're doing at the Childmind Institute, not just during mental health Awareness Month,
but all year round. Well that'sexactly it is if for us,
this is a twelve month long,twenty four hour a day thing, not
just mental health Awareness Month, andwe along with partners across the country within
the nonprofit government you know, andcorporate partner world, are all working to
(20:30):
kind of figure out how we solvethese issues together. So really, if
people want to be able to helpus with this, it involves going on
childmind dot org looking at different waysthat you might be able to contribute to
these efforts, to get involved,to spread these resources, to make sure
that your family and your friends areaware of them, and importantly follow us
(20:51):
on social media and check out ourresources online on childmind dot org and on
YouTube. And if you can,please feel free to make a donation and
on childline dot org to the workat the Childmind Institute. And this month
all gifts are going to be matchedthree times to help the Childmind Institute continue
to do the tremendous work this instituteis doing. Doctor David Anderson, Senior
(21:12):
psychologist and Vice president of Public Engagementand Education for the Childmind Institute. You
can learn more at childmind dot org. Doctor Anderson, thank you so much
for taking a few minutes to comeon the show. We really appreciate it.
Thanks so much for having me.All Right, I'm Ryan Gorman here
on iHeartRadio Communities. And now letme bring in our final guests joining us
(21:33):
for Mental Health Awareness Month. Wehave the President and CEO of Mental Health
America, Schroeder Stribbling. You canlearn more and support this organization at MHA
National dot org. That's MHA Nationaldot org. Schroder, thank you so
much for taking a few minutes tocome on the show. And I'm really
interested in this new data that youhave. Mental Health America does an online
(21:56):
screening program that takes a look allkinds of different things, and you've got
some fascinating results on the state ofthe mental health crisis in this country.
You mind starting with some of theheadlines from that survey. Yeah, well,
thanks for having me, Ryan,and especially now, as you said,
we just released some of this newdata, as you may know,
(22:19):
and it's especially good timing to doit during Mental Health Awareness months. As
you know, we have a nationalprevention and screening program which is actually ten
years old this year, and itis an online digital screening prevention program which
(22:40):
is free and anonymous for anyone whowants to take a screen. It has
this past year, about six anda half million people went to the site
to take one of our eleven differenttypes of screens, and so that's how
we get the information that we havein the report that we just released that
(23:00):
gives us kind of a pulse pointon the health and mental health of the
country, and it's been enormously valuableover these ten years for trend identification and
especially valuable during the COVID years.So a couple of the high points from
this year are that we remain concernedabout the rates of people who are scoring
(23:27):
at moderate to high risk for depressivedisorders and for suicidal ideation in particular.
Another thing that we saw was thatthere was a real skyrocketing and the number
of people who were taking our screenfor ADHD attention deficit or hyperactivity conditions.
(23:49):
So those are a couple of thehighlights that we that are really standing out
to us. The issue involving ADHDQ furious is that potentially something that has
to do with just our shorter andshorter attention spans, in part driven by
some of these social media consumption andtech consumption that especially younger people are dealing
(24:15):
with these days. Well, thatwould be my theory. I think there
are we're all trying to figure thisout, and it's we're still in the
middle of whatever is happening to us. Yeah, something a worsening of our
mental health across the board, youknow, elevated levels of risk for all
(24:36):
mental health conditions and with regard tothe eighty eight however, you're what you
just laid out would be my theoryat present, or at least a leading
contributor, because if you think about, you know, the amount of information
that technology has enabled us to consumeand respond to in a day, and
(24:59):
the changes to all of our thinkingand thought processes and planning activities and coordination,
it really is different. You know, I'm in my late fifties and
I can tell you compared to whatit was like to work when I was
in my twenties, just the amountof information that we're processing every day,
I think has a natural tendency tomake us feel more distractable and have more
(25:26):
difficulty with focus and concentration. SoI think that's most likely the case.
And as you say, then thereare parallels to what's going on with youth
and technology that then get into theadditional risks around social media and stuff.
I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by SchroederStribbling, President and CEO of Mental Health
America. You can learn more andsupport the work this organization's doing for Mental
(25:49):
Health Awareness Month at MHA National dotorg. One thing I want to key
in on from all of this datafrom your online screening program is LGBTQ plus
youth of color. They really seemto stand out among a group having a
major mental health crisis right now.Yeah, well, you've zeroed in on
(26:12):
the right thing in terms of priorities. As I mentioned earlier, everyone remains
at elevated risk for depression and suicidalideations, elevated from before the pandemic and
on trend with where we've been headedfor some years before that, including youth.
(26:33):
If you drill down even farther,you find that those youths who are
at greatest risks are LGBTQ and bipockuse youth of color. And that's because
we know this because on the screeningsite there are optional demographics, so it
is free and anonymous, and ascreener can choose to tell us their demographics.
(26:55):
We know that these groups have someof the highest rates of suicidal ideas,
and youth in general are telling usthat they are having frequent suicidalized meaning
most of the days or more thanhalf of the days, which is alarming,
and LGBTQ and use of Schollers comein highest amongst all of us.
(27:17):
Now, more broadly speaking, beyondthe online screening program that we've been talking
about, can you give us asense of some of the other work that
you do at Mental Health America?Delighted too. For one thing, Mental
Health America has one hundred and fortythree affiliate sites across the country, So
there may be a Mental Health Americain your area, and to find out
if there's one in your neighborhood,you can go to our same site that
(27:41):
you mentioned, m ASA National dotord. Those affiliates are delivering direct services
which you're customized to meet the needsof their communities. Also at our national
office, in addition to our preventionand screening program, we have other research,
public education, in public policy,and state and level advocacy that we
(28:03):
work on. The online screening program. The assessment that you were talking about
earlier is that something that everyone cango online to MHA National dot org and
take or if they want to takeit a second time. Is that something
that everyone can do, because Ithink a lot of people listening right now
might be interested in doing just that. Absolutely, put in a Mental Health
(28:29):
America screening into Google and you willget right to it. It is free
and it is anonymous. But toanswer the other question, you can also
create an account there and or youcan return there without creating an account.
You can go as many times asyou want. You can crack your progress.
It's really you can get connected toother articles, the resources navigation to
(28:55):
help from the screening site. Sowe encourage folks to please use it as
a resource both to check in withyourself and then also to get connected to
supports that you might want your need. President and CEO of Mental Health America
Schroeder stribbling with us for Mental HealthAwareness Month. Again. You can learn
(29:17):
all about the work this organization doesat MHA National dot org. That's MHA
National dot org. Schroder. Iwant to thank you so much for taking
a few minutes to come on theshow and for all the great work your
organization is doing. We appreciate it. Thank you so much. Ryan,
all right, and that's going todo it for this edition of iHeartRadio Communities.
As we wrap things up, wantto offer a big thanks to all
(29:37):
of our guests and of course toall of you for listening. I'm your
host, Ryan Gorman. We'll talkto you again real soon.
Host
Manny Munoz
Popular Podcasts
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.