New E-tool Helps Kids With Mental Health Issues

A Mayo Clinic team has developed a tool that allows Mayo clinicians to remotely assist children and teens with stress and anxiety.

The Mayo Clinic Anxiety Coach launched by Mayo Clinic can help children and teenagers to work through anxiety treatment resources at the comfort of their home.

The website contains two separate programs: Anxiety Coach to assist children and families dealing with anxiety disorders and obsessive compulsive disorder, and the Family Stress Resource Center for children and families coping with upsetting changes, events or challenges in their lives.

Anxiety Disorder - Types - Causes - Symptoms - Diagnosis - Treatment - FAQs
Anxiety disorder involves excessive worry about actual circumstances, events or conflicts. Anyone can develop this disorder. Genes may play a role.

‘Anxiety disorders affect up to 20% of children. The COVID-19 pandemic can intensify these and other mental health conditions. ’

A Mayo Clinic team worked with digital business consultancy The Nerdery LLC to develop a tool that allows Mayo clinicians to remotely assist children and teens with stress and anxiety. The e-tool, accessible with an internet browser, can be paired with a live video group or individual counseling session. It incorporates content from Mayo's Pediatric Anxiety Disorders Clinic, and includes educational videos, interactive worksheets, the ability to individualize a treatment plan and downloadable forms to track progress.

"As a mental health community, we're all moving quickly to figure out how to provide additional resources to meet our patients' needs," says Stephen Whiteside, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic psychologist. "Our team has wanted to build a unique mental health platform for quite a while, but when social distancing measures were enacted, we realized we needed to expedite the process." While the tool was developed to address patient needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Whiteside believes the resource will improve standard mental health practice, even after the pandemic subsides. He says the team also plans to build on the success of this tool to expand to other areas of mental health.

Dr. Whiteside says the team designed the Mayo Clinic Anxiety Coach e-tool to provide assistance for anxiety disorders and situational stress, such as isolating during a pandemic. The experiences are similar, but they are treated in different ways.

Quiz on Stress

Introduction

Stress has become one of the major health concerns in the modern world, but it is still difficult to define. Stress is a normal physical response when faced with a challenge, and in small doses, stress can motivate us and drive us to better performance. But stress overload is typically described as a negative concept that can have an impact on a person’s mental and physical well-being ().

There are 10 questions on ‘Stress’ in this quiz that will explore the depth of your knowledge and provide answers to the following:

Symptoms of stress ()
Stress hormone ()
Complication of chronic stress ()
Phobia ()
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder ()

To introduce families to exposure therapy for anxiety disorders, Anxiety Coach walks the families through understanding how avoidance maintains anxiety, learning the steps for facing one’s fears, making a step-by-step treatment plan, and preparing to start exposure therapy. To help families cope with situational stress, the Family Stress Resource Center contains a variety of strategies for discussing stressful events, building resiliency, and managing conflict, with a section specific to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Anxiety Screening Test
Are you anxious to know your anxiety level? Use Medindia’s Anxiety Screening Test, a simple online screening test for anxiety symptoms.

Patients interested in the e-tool should contact their Mayo Clinic provider to learn more. Dr. Whiteside is director of the Mayo Clinic Pediatric Anxiety Disorders Clinic, which has additional information and resources. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also offers information on dealing with stress during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Find additional resources on Mayo Clinic News Network:

Easy Ways to Beat Anxiety and Stress
Valuable tips to keep yourself cool in adverse situations

• "Kids coping with the COVID-19 pandemic"

• "Tips to stay mentally healthy while staying at home"

• "'Mayo Clinic Q&A' podcast: Mental health and coping during COVID-19 crisis"

Check the CDC website for additional updates on COVID-19. For more information and all your COVID-19 coverage, go to the Mayo Clinic News Network and mayoclinic.org.

Source-Newswise