It’s National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week and one expert talks about the growing issue across Iowa.

Board Certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Heather Wilson says children’s mental health issues can be masked by anger, due to their consistent changes developmentally. 

“If they are having anger issues you have to get to ‘why’? And it could be that they’re having behavioral problems or they have an adverse childhood experience that they’re trying to work through. So being able to screen and give them an appropriate treatment is very important.”   

Wilson says one of the best ways to help children recognize the signs and symptoms of a mental illness is by removing the stigma that it attached to it. She adds, some people view mental health issues as being negative when a violent situation occurs, but emphasizes there’s more to it.

“Sometimes it’s a matter of being sad or withdrawn. People, when they seek mental health treatment, they don’t want people to know that these are the symptoms they have or what they’re going through because we want to keep those secret, those are our private feelings. And they can affect how other people might perceive them.” 

Wilson points out, by removing the stigma of mental health it will teach children to identify the signs and symptoms of mental illnesses and reach out for help to treat and overcome them. Wilson notes, if a child has a mental health issue, she advises treating the entire family because that is who is responsible for the child.