Youth in crisis: AdventHealth physician and United Way president on the state of mental health in Central Florida

Inspiring Wholeness

Since the pandemic, there’s been a substantial increase in the number of children coming through health care facilities with mental health and behavioral issues, according to Dr. Rajan Wadhawan, senior executive officer for AdventHealth for Children and AdventHealth for Women. They are showing signs of anxiety, depression and self-harm.
“There’s so much unmet need in this area (mental health). We have to provide the support and resources children and their families need to make sure the future world looks better than what we’ve seen over the last few years,” Wadhawan said.
In this episode of the Inspiring Wholeness podcast, presented by AdventHealth in partnership with the Orlando Business Journal, Wadhawan and Jeff Hayward, president and CEO of Heart of Florida United Way (HFUW), discuss Central Florida’s youth in crisis and educating them on how to stay mentally healthy.
HFUW and AdventHealth are long-time partners and have joined forces again. This time they’re tackling the stigma around mental health through a public awareness campaign called Be a Mindleader, according to Hayward.
Listen to this podcast episode to learn more about:

• Florida’s low ranking for access to mental health care (49th out of 50 states in the country).
• The average number of local calls coming into United Way’s 211 call center for help.
• What’s being done about the extreme difficulty to get an appointment with a local mental health practitioner.
• The need for families to normalize conversations about mental health so kids can talk about their struggles, from the stress of social media to homework or bullying.
• Teaching children healthy habits to be mentally and physically fit.
• The Be a Mindleader campaign, a $1 million investment to get Central Floridians comfortable talking about mental health.
• Other efforts designed to connect people with a variety of mental health resources.

To connect with a pediatric mental health navigator, find suicide and crisis prevention resources or learn more about your child's mental health well-being, visit beamindleader.com.
AdventHealth has provided whole-person care for 115 years. Today, our services, including cancer, cardiac, neurosurgery, orthopedics and a dedicated women’s and children’s hospital are rated among the nation’s best. Learn more at feelhealthyfeelwhole.com.
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