{"id":112212,"date":"2022-05-12T23:02:01","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T03:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=112212"},"modified":"2022-05-12T23:02:01","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T03:02:01","slug":"kidspeace-presidents-letter-published-in-the-new-yorker-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=112212","title":{"rendered":"KidsPeace President\u2019s Letter Published in The New Yorker Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCHNECKSVILLE, PA (May 12, 2022)<\/strong>\u00a0– KidsPeace President and CEO Michael Slack offered an expression of hope about mental health crises facing our nation\u2019s youth, in\u00a0a letter to the editor published in the May 16th<\/sup>\u00a0edition of\u00a0The<\/em>\u00a0New Yorker\u00a0<\/em>magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The letter was in response to an article from\u00a0The New Yorker\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0April 11th<\/sup>\u00a0issue, titled \u201cThe Unthinkable,<\/a><\/em>\u201d in which reporter Andrew Solomon detailed the struggles of families coping with the suicide of a child to illustrate the \u201cescalating phenomenon\u201d of both a rise in teen suicide rates and a drop in the average age of young people dying of suicide in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Acknowledging the stories told in the article are \u201cheartbreaking,\u201d Mr. Slack\u2019s letter cautioned readers not to conclude that \u201cnothing can be done to alter a child\u2019s trajectory\u201d toward suicide. \u201cProfessional mental-healthcare providers have been successful in guiding children away from suicide and self-harm,\u201d he wrote, noting the \u201ccontinuum of service(s)\u201d KidsPeace provides to children and families – ranging from inpatient crisis intervention to the web-based TeenCentral therapeutic support service.<\/p>\n

Full text of Mr. Slack\u2019s\u00a0The New Yorker<\/em>\u00a0letter:<\/p>\n

As a mental-health professional, I found Andrew Solomon\u2019s piece heartbreakingly accurate in its portrayal of the impact on families when a child dies by suicide (\u201cThe Unthinkable,\u201d April 11th). I hope that readers will not conclude, based on the stark illustration of the hopelessness and frustration that the featured families experienced, that nothing can be done to alter a child\u2019s trajectory.<\/em><\/p>\n

Professional mental-healthcare providers have been successful in guiding children away from suicide and self-harm through a continuum of services\u2014from hospital-based crisis intervention, to school-based and community outpatient programs, to innovations like my organization\u2019s TeenCentral.com therapeutic support website. In the past, such efforts had to combat the stigma surrounding mental health, but ironically, the clear emotional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on kids has helped break down that stigma among American families.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that not every intervention results in a successful outcome, and that our society needs to do more to help mental healthcare providers address long-standing funding and workforce issues, but it\u2019s important to remember that there are effective forms of help available to many children.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

For 140 years, KidsPeace has been building on its expertise to give hope, help and healing to children, adults and those who love them. Through its comprehensive range of residential treatment programs; accredited educational services; unique psychiatric hospital and foster care and community-based programs, KidsPeace is dedicated to helping people connect, transform and overcome their challenges to ensure a stable future, transition to adulthood and gain independence. Since its doors opened, nearly 300,000 children have participated in one of the multitude of programs KidsPeace offers.<\/em><\/p>\n

For additional resources or more information on how to get involved, become a foster parent or make a donation, please visit\u00a0www.kidspeace.org<\/a>. Follow us at\u00a0www.facebook.com\/kidspeace.org<\/a>\u00a0or on Twitter @KidsPeace.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Information Provided By:
\nRobert Martin
\nDirector of Communications<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCHNECKSVILLE, PA (May 12, 2022)\u00a0– KidsPeace President and CEO Michael Slack offered an expression of hope about mental health crises facing our nation\u2019s youth, in\u00a0a letter to the editor published … Continue reading KidsPeace President\u2019s Letter Published in The New Yorker Magazine<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105500,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/kidspeace.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112212"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/105500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}