"Solitude isn't perpetual"
In a heartwarming tale of resilience and recovery, 18-year-old Lauren Opladen's journey at Golisano Children's Hospital serves as a beacon of hope for adolescents struggling with suicidality and significant mental health concerns.
The program at Golisano Children's Hospital offers a comprehensive approach to care, encompassing one-on-one sessions, group discussions, activity therapy, and classroom learning. This holistic approach aims to provide the necessary tools for young patients to navigate their mental health journey.
After an initial struggle, Lauren spent another month back in the inpatient unit, engaging in more work, more discovery, and more treatment. Upon release, she transitioned to an outpatient care setting and began seeing a therapist once a week. This ongoing clinical support has been instrumental in her recovery.
The Pediatric Behavioral Health building at Golisano Children's Hospital is set to increase its capacity from 22 to 33 teens when it opens later this year, providing even more adolescents with access to these life-changing services.
Lauren's improvement during her stay at the inpatient unit was attributed to the staff's assistance and her ability to form connections with them. She exhibited strengths such as empathy for others, humor, and a willingness to help others, which undoubtedly played a role in her recovery.
The institutional approach associated with Lauren's case emphasizes the importance of integrated and long-term psychiatric care frameworks for recovery. Effective long-term coping, as suggested by the University of Rochester Medical Center's Department of Psychiatry, involves:
- Continuous Clinical Support: Engaging with programs that provide ongoing psychiatric and psychological care suited for adolescents and young adults.
- Integrated Services: Access to combined mental health and addiction recovery services to address co-occurring disorders that may underlie suicidal ideation.
- Specialized Clinics and Programs: Participation in dedicated adolescent/young adult clinics that coordinate care and provide leadership and supervision to ensure high-quality treatment.
- Leadership and Peer Support: Structured environments where clinical supervisors and coordinators help manage the recovery process and foster resilience.
These elements align with expert-driven, evidence-based approaches to adolescent suicide prevention and recovery, focusing on sustained clinical engagement, personalized care, and holistic support systems.
Lauren's story does not provide specific individual coping steps, but it underscores the importance of integrated and long-term psychiatric care frameworks for recovery. Adolescent suicide recovery often involves therapy, crisis planning, building supportive relationships, and skill-building for emotional regulation.
In a spirit of giving back, Lauren held a fundraiser for the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Golisano Children's Hospital, raising over $800. She also shares her story to encourage others struggling to tell someone about their struggles.
Looking forward, Lauren plans to study nursing at The College at Brockport this fall. She has also found a new companion in Chief, a pit-bull mix she recently adopted and walks every day. The program prioritizes those struggling with severe depression who can safely stay at home during evenings and weekends.
Lauren's journey serves as a testament to the power of resilience, the importance of support, and the transformative impact of integrated mental health services. Her story offers hope and encouragement to countless others on their own paths to recovery.
[1] University of Rochester Medical Center. (n.d.). Adolescent Suicide Prevention and Recovery: Expert-driven, Evidence-based Approaches. Retrieved from https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/psychiatry/research/research-areas/adolescent-suicide-prevention-recovery.aspx
The University of Rochester Medical Center's Department of Psychiatry emphasizes the significance of continuous clinical support, integrated services, specialized clinics and programs, and leadership and peer support for effective long-term coping in mental-health recovery, as demonstrated by Lauren's Journey at Golisano Children's Hospital. This holistic approach to patient care, encompassing health-and-wellness aspects, is crucial in supporting the mental health needs of young patients and promoting their recovery.
