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- The Lee Thompson Young Foundation aims to erase the stigma associated with mental illness.
- The foundation was started by Young’s mother and sister as a way to commemorate him after he died by suicide at age 29 in 2013.
- According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 46 percent of people who die by suicide have a diagnosed mental health condition.
Lee Thompson Young was a brilliant and accomplished actor. At age 13, he appeared on the Disney Channel original series “The Famous Jett Jackson.”
A few years later, he went on to star in a McDonald’s commercial with Michael Jordan.
From there, he landed roles on various primetime television shows, such as “Friday Night Lights,” “Smallville,” and “Scrubs,” as well as films, such as “The Hills Have Eyes 2.”
As his career prospered, Young began to struggle with mental health issues.
In her late teens, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a mental health condition that is associated with episodes of mood swings ranging from depressive lows to manic highs and lows.
He managed his illness with medication and therapy for several years, all while continuing to build a successful acting career and being a loving brother and son.
However, in 2013, Young committed suicide at age 29.
“At the time, I didn’t live near Lee. I lived on the other side of the country. When I spoke to him on the phone, he couldn’t say he was in crisis. He was a very good actor, ”his mother, Velma Love, told Healthline.
Love remembers her son as a loving and kind person who was deeply aware of social issues and sought creative ways to impact society. To commemorate her life, Love and her daughter, Tamu Lewis, established the Lee Thompson Young Foundation in 2014.
“Losing Lee was a tremendous shock and immediately reminded me of the need for more education about mental illness, especially the stigma associated with it. U.S [wanted] do something to help other people and prevent other families from losing someone to suicide, ”Love said.
The Lee Thompson Young Foundation focuses on erasing the stigma associated with mental illness through various awareness efforts, including its Mind program.
“The Mind program is for administrators and school staff working with children K-12 so they can learn the broad spectrum of mental health: trends, what to look for in children, when to recognize that help is needed, and how to build bridges to resources. . in their communities, ”Stephanie E. Johnson, owner of NaviPsych and executive director of the Lee Thompson Young Foundation, told Healthline.
Johnson also developed a 5-week resilience and training program on behalf of the foundation based on the psychological principles and techniques of Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence, and the Behavioral, Emotional Intelligence, and Needs Model. cognitive (NEICB).
The program teaches participants (both students and school staff) to nurture their overall mental well-being by:
- understand how basic human needs drive behavior
- use techniques to improve the self-awareness of others and awareness of their surroundings
- learn how thoughts and feelings influence behavior and how applying cognitive-behavioral coping techniques in daily life improves resilience
“We ask teachers to be motivated to do their own training and experience it for themselves, so they can connect with and interact with children first hand,” Johnson said.
She is working to expand the foundation’s efforts with new offerings, such as online mindfulness sessions, in which a therapist teaches young adults how to deal with anxiety and depression.
“This is aimed at college students because there is not enough support for them as they transition from high school to college. They are a vulnerable group right now. We want to offer something easily accessible that helps them self-regulate and empower themselves, ”said Johnson.
The foundation also recently partnered with The Gottman Institute, whose goal is to help families create and maintain healthy relationships.
“We will work together to provide an emotional training program for parents because working at home and babysitting all day is a huge challenge right now,” Johnson said.
The organization’s latest effort is to partner with the AAKOMA Project, which offers teletherapy.
“We are paying for 20 sessions for people seeking immediate help. When people are in crisis, it is about surviving and meeting basic needs for food, shelter and safety. This program allows people to get mental health support without having to think about it or stress and create more anxiety around them, ”Johnson said.
When Young was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder, his mother was unfamiliar with the condition.
“I had a friend who was a mental health counselor who I spoke to because he didn’t know anything about the condition. She talked to me about suicide and how frequent it was, but it was something I didn’t even register at the time, “Love said.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 46% of people who die by suicide have a diagnosed mental health condition, and 90% of people who die by suicide have experienced symptoms of a mental health condition.
While people with serious mental illnesses, such as depression and bipolar disorder, are at higher risk for suicide, Julie Cerel, PhD, a licensed psychologist and former president of the American Association of Suicidology (AAS), says that not all people who suffer from these diseases will die by suicide.
“In fact, a higher percentage of people with schizophrenia and eating disorders die by suicide than those with depression and bipolar disorder. Depression is quite common and fortunately a small percentage of people with depression die by suicide, although popularly, people think that depression is the only cause of suicide, ”Cerel told Healthline.
He adds that while mental health conditions play a role in suicide, not all suicide is the result of mental health problems.
“Many people who die by suicide do not have diagnosable mental health problems, but they also have relationship problems, physical health problems, stress related to work or money, legal or housing problems. It is important that people know that mental health problems are common and treatable and that they reduce the stigma of getting help, ”Cerel said.
The stigma of getting help is especially present in the African-American community, Love says.
“In African American communities, there is such a stigma that people don’t want to talk about it or get treatment. Whenever I make public presentations, there are people who come up to me and talk quietly about a family member who needs help, but they don’t talk openly about it. With suicide, there are all kinds of judgments on families, ”Love said.
Part of the stigma stems from the mental health disparities experienced by black, indigenous and people of color. Cerel says these disparities are also a problem in suicide prevention.
Following George Floyd’s death in May, the AAS issued a pledge to become anti-racist.
Other leaders in the field of suicide prevention also committed to making changes.
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention set out to make diversity a priority for grants. Vibrant Emotional Health, which operates the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, distributed tip sheets to mental health professionals that provide guidance on how to speak up about racism and civil unrest.
Love believes more efforts like these are needed.
“The broader scope of the problem beyond therapeutic needs and clinical practices and programs are the stressors of being black in America,” he said.
“We live in an environment with a high racial burden, and the daily life and the microaggressions that occur, the fear that is aggravated every time a child watches a shooting on television, all these factors contribute to the need for health professionals mental and -being counselors and therapies and modalities ”.
Added Love, “As an educator and cultural worker, I see the systemic issues that are so ingrained in this society, and these are issues that Lee was concerned about.”
Your child’s memory base plans to address these issues.
“It’s a matter of having more conversations and approaching things in a friendly way. For the black community and African men, boys and adolescents, we are there, ”Johnson said.
The reasons why people become suicidal are complex, and Cerel says that there is no single type of person who attempts suicide or dies. In fact, people of all races, ages, and lifestyles can be suicidal.
The biggest warning sign that someone may be suicidal is if they talk about suicide, says Cerel.
“It’s really okay to ask someone if they are thinking about killing themselves if you are concerned. You will not put ideas in her head that are not already there. Having the means to end their lives can be fatal, so someone who commits suicide with a firearm is at risk. Better to figure out how to separate people who are suicidal from the means they might use, ”he said.
The most common misconception you want to discredit is that suicidal people are selfish.
“In fact, their brain is telling them that the people they love would be better off without them. This is one of the great tragedies of suicide, as each suicide affects about 135 people we meet in our work, and those left behind often change their lives permanently, ”said Cerel.
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