That is the issue of mental health screening for teenagers. We're speaking to doctor Lizza Street, who's a pediatrician and co founder of a Judah. But just you know, for
a bit of background, there's lots happening. I mean, I've been saying that it's such an important conversation to have in light of the youth that we have right now and the circumstances that they live under Number one, there's so much that's different from what the youth of twenty twenty five are experiencing compared to the youth twenty thirty, forty years ago. The screen time that they spend, the content that they're exposed to, all are found to be
contributors or potential contributors to their mental health challenges. In fact, according to a UNISE study from twenty twenty one, thirty two percent of South African teens showed symptoms of anxiety depression. If you told parents ten fifteen, twenty years ago that their children could be suffering from depression they're thirteen, fourteen year old, I think they would be shocked, they would know,
they'd wonder, what do you mean. But now the reality is just it's right there and so many parents are aware of the potential and the risks. So we had a conversation this evening around why every teenager needs mental health screening, and our guest, Liza's Street, a pediatrician and co founder of a Juda, joins us now Live. Liza, thank you so much for joining us and welcome to seven oh two.
Good evening, Kmoso, thank you for having me on your show this evening.
Doctor I don't want to is it Lizard Eliza, It's Lisa, Lisa, okay, cool, Thank you so much for that. Maybe let's just start a doctor Street with I mean, what mental health screening actually is and if it's something that just teen should be doing or if we should all be getting screened for mental health issues.
So any screening is it's very important to differentiate between what a screening is and what a diagnostic test is. So a diagnostic test is something we're actually going to find out the root of the problem. It's a blood test that will tell you that you have a low blood a low sugar, or a urinee make et cetera. But when it comes to screening, a screening is a suggestive test that is quick, quick, it's cost effective, it
can be done at scale. It can be done in a community like for example, schools, and we can assess large groups to see who is at risk of developing the condition and therefore been needing to be diagnosed. So screening isn't the diagnosis. It is really just a way to find out who is a high risk person or child that needs further evaluation, and that by doing that then they can be directed to the professionals that can then do that that proper further evaluation and diagnosis.
Right, And I mean I'm always speaking about teens here in particular, but the screening is this something that we should all.
Be considering doing one percent? You know already now we find that with corporate wellness, it is already brought into the programs. In corporate wellness when they're checking blood pressures and sugars and cholesterol levels, they often do do what we call a PHQ nine. It's a very well known validated screening tool with nine questions that adults are asked and to find out how they're doing, you know, in
terms of the depression. Fans and some medical aids also have it on the for their members to be able to do so. It has already been spoken about within the within amongst adults. However, amongst teenagers, we're not finding that it's been spoken about. It's not being done. And it's extremely important because we're dealing with a crisis in
our hands with our teens. As you mentioned earlier, it's on the rise mental health issues and we need to start acting now and making a change otherwise things that can just get worse.
And I mean, in terms of teens, what are some of the reasons why we should consider prioritizing screening for them. I mean I mentioned screen time, which I know is a is a big part about social media, the influences of social media. Those are all reasons to consider screening for them.
Right absolutely. And you know why it's so important because I always say, don't screen for something unless you can do something about it. So the reason we screen is
because they're an adolescent period. It is vitally important for us to detect if there is if a child is showing funds of depression or suicidal thoughts or anxiety, we can actually give them the coping mechanism, the tools to support so that they can learn to cope with it and not either commit suicide, which is the worst case scenario or for them not to for them to learn the current mechanisms that don't become adults with these chronic
conditions and prevent them from having mental health problems with adults. You know, the brain is very plastic in a teenagers, they can it's maliable. We can change the trajectory of
these kids' loves. So for me, the importance of the screening is because we can intervene and we can change how the synapses are growing and all the you know, I don't want to get into medical jargon, but you know we can change they rewire their brain so to speak, to put it simply, and therefore they will have a coping mechanisms so they're not land up with medication as an adult or with a diagnosis as an adult. So
for screening for teenagers is so important. For one, you want to risk identify any high rist child and be able to intervene and get them the help and support immediately that they need. Number two is to say those that are showing sounds that they need support, getting them in the correct care pathway so that we can support them and then at least as adults, then we're not going to have a crisis that already we're seeing more and more adults presenting the signs of anxiety and depression as well.
What are some of the science to look out for. As a parent, who might you know, have a teen to think maybe I should take much child for screening.
You know, it's very, very difficult for parents. It's actually, you know, adolescents are moody and emotional and you just don't know as a parent. I think, you know, it's hard for parents to put it on themselves and expect to identify the science and the symptoms. You know. However, having said that, we need to be like you mentioned earlier,
social media is a huge problem in today's teenagers. They are worried about how many likes they have and who they're following, and even when they're not looking for certain things, it will find them on social media and they will be influencing ways that really we need to be protecting
our teams. In many countries they ban social media from the end of the age of sixteen, but even when as a sixteen seventeen year old, the infant of social media and the effects of depression and diety is huge, and it's well known, and so as parents, We need to be responsible in the social media usage and what
we allow our kids to do at home. And then you know, asking them if your child not eating well and not a behavior has changed more than what you would imagine a normal teenager would behave speak to them, Talk to them, make sure you're communicating because it's going to be hard for you to know just from a few sympsons and science, So it's important to you have good communication as a family. You know, the traditional round the table is vitally important to know what's going on
in their list, what's happening at school? Are they being bullied? Are they having relationship difficulties that are they just need help and support to cope through. There's so much that can be addressed from communicating with your kids that we now don't spend enough time doing so. I think that is vitally important and often the teenagers will come forward and tell you a lot if you just spend time asking them. The screening we've done is for those teenagers.
You know that they're not comfortable we're talking to parents. They haven't got the opportunity and really for them to have a chance to be heard, because they do want to be heard. We've done this test on many children and they really do tell the truth and they want to be heard and they want support, they just don't know where to find it. Unfortunately.
We're talking at screening mental health screening for teens. My guess this evening is doctor Lisa Street and she's a pediatrician and co founder of Judah Zree double one double A three seven two. We want to hear from you if you have teens that you think might require some screening, and actually says it's a difficult one, right because teenagers are so difficult to figure out and just decipher. You know, they are emotional, they can be moody, So get in
touch with us. She's here to take some of your questions around the screening of what it looks like and we're and how you can go about getting screening for your teens. Doctor, maybe let's just start with what the typical mental health screening involves.
So what we've decided to do is we try to create an environment within the school environment to do the screenings and therefore we can do it in a large scale and when the kids are all at school and comfortable in a normal lesson where we give them it's a test. It's paper based. We didn't want to use a digital format, even though we'd be much easier for data capturing and forgetting results. We decided for the anonymity of it and for the comfort of what children are
used to with writing tests. We do a pepper based screening test, and we've used tools that are validated that are well known. The tools that we've used are specifically in teenage language, so to speak. It's not an adult test that we're now giving to teenagers. It's specifically from the ages of twelve to eighteen, and in that test that are answer a number of questions. The first tool, there are about twenty five questions, and in that we
can determine whether their signs of anxiety or depression. They can't score that themselves in the test. We need to take that test into our offices and we get it professionally scored, and then based on those scores, we can get feedback back to the school to give them an overview of what's going on in their school. The screen really the goal of it wasn't so much to diagnose, like I say, your child has anxiety or your child has depression, and to make them feel they've been singled
out and identified amongst a group of peers. It was rather for us to go back to the schools and to say, this is what's going on in your school. We've got a school of a thousand kids from grade eight to twelve. Your grade eights are struggling with this, or your grade twelves are striving with depression, whatever it
may be. So that they can within the school and target strategies specifically to that year or that class to facilitate the conversation and to make sure that they are helping these students to get help and to know where they can get help. So we're facilitating this at scale within the school's environment. We're not doing screenings one on
one in the doctor's rooms. When you're going into the doctor's room or the psychologist psychiatrists, that will be more of a diagnostic test because that's one on one personalized attention. The screening we're doing is really to say, to give the school an opportunity to really understand what is happening in the mental health of the students attending their school. The second part of it is we have a high
risk identification. So, like I said, it's anonymous. However, there is an opportunity for kids who are suicidal and our higher risk to identify themselves and say I need help, help me. This is my name, this is my number, this is my mom's name. Because then what we have done, we're working with SADAC, which is a South African anxiety and depression group, and we will then be able to call those children and give them the countany and the
support that they need. And then if they are hirisk and need to be admitted into a facility, we can then facilitate that happening so that they are not left on their own and something bad can happen. And then the final part of the assessment is social media, and we've touched it. What's notice about the social media assessment is that they can self school, so they can do the test of social media and they can then see what is their social media doing to them? How is
it affecting? Do you have healthy habits or are your habits actually unhealthy intoxic? And you need to slow down a little bit. And that's a great tool for them to be able to self engage and reflect on.
Yeah, so what happens after the screening.
Then, so after the screening, we collect everything, we collect all the tests. We immediately check new high risk. We identify those students and we individually, individually go in and tell the school who these kids are so that they're not exposed. It's very private and confidential. We then get those children that are high risk help the rest of
the kids. Then we will then intervene from a group counseling and we work with the psychologists or the social workers based in the school to facilitate strategies to help these kids cope.
And I mean, you know, we spoke about how kids are just so difficult to figure out, but what are some of the primary causes of mental health challenges among teens?
So you know, there's different causes, you know, a lot of the lot. Unfortunately, I'm saying it over and over. The social media has become a big red flag in our teens. But there can be disruptions at home, they can be you know, problems within the family unit at home, and bullying is another very big cause. Unfortunately, the bullying is often linked to social media. So that's why we flag the social media because the bullying doesn't just stay
at school, it follows them on the devices. When they go home and they never seem to be able to escape it. So and then obviously if there is any substance abuse or thing like that that can trigger some sort of mental health issue like depression or a psychosis, et cetera. So they multiple causes, but it depends on the children. And like we say, the big bad one at the moment is social media and bullying and.
A lot of some of the symptoms that parents should absolutely not ignore among their children because you know, with the moodiness and sometimes the emotion, you know, you can say, are they being teens?
But what should you not ignore? You know, if they are not able to eat and they're refusing to eat, and they are not able to sleep, and if they are completely withdrawn and noncommunicative at all and more so than normal, you know, your parents really feel that they've been shut out of their lives. They must start really intervening and getting someone to help communicate with their child, to say, what is going on? Why you so distance?
What is why are you're not eating? You know, those are simple funds that show you, okay, these there's there's lack of will. These kids don't have no will to do anything. They don't want to go to school, they don't want to do their work, they don't want to be with their friends. They withdraw quite a lot to be with themselves. And because they feelings are sad and so lonely, those parents, let's just keep an out. They're not interested in interacting with their friends as per normal.
There's a red flag to get some help.
And I mean just for a bit of a step by step guide for parents. So if they if they see these symptoms, where do they go? What's what do they do?
So what is great is that you can actually contact SATAK there's South African anxidity depression group that do have a helpline and the parents can counterct them and say where they what the area that they live in is and they can then direct you to your closest facility based on what the symptoms are. So SADAK will follow. They have trained comes within the services that will determine
what is the risk. Here are we dealing with a child that is at high risk that needs intervention immediately and needs an ambulance to go and fetch them and bring them into a hospital. They can arrange exactly that. They have very strict protocol. They know how to do that.
If it is a parent that just needs counseling and support to be able to facilitate their child, they will then be able to give in that ongoing they do two or three sessions, they can do then telephonically, they can do them on zoom and they can then decide, okay, well we've done a couple of sessions, but now we actually need to go and see a psychologist or psychiatrist
and get the further diagnosis and treatment. So the actual councilors in Sadak are incredible and they're doing an amazing job and their work in South Africa is really being it's fantastic, and so they are the best people to call for parents that are worried and they think something's going on, and they can really they'll go through all the step by step question and then their protocol and decide what kind of interventions are needed or counseling and direct the parents accordingly.
And you know, I know you spoke about doing the screening at schools, but you know, unfortunately we live in South Africa and inequality is the reality. I mean, how how widespread or how how how how yeah, I mean, is it available at most schools. Is this the reality that most schools have.
So what's so interesting is we did the first screening when we did it last year. Initially we were working at a in a in a township that was getting free screenings for ours is and dental and because the children we were screening we're an older age group, we thought, let's slip in a mental health assessment as well, and so we got consent for doing all the different types of screening and we did this mental health assessment and we were it was opening to see the results and
we thought, Okay, now we've got a clear problem. Yeah, what are we going to do? And so we made sure we created a full, clear pathway for all those teenagers to get help. The school where we did it was incredible. They've now got ongoing counseling. These kids are all getting support and surina can be done. There are facilities available for these kids to get help. So, as we've now obviously grown and we've realized this needs to be a more widespread intervention, we're targeting both the private
and the public schools. It's not one not the other. And what is impressive is that our public schools the principles are extremely involved and are caring and they know that there is a problem. They see it with their social workers are inundated with children. It's going into their office and requiring help. And so they have really they have found budget within their school to make sure that
they can cover the minimum costs. You know, it's really not a big cost, but it's just to be able to make sure that these kids have all the helpline available to them. The ongoing counseling and think and the schools that have been quite incredible with coming on board and intervening for these kids.
And I suppose this is something that's you know, many might be wondering what exactly are the questions that are asked as you do the screening.
So I'm not there. Like I said, the first test is quite comprehensive. It's twenty five different types of questions, and it will be things like that you're feeling It's been spoken in very much inappropriate teenage language, and it'll be like, are you feeling sad or empty inside? Are you worrying when you think that you've got something poorly? Do you feel afraid when you've been at home on
your own? Things like that. So there's very specific questions that they can answer and they can say it's never, it's sometimes, it's often always, and it's a validated tool that then we can score at the end of the twenty five questions and it will point to what we're dealing with with these kids.
Doctor Eliza, maybe just tell us where we can find you. If parents are looking for you, how can they get in.
Touch perfect they can email us at schools at a judo dot dotza. We can bring the mental health screen to their school and make sure that it's been implemented and all the supports, you know. Just to note it's not only about the day of the screening, it's more the support thereafter that is so important with these children. It's one thing to say there's a problem, but it's really the most critical thing is to intervene thereafter. So yes, So if you just