Whitman HS Suicide

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Link to article which states the death is being investigated as a suicide.
http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2017/Walt-Whitman-Sophomore-Remembered-for-Treating-Everyone-as-a-Friend/

Nice tribute -- brought tears to my eyes. My kid who is in private school, never met her but learned the news from the social media posts and came home last night really sad, asking questions how this could have been avoided.

Come on, adults, this tragedy happened in OUR community, let's be kinder and more respectful. My deepest condolences to the family and friends of Jojo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sad that you are all talking about paying others to talk to your kids but you are too busy over achieving and having your kids over achieve to find the time to talk them.

Total BS. Kids don't want to talk to their parents. The last thing I was going to do as a teenager was to tell my mom all about my boy troubles and friend troubles and school troubles. If I did, my mom probably would have said "Deal with it." The whole point of counselors and therapists is to have a third party who is NOT a parent or teacher or authority figure in general.

I did have a very good therapist in high school who helped me become more objective. I firmly believe those sessions permanently improve the way I view the world.

I second this. My mom gaslit me as a teen. Anything I told her about feeling upset or worried about grades, friends, or boys she said was foolishness and a sign I was weak. I was afraid to talk about these things with anyone and, in isolation, was very depressed. I was in college before I was able to see a therapist and learn my experiences were common, even normal. No, talking to my mom wasn’t helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Be extremely careful in choosing a professional to treat your child. They can be more unstable than the kids. Request a session with them At the end of their sessions and requests confidential and session notes, especially if they are minors. Don’t let them pull the HIPPA BS

Agree. This advice is critical.

[Anonymous]

check out this petition. stop complaining and start doing.
https://www.change.org/p/donald-trump-increase-resources-for-depressed-and-suicidal-students-in-all-schools-forjojo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s mental illness people, it’s not other people’s fault typically.
Stop harping about things you know nothing about.

It is mental illness but that doesn’t mean there is t fault. My child is currently hospitalized because he is suicidal. Trigger is mostly school pressure. I went to the school once a week at least to try to get supports only to be told my son was fine. But he’s not and he may have been had he received some supports. It’s not the only thing but it was definitely the straw that broke the camels back. So yes sometimes there is blame.

That doesn’t mean it’s the fault of the school. If your son can’t function in that school environment you have to find another environment for him.
It sounds like he needs a therapeutic school - you need to advocate for him and find him another setting.

Most families cannot afford a therapeutic school - maybe are 50K+ a year if not more. The schools, especially MCPS will not pay for it in less the issues are severe and being suicidal generally isn't one. Many families are left on their own to cope and figure it out. Few insurances offer great mental health treatment and there are very few good therapists and psychiatrists out there.

What are you talking about? It sounds like you keep trying to justify your lack of action on behalf of your son . There are tons of good psychiatrists and psychologists - get out there and find appropriate care for your son.

It is extremely hard to get a new patient appointment with an adolescent psychiatrist in this area. And most do not take insurance and charge $400 or more for an intake appointment. You beat whatever drum you have to to get help for your kid, but it is damn hard and expensive.

You do know that even if they don't "take insurance", that you can submit the claim to your insurance? Yes, you might have to put it on a credit card until you are reimbursed, but mental health is a required part of insurance coverage now.

[Anonymous]

It's the parents who create this insanity.

Every other day on DCUM there is a post:

"Is my 2 year old gifted?"
"What type of preschool for my prodigy 3 year old?"
"How advanced is knowing the alphabet at 10 months?"
"what colleges should we have in mind for our gifted 9 year old?"

These kids are DOOMED from a young age to lives of stress.

If I didn't spend WAY too much time on DCUM, I'd think this was parody, except that these are real posts from real people, who are deeply deeply concerned about how to best support their "gifted" newborns.

I don't think this correlates with suicide (the topic of this thread) but it certainly isn't GOOD for anyone's mental health.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It's the parents who create this insanity.

Every other day on DCUM there is a post:

"Is my 2 year old gifted?"
"What type of preschool for my prodigy 3 year old?"
"How advanced is knowing the alphabet at 10 months?"
"what colleges should we have in mind for our gifted 9 year old?"

These kids are DOOMED from a young age to lives of stress.

If I didn't spend WAY too much time on DCUM, I'd think this was parody, except that these are real posts from real people, who are deeply deeply concerned about how to best support their "gifted" newborns.

I don't think this correlates with suicide (the topic of this thread) but it certainly isn't GOOD for anyone's mental health.

Irrelevant

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think all this speculation about her family and school life is deeply disrespectful. I knew JoJo and she was a bright and caring girl, but at the same time struggled with mental illness.
This was not brought on by school stress or her parents, but by far deeper chemical issues like not suicides.
If anything we should be talking more about mental illness and the stigma, not criticizing schools or parents you know nothing about.

Yes, but parents and schools are a huge factor in causing or at least exacerbating these chemical imbalances. I'm a student and last year, I went through an absolutely awful period of depression that was completely connected to my schoolwork and the pressure that I, my parents, and my peers have placed onto me. In 8th grade, my mental health was terrible because of the incredible stress my parents had placed on me to get straight A's.any
Now that my parents have realized that I have depression, they've eased up significantly on their expectations from me and are accepting and kind about any kinds of grades I get in school. This has helped my mental and emotional health immensely and actually helped me do better in school.

So yeah, I'd say that parents and schools have a pretty big impact on somebody's mental health.

What are chemical imbalances?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s mental illness people, it’s not other people’s fault typically.
Stop harping about things you know nothing about.

It is mental illness but that doesn’t mean there is t fault. My child is currently hospitalized because he is suicidal. Trigger is mostly school pressure. I went to the school once a week at least to try to get supports only to be told my son was fine. But he’s not and he may have been had he received some supports. It’s not the only thing but it was definitely the straw that broke the camels back. So yes sometimes there is blame.

That doesn’t mean it’s the fault of the school. If your son can’t function in that school environment you have to find another environment for him.
It sounds like he needs a therapeutic school - you need to advocate for him and find him another setting.

Most families cannot afford a therapeutic school - maybe are 50K+ a year if not more. The schools, especially MCPS will not pay for it in less the issues are severe and being suicidal generally isn't one. Many families are left on their own to cope and figure it out. Few insurances offer great mental health treatment and there are very few good therapists and psychiatrists out there.

What are you talking about? It sounds like you keep trying to justify your lack of action on behalf of your son . There are tons of good psychiatrists and psychologists - get out there and find appropriate care for your son.

It is extremely hard to get a new patient appointment with an adolescent psychiatrist in this area. And most do not take insurance and charge $400 or more for an intake appointment. You beat whatever drum you have to to get help for your kid, but it is damn hard and expensive.

You do know that even if they don't "take insurance", that you can submit the claim to your insurance? Yes, you might have to put it on a credit card until you are reimbursed, but mental health is a required part of insurance coverage now.

You have no clue the meaning of what you are talking about. Yes, mental health is dequired to be covered but the devil is in the details.My therapist charges $250 a session. The insurance says $100 is the "usual and customary rate" that they negotiate with in network providers and so that is what the reimbursement is based on. Out of network is lower reimbirsement than in network, so i will only get $60 as reimburesemnt. I am still responsible to the therapist for the $180 difference. In addition, there may be annual limits on the number of therapy sessions that will be reimbursed.

Finding quality mental healthcare and paying for it is still very difficult these days. Why do you insist on blamecasting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s mental illness people, it’s not other people’s fault typically.
Stop harping about things you know nothing about.

It is mental illness but that doesn’t mean there is t fault. My child is currently hospitalized because he is suicidal. Trigger is mostly school pressure. I went to the school once a week at least to try to get supports only to be told my son was fine. But he’s not and he may have been had he received some supports. It’s not the only thing but it was definitely the straw that broke the camels back. So yes sometimes there is blame.

That doesn’t mean it’s the fault of the school. If your son can’t function in that school environment you have to find another environment for him.
It sounds like he needs a therapeutic school - you need to advocate for him and find him another setting.

Most families cannot afford a therapeutic school - maybe are 50K+ a year if not more. The schools, especially MCPS will not pay for it in less the issues are severe and being suicidal generally isn't one. Many families are left on their own to cope and figure it out. Few insurances offer great mental health treatment and there are very few good therapists and psychiatrists out there.

What are you talking about? It sounds like you keep trying to justify your lack of action on behalf of your son . There are tons of good psychiatrists and psychologists - get out there and find appropriate care for your son.

It is extremely hard to get a new patient appointment with an adolescent psychiatrist in this area. And most do not take insurance and charge $400 or more for an intake appointment. You beat whatever drum you have to to get help for your kid, but it is damn hard and expensive.

You do know that even if they don't "take insurance", that you can submit the claim to your insurance? Yes, you might have to put it on a credit card until you are reimbursed, but mental health is a required part of insurance coverage now.

But, your insurer is not required to cover out of network docs and, even if they do, they usually cover far less than the cost of a session, meaning you will Paul FAR more than the copay you would for someone in-network.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s mental illness people, it’s not other people’s fault typically.
Stop harping about things you know nothing about.

It is mental illness but that doesn’t mean there is t fault. My child is currently hospitalized because he is suicidal. Trigger is mostly school pressure. I went to the school once a week at least to try to get supports only to be told my son was fine. But he’s not and he may have been had he received some supports. It’s not the only thing but it was definitely the straw that broke the camels back. So yes sometimes there is blame.

That doesn’t mean it’s the fault of the school. If your son can’t function in that school environment you have to find another environment for him.
It sounds like he needs a therapeutic school - you need to advocate for him and find him another setting.

Most families cannot afford a therapeutic school - maybe are 50K+ a year if not more. The schools, especially MCPS will not pay for it in less the issues are severe and being suicidal generally isn't one. Many families are left on their own to cope and figure it out. Few insurances offer great mental health treatment and there are very few good therapists and psychiatrists out there.

What are you talking about? It sounds like you keep trying to justify your lack of action on behalf of your son . There are tons of good psychiatrists and psychologists - get out there and find appropriate care for your son.

It is extremely hard to get a new patient appointment with an adolescent psychiatrist in this area. And most do not take insurance and charge $400 or more for an intake appointment. You beat whatever drum you have to to get help for your kid, but it is damn hard and expensive.

You do know that even if they don't "take insurance", that you can submit the claim to your insurance? Yes, you might have to put it on a credit card until you are reimbursed, but mental health is a required part of insurance coverage now.

Depends on the insurance. Ours does not allow anything outside unless approved with an referral.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think all this speculation about her family and school life is deeply disrespectful. I knew JoJo and she was a bright and caring girl, but at the same time struggled with mental illness.
This was not brought on by school stress or her parents, but by far deeper chemical issues like not suicides.
If anything we should be talking more about mental illness and the stigma, not criticizing schools or parents you know nothing about.

Yes, but parents and schools are a huge factor in causing or at least exacerbating these chemical imbalances. I'm a student and last year, I went through an absolutely awful period of depression that was completely connected to my schoolwork and the pressure that I, my parents, and my peers have placed onto me. In 8th grade, my mental health was terrible because of the incredible stress my parents had placed on me to get straight A's.any
Now that my parents have realized that I have depression, they've eased up significantly on their expectations from me and are accepting and kind about any kinds of grades I get in school. This has helped my mental and emotional health immensely and actually helped me do better in school.

So yeah, I'd say that parents and schools have a pretty big impact on somebody's mental health.

What are chemical imbalances?

Probably seratonin. Which is why meds work in 90% of these cases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think all this speculation about her family and school life is deeply disrespectful. I knew JoJo and she was a bright and caring girl, but at the same time struggled with mental illness.
This was not brought on by school stress or her parents, but by far deeper chemical issues like not suicides.
If anything we should be talking more about mental illness and the stigma, not criticizing schools or parents you know nothing about.

Yes, but parents and schools are a huge factor in causing or at least exacerbating these chemical imbalances. I'm a student and last year, I went through an absolutely awful period of depression that was completely connected to my schoolwork and the pressure that I, my parents, and my peers have placed onto me. In 8th grade, my mental health was terrible because of the incredible stress my parents had placed on me to get straight A's.any
Now that my parents have realized that I have depression, they've eased up significantly on their expectations from me and are accepting and kind about any kinds of grades I get in school. This has helped my mental and emotional health immensely and actually helped me do better in school.

So yeah, I'd say that parents and schools have a pretty big impact on somebody's mental health.

What are chemical imbalances?

Probably seratonin. Which is why meds work in 90% of these cases.

Did you see that on a pharmaceutical commercial?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s mental illness people, it’s not other people’s fault typically.
Stop harping about things you know nothing about.

It is mental illness but that doesn’t mean there is t fault. My child is currently hospitalized because he is suicidal. Trigger is mostly school pressure. I went to the school once a week at least to try to get supports only to be told my son was fine. But he’s not and he may have been had he received some supports. It’s not the only thing but it was definitely the straw that broke the camels back. So yes sometimes there is blame.

That doesn’t mean it’s the fault of the school. If your son can’t function in that school environment you have to find another environment for him.
It sounds like he needs a therapeutic school - you need to advocate for him and find him another setting.

Most families cannot afford a therapeutic school - maybe are 50K+ a year if not more. The schools, especially MCPS will not pay for it in less the issues are severe and being suicidal generally isn't one. Many families are left on their own to cope and figure it out. Few insurances offer great mental health treatment and there are very few good therapists and psychiatrists out there.

What are you talking about? It sounds like you keep trying to justify your lack of action on behalf of your son . There are tons of good psychiatrists and psychologists - get out there and find appropriate care for your son.

It is extremely hard to get a new patient appointment with an adolescent psychiatrist in this area. And most do not take insurance and charge $400 or more for an intake appointment. You beat whatever drum you have to to get help for your kid, but it is damn hard and expensive.

You do know that even if they don't "take insurance", that you can submit the claim to your insurance? Yes, you might have to put it on a credit card until you are reimbursed, but mental health is a required part of insurance coverage now.

You have no clue the meaning of what you are talking about. Yes, mental health is dequired to be covered but the devil is in the details.My therapist charges $250 a session. The insurance says $100 is the "usual and customary rate" that they negotiate with in network providers and so that is what the reimbursement is based on. Out of network is lower reimbirsement than in network, so i will only get $60 as reimburesemnt. I am still responsible to the therapist for the $180 difference. In addition, there may be annual limits on the number of therapy sessions that will be reimbursed.

Finding quality mental healthcare and paying for it is still very difficult these days. Why do you insist on blamecasting?

Are they still permitted to have annual limits on visits? I thought that was part of the law the changed, but may be mistaken.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It's the parents who create this insanity.

Every other day on DCUM there is a post:

"Is my 2 year old gifted?"
"What type of preschool for my prodigy 3 year old?"
"How advanced is knowing the alphabet at 10 months?"
"what colleges should we have in mind for our gifted 9 year old?"

These kids are DOOMED from a young age to lives of stress.

If I didn't spend WAY too much time on DCUM, I'd think this was parody, except that these are real posts from real people, who are deeply deeply concerned about how to best support their "gifted" newborns.

I don't think this correlates with suicide (the topic of this thread) but it certainly isn't GOOD for anyone's mental health.

Nice straw man