The Woodbury community is working to become a leader in mental health, particularly when it comes to its younger residents. Several local health professionals are prioritizing mental health in hopes of making it a more approachable topic for children, teens and young adults.
“Your mind and body work together,” says Shelly Strong, M.D., a pediatrician at Central Pediatrics in Woodbury. She recently teamed up with local psychologist Robin McLeod to create an adolescent integrated health care clinic at Central Pediatrics to bring mental health directly into the pediatric clinic.
The program allows the pair to tag team physical and mental health. While it is a standard of care to screen for depression, anxiety and attention disorders at all physical exams for patients age 11 and up, having a psychologist in the building makes mental health more approachable for the younger patients. Strong can send them to talk to McLeod without scaring them with the idea of therapy. “The kids know me and it’s easier if I can tell the kids I want them to meet with my friend,” Strong says. “Then I can go back in and tell them that’s what a therapist does so that it isn’t scary anymore.”
McLeod, who owns Counseling Psychologists of Woodbury and serves as the current president of the Minnesota Psychological Association, is at Central Pediatrics approximately once a week. The team works to deal with mental health before it becomes an ongoing issue. “We want to address issues early on so they don’t turn into chronic problems,” McLeod says. “There are a lot of people, especially teens, who don’t like going to see a psychologist. I am here to talk with them and to normalize it.”
While the visits with McLeod are brief, sometimes that is all the patient needs. For more complicated issues, McLeod will refer patients to specialty care providers.
Strong also talks to all kids about the importance of sleep, eating and exercise. If she had to stress one thing, it’s that mental and physical health work together, and kids need to make a point to take care of both their mind and body.
While the goal of Strong and McLeod is to prevent mental health issues, Shalene Kennedy, M.D., of Aris Clinic in Woodbury, offers specialty care for kids who need more help. The Aris Clinic program lasts six to eight weeks and operates more like a school. Kids are at Aris during the day and at home the rest of the time. The program is designed to fill the gap between outpatient (traditional therapy sessions) and inpatient (hospitalization or admittance to a mental health facility) programs.
“When a child goes to inpatient they will be in there for a couple of days, get stabilized, and be out again,” Kennedy says “At the other end is outpatient, where a psychiatrist might see those kids every one to three months.” Kennedy says her program is less scary for kids, because they can come in and go through medical programs during the day but still be on a normal schedule.
Like McLeod and Strong, Kennedy works with mental health issues ranging from ADHD to depression. All three providers stress that there is no magic formula to knowing when to visit a mental health professional, but that it never hurts for young people to talk with someone, and there are several options in Woodbury.
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