May is Mental Health Month, with May 7 designated National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day. But for two members of Newtown’s Resiliency and Recovery Team (RRT), every day since their arrival brings them greater awareness of local youths’ mental health concerns post 12/14.

They told The Newtown Bee this week that many local young people continue to experience, or are  just beginning to develop stress, anxiety, depression, or other mental health issues as the community continues to cope with after effects of the Sandy Hook tragedy.

The upside for local children, teens, and their families: Catherine Galda, LCSW, and Eileen Rondeau, RN, bring unique insights about addressing and supporting youth and family concerns. Shortly after 12/14 the pair was charged with establishing a pediatric mental health intake and referral system —  expertise they subsequently integrated as part of the larger RRT since its launch last August.

When it comes to recognizing, confronting, and mitigating the issues that are affecting Newtown’s youngest residents, even those too young to recall or who were born after the devastating incident, the two mental health professionals share some specific advice for parents and caregivers.

First, they reiterate the message that from a mental health perspective, Newtown’s recovery is still in its infancy. Many communities that have experienced mass casualty incidents are supporting or seeing new subjects coming forward with posttraumatic issues years, even decades, afterward. 

So acknowledging that young people, like others in Newtown, are subject to onset mental issues some two-and-a-half years post-incident is the first step toward addressing and mitigating these issues with a positive outcome.

Sharing Concerns Is Critical

Second, they are urging parents to share their concerns — starting with their child’s pediatrician, but also with others in the support network that may include counselors, teachers, coaches, or other extended family members.

“If there are concerns, a change in behaviors, apparent stress, anxiety, depression or acting out with self-destructive behavior, self-injury, or substance use and abuse, share that information immediately with your pediatrician or primary physician,” Ms Galda said.

Then, of perhaps greater importance, give the key members of a child or family’s support team permission to interact with each other.

“Make sure the doctor has permission to talk with the school system, and the school and doctor can talk with other immediate family members, or even their coaches,” she said. “Find a level of trust and reach out across all members of your support system.”

 In the days and weeks after 12/14, local pediatricians were inundated with children and their parents or caregivers, overwhelming these medical professionals with posttraumatic reactions they were not specifically trained to address. So the American Academy of Pediatricians responded to local colleagues by funding Newtown Access Mental Health, and hiring Ms Galda and Ms Rondeau to establish it.

“These pediatricians were suddenly seeing a crush of patients who were not sleeping, regressing, exhibiting a range of posttraumatic reactions to the incident,” Ms Rondeau said.

With immediate underwriting from Danbury and Yale New Haven Hospitals, the pair opened the intake and referral center, receiving dozens of patients from overtaxed local pediatricians as well as from local schools, and lining them up with professionals who were best suited to address these behaviors.

And they also tracked and followed-up on this growing list of local youngsters and teens.

“We were exclusive to Newtown and responsible for identifying and assisting all those who were directly and indirectly affected,” Ms Galda said. “With seven months of experience, when we were brought in to the RRT we were able to hit the ground running,” Ms Rondeau said. “We brought a structured system [of response] here.”

Care Coordination

If the most critical aspect of their job could be summed up in two words, they would be “care coordination.”

“For most people experiencing mental health concerns, if you do it right, you don’t need a care coordinator,” Ms Galda said. “If a client is well supported until they can support themselves in their recovery, or they get underwriting for that support, they usually do well.”

But for a number of families, the scope of the 12/14 tragedy was so intense that they are still appropriately under the care of the RRT, or they had been previously and returned.

“With the pilot Newtown Access Mental Health program, the focus was on children birth to age 18,” Ms Galda explained. “But when you identify youth clients, you have to look at their support system including siblings and parents as impactful to their recovery.”

As a result, intervention may immediately or eventually incorporate members of, or the entire, family system, the RRT experts said.

“Post-12/14, we had kids so young or so removed or insulated from the incident, they were not initially  impacted emotionally. But their parents and other supports were so affected that it began affecting those children down the road,” Ms Galda said.

Ms Rondeau believes while there is still a great need for services, the community and its various support agencies are doing a good job making residents aware there are services out there ready and waiting to assist.

Removing Stigmas, Barriers

By providing robust and responsive care coordination, the pair and their RRT colleagues are helping to remove all barriers to seeking therapy, and reducing the number one hindrance to recovery — dropping out of the care system because of frustrations around scheduling therapy sessions, covering costs, or incompatibility with the first, second, or even third mental health professional assigned to the case.

“It’s OK if a relationship between a care provider and client does not work out on the first try,” Ms Galda said. “But we’ve been around long enough to know who is out there, and we know how to help families get started.”

“And if it doesn’t work out at first, we follow-up and bring them back in,” Ms Rondeau said.

“If at first, [a provider] doesn’t fit, it doesn’t mean mental health treatment isn’t right for you,” Ms Galda said.

“And there’s still a stigma. People may be fully aware they feel bad, and there are services available, but they still hesitate because they feel guilty about stepping in front of others who may need it more, or [think] that they don’t qualify for or deserve mental health support,” Ms Rondeau added.

Ultimately, parents and caregivers of local children and teens need to know they can err on the side of caution. Whether they are wrong or right, the outcome is positive.

“We can tell just by talking about how a child or their entire family feels about 12/14 whether or how much they are impacted,” Ms Rondeau said. “But they need to come see us. And if there is a concern, they have to clear the way for every possible member of that child’s support system to be aware of the issue and to work as a team to get them through it.” 

The Newtown RRT is located at 28 Trades Lane. For information, call 203-270-4612, e-mail info@newtownrrt.org, or visit newtownrrt.org.