COPE program has openings

Openings are available in a program aimed at helping children, teens and young adults cope with stress and anxiety.

The providers at the Pediatrics Clinic of Sweetwater Memorial launched the COPE – Creating Opportunities for Personal Empowerment – program in the spring.

“I’m so excited about the results that I am seeing in the children and teens who are now completing this program,” said Tamara Walker, the clinic’s pediatric nurse practitioner.

As current students finish the seven-week session, some afterschool openings will be available.

COPE is a seven-week cognitive behavioral therapy program designed to build resiliency skills in children and teenagers.

“Managing stress at a young age can be difficult at any time,” Walker said. “Starting school again in the middle of a pandemic can add even more pressure, leaving many of us feeling out of our control.”

The Cognitive Behavioral Therapy-based (CBT) program is aimed at helping anyone from age 8 to 21 who is struggling with anxiety and depression.

COMMON SYMPTOMS:

• Depression: Irritability, sadness, sleeping too much or too little, gaining or losing weight, feeling guilty or hopeless, having trouble concentrating or making decisions, thinking a lot about death or suicide.
• Anxiety: Anger, irritability, nervousness, trouble separating from family, sleep disturbance, obsessive thoughts, somatic symptoms such as regular headaches or stomachaches.

CONSIDER THIS:

• CBT programs are the gold standard for mild to moderately anxious and depressed kids and teens.
• 1 in 4 children, teens and young adults have diagnosable and treatable mental health conditions.
• Less than 25% of this population gets the treatment they need.
• Depression is a significant risk factor for suicide.
• Suicide is the second leading cause of death in people ages 10 to 24.

“We often cannot control what is happening around us, but we do have control over how we process what is going on around us,” Walker said, when she launched the program in the spring. “This is where the COPE program becomes influential for my patients. It gives kids and teens the foundational skills that are needed to face stress and adversity without getting stuck in negative thought patterns that often show up in our clinic as anxiety or depression.”

Walker completed a pediatric mental health fellowship – the Kyss (Keep Your Children Safe and Secure) Fellowship – at Ohio State University. To find out more or to make an appointment with Walker, call 307-212-7717.