[ENCORE] Ep. 124: Promoting Mental Health with Dr. Jess Shatkin

<p><a href= "https://sunshine-parenting.com/ep-124-promoting-mental-health-jess-shatkin/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Show notes & links available here.</a></p> <p>In this episode, I'm speaking with Dr. Jess Shatkin, about preventing mental illness and promoting health in children and adolescents. As a clinician, researcher and educator, Dr. Shatkin is one of the country's foremost experts in adolescent mental health, risk and resilience.</p> <h2>Big Ideas</h2> <ul> <li>Extensive research about mental health has led us to a good understanding of what we can do preventatively for young people.</li> <li>Dr. Shatkin offers practical strategies for parents and people working with kids to help prevent mental illness: <ul> <li>Practice <strong>authoritative parenting</strong>: <ul> <li>show love and support</li> <li>give clear guidelines</li> <li>set limits</li> <li>reinforce positively</li> <li>punish infrequently</li> </ul> </li> <li>Other parenting styles, <strong>authoritarian, permissive</strong> or <strong>negligent parenting</strong>, produce more negative outcomes for children.</li> <li>Professionals need to understand and apply these authoritative parenting skills when working with kids.</li> <li>Kids themselves can learn these basic tools of <strong>behavioral modification</strong>, and it would go a long way toward helping them have better relationships, social awareness, and improved mental health.</li> </ul> </li> <li>These <strong>behavioral modification</strong> tools are: <ul> <li>positive reinforcement</li> <li>effective commands - brief directives not stated as questions and praise by labeling exactly what was done right</li> <li>active ignoring - ignore the behavior you don't like coupled with positive reinforcement for good behavior</li> <li>scheduling kids</li> <li>using reward programs</li> <li>limit setting</li> <li>consequences (such as time-outs for little kids)</li> </ul> </li> <li>Global strategies to address these issues: <ul> <li>We should support more teacher training in thes