During the school year, Sabine Polak received a call from the guidance counselor regarding her 14-year-old daughter. In addition to being depressed, her daughter had contemplated suicide. Sabine brought her daughter to a crisis center to address her pressing mental health concerns and soon found out that her daughter's intense anxiety was caused by social media. The main reason for her stress was waiting for her friends to respond on Snapchat.

Many of us have a love-hate relationship with technology. We have technology at the tip of our fingers; whether it is through a smartwatch, phone, tablet, laptop, desktop, or TV - screens are available everywhere. One survey explains that 95 percent of teens have access to a smartphone, and 45 percent are online almost constantly. While there are many advantages to tech, young brains are also subject to serious side effects.

Vaping, the new way to smoke, is becoming increasingly popular among teens. It may be hard to believe, but electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) were first introduced in 2007 and have since become a public health epidemic, contributing to youth substance abuse. The Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service, VADM Jerome Adams, stated that “The recent surge in e-cigarette use among youth, which has been fueled by new types of e-cigarettes that have recently entered the market, is a cause for great concern. We must take action now to protect the health of our nation’s young people.”

On any given night in the United States, around 41,000 unaccompanied youth and young adults ages 12-25 experience homelessness, along with an estimated 4.2 million young people every year. Many factors lead to adolescents facing this growing issue.

Summer is here, and teenagers have a break from academic responsibilities—allowing them to have more time on their hands. During these months, the majority of adolescents have less structure and supervision and it is not a time to ignore the actions of youth illegal activity. While the overall juvenile arrest rates are decreasing, the number of teens who get in trouble with the law each summer remains high.

Today we are sharing the story of a Multisystemic Therapy Supervisor, Melissa McGreal, in New York City during the Coronavirus Pandemic. 

Today we are sharing the story of a mother who was skeptical of Multisystemic Therapy (MST), but is now thankful for the tools she has received because of the program. 

Today we are sharing the story of a mother who felt as though she was losing her son— until Multisystemic Therapy (MST) came into the picture. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), alcohol is still the most commonly used and abused drug of choice for youth under the age of 21. In fact, the CDC estimates that 11 percent of alcohol consumed in the United States each year is consumed by youths between 12 and 20 years of age, and 90 percent of that occurs in the form of binge drinking. Despite being viewed as not carrying a great risk by roughly 50 percent of teenagers, the ramifications of underage drinking can lead to lifelong mental and physical issues. From sexual assaults to car accidents, stories of the negative impact drinking can have on youth are frequent in the news and pose a serious public health concern across the country.

Twenty-year-old Amber Graves was just five when her parents abandoned her and her one-year-old brother in the Bronx, New York. Graves and her brother spent years bouncing between homelessness and foster homes, with Graves also at times incarcerated for crimes she committed to help them get by. “My main priority wasn’t a dollhouse,” says Graves of the experience. “It wasn’t the race cars. No type of kid toys. It was making sure that my brother and I were safe and getting us out of this predicament.”