A BAY AREA COLLEGE STUDENT IS USING HER PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY…. TO SUPPORT OTHER TEENS AND YOUNG ADULTS STRUGGLING WITH MENTAL HEALTH CHALLENGES. SHE HAS CREATED A PODCAST. ONE OF HER RECENT EPISODES FOCUSES ON THE OHANA CENTER IN MONTEREY. (PIC OF STICKY NOTES ON MIRROR) STICKY NOTES LINE SADIE SUTTON’S MIRROR. ‘I AM ENOUGH’. ‘THIS TOO SHALL PASS’. ‘NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED’. SADIE (2ND ZOOM) THE MORE WE TALK ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH CHALLENGES, THE MORE THEY’RE NORMALIZED. (BUTT TO) SADIE (1ST ZOOM) IT JUST FELT LIKE I HAD TO SHARE MY STORY AND THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT SADIE IS DOING. THAT PHRASE…’SHE PERSISTED’…IS NOW THE TITLE OF HER PODCAST…. WHERE SHE áTALKS (PLS SHOW PIC OF HER TALKING INTO A MIC) ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH CHALLENGES…. SADIE (1ST ZOOM) I STRUGGLED A LOT WITH ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION AND EVERYTHING THAT GOES ALONG WITH THAT. (BUTT TO) WE TRIED EVERYTHING WE COULD LOCALLY, WHETHER IT WAS INDIVIDUAL THERAPY, FAMILY THERAPY, INTENSIVE OUTPATIENT HOSPITALIZATIONS. SHE SAYS NOTHING WORKED. UNTIL SHE ENDED UP INPATIENT AT A PROGRAM OUTSIDE OF BOSTONWHERE SHE SPENT MANY WEEKS DOING INTENSIVE THERAPY’. AND SHE SAYS THE SHIFT IN HER MENTAL HEALTH WAS TREMENDOUS. SADIE (1ST ZOOM) I REALLY JUST WAS SO INSPIRED BY THE FACT THAT SUCH A BIG SHIFT HAD TAKEN PLACE AND THAT I WAS SO WRONG IN THE IDEA THAT I WASN’T CAPABLE OF RECOVERY, THAT I WANTED TO SHARE THAT WITH OTHER TEENAGERS. (BUTT TO) SO MUCH OF MY STRUGGLE COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED. AND SO I WANTED TO CREATE THE RESOURCE THAT I WISH I HAD WHEN I WAS STRUGGLING, AND ALSO A RESOURCE FOR PARENTS WHOSE TEENS ARE STRUGGLING. BUT DON’T KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON INSIDE THEIR HEAD, DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT STRUGGLE LOOKS LIKE. SADIE IS NOW A 20 YEAR OLD COLLEGE STUDENT, …. PURSUING A DEGREE IN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. SHE IS FOCUSED ON HELPING OTHERS STRUGGLING WITH MENTAL ILLNESS… WHICH IS WHAT INSPIRED HER PODCAST. SADIE á (1ST ZOOM) <"IT REALLY DID BRING THAT SENSE OF PURPOSE THAT IF I CAN HELP ONE PERSON THAT IS IN THE POSITION I WAS, IF I CAN PREVENT ONE PERSON FROM STRUGGLING AS MUCH AS I DID, IT'S ALL WORTH IT. AND ALMOST FOUR YEARS INTO IT, SHE HAS DONE ALMOST 150 EPISODES. ONE OF THE EXPERTS INTERVIEWED....DR. JUSTIN MOHATT, THE MEDICAL DIRECTOR FOR INNOVATION AT OHANA CENTER IN MONTEREY. HIS EPISODE WITH SADIE IS ALL ABOUT TEEN TREATMENT PROGRAMS. DR. MOHATT WE WERE SEEING INCREASING RATES OF ANXIETY, DEPRESSION AND SUICIDALITY IN TEENAGERS WELL BEFORE THE PANDEMIC. AND UNFORTUNATELY, THE PANDEMIC WAS LIKE GASOLINE ON A FIRE. AND SO THINGS HAVE GOTTEN MUCH WORSE SINCE THEN. THE OHANA CENTER IS A FIRST OF ITS KIND IN MONTEREY COUNTY áAND ACROSS THE STATE. THE CENTER, PROVIDES OUTPATIENT INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP THERAPY FOR KIDS AND THEIR FAMILIES. AND WHEN OHANA'S áNEW BUILDING IN RYAN RANCH IS FINISHED THIS FALL, IT WILL OFFER A RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT COMPONENT AS WELL--16 BEDS, FOR TEENS TO STAY WEEKS AT THE FACILITY, FOR A HIGHER LEVEL OF CARE. DR. MOHATT <"OUR GOAL IS TO NOT JUST TREAT THE EXISTING MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES OF YOUTH IN MONTEREY COUNTY, BUT TO BRING DOWN THE INCIDENCE OF MENTAL ILLNESS TO DO THAT... THE CENTER IS TAKING A NEW APPROACH... PARTNERING WITH COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS AND SCHOOLS.... PROVIDING PREVENTION CLINICIANS TO ALL MONTERY PENINSULA UNIFIED MIDDLE SCHOOLS... WHO ARE TEACHING MENTAL FITNESS AND RESILIENCE SKILLS TO KIDS IN MONTEREY COUNTY. CHANGING THE STIGMA SURROUNDING MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT...BY TALKING ABOUT IT. A SIMILAR MISSION FOR SADIE. SADIE (2ND ZOOM) <"BEING ABLE TO KNOW WHAT RESOURCES WILL WORK FOR WHAT YOU'RE STRUGGLING WITH, IS A GAME CHANGER. (BUTT TO) (2ND ZOOM) NO MATTER WHAT YOU'RE EXPERIENCING, NO MATTER HOW CHALLENGING THE MENTAL HEALTH STRUGGLES ARE THAT YOU'RE CURRENTLY ENTRENCHED WHEN SOMEON
College student interviews Ohana Center Medical Director for mental health podcast
Updated: 6:32 AM PDT Jun 1, 2023
May is Mental Health Awareness Month and a Bay Area college student is using her personal experience with depression and anxiety to support other teens and young adults struggling with mental health challenges. She’s created a podcast and one of her recent episodes focuses on Ohana Center in Monterey.“The more we talk about mental health challenges, the more they’re normalized. It just felt like I had to share my story,” said She Persisted Podcast Creator, Sadie Sutton. That is exactly what Sadie is doing. That phrase, She Persisted, is now the title of her podcast, where she talks about mental health challenges.“I struggled a lot with anxiety and depression and everything that goes along with that. We tried everything we could locally, whether it was individual therapy, family therapy, intensive outpatient hospitalizations,” said Sutton. She says nothing worked. Until she ended up inpatient at 14 years old, at a program outside of Boston, 3East at McLean Hospital, where she spent many weeks doing intensive Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. She says the shift in her mental health was tremendous. “I really just was so inspired by the fact that such a big shift had taken place and that I was so wrong in the idea that I wasn’t capable of recovery, that I wanted to share that with other teenagers. So much of my struggle could have been prevented. So I wanted to create the resource that I wish I had when I was struggling, and also a resource for parents whose teens are struggling. But don’t know what’s going on inside their head, don’t know what that struggle looks like,” she said. Sadie is now a 20 year old college student, pursuing a degree in clinical psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. She’s focused on helping others struggling with mental illness, which is what inspired her podcast. “It really did bring that sense of purpose that if I can help one person that is in the position I was, if I can prevent one person from struggling as much as I did, it’s all worth it,” she said. Four years into it, she’s done almost 150 episodes–covering every aspect of mental health: anxiety, depression, OCD, relationships, coping skills, etc–with a whole host of experts. One of the experts interviewed, Dr. Justin Mohatt, Medical Director for Innovation at Ohana Center in Monterey. His episode with Sadie is all about teen treatment programs. “We were seeing increasing rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidality in teenagers well before the pandemic. And unfortunately, the pandemic was like gasoline on a fire. And so things have gotten much worse since then. So there’s a huge need in our community and in communities around the country for this,” said Dr. Mohatt. Ohana Center is a first of its kind in Monterey County and across the state. The center provides outpatient individual and group therapy for kids and their families. It also provides a day hospital program. When Ohana’s new building in Ryan Ranch is finished this fall, it will offer a residential treatment component as well–16 beds, for teens to stay weeks at the facility, for a higher level of care.“We are developing a program that we hope will provide evidence based, strong treatments and assessment, and also provide a lot of prevention programing. Our goal is to not just treat the existing mental health issues of youth in Monterey County, but to bring down the incidence of mental illness,” Dr. Mohatt said. To do that, the center is taking a new approach, partnering with community organizations and schools, providing prevention clinicians to all Monterey Peninsula Unified middle schools, who are teaching mental fitness and resilience skills to kids in Monterey County. Changing the stigma surrounding mental health treatment, by talking about it.A similar mission for Sadie. “We need to be talking about this. We need to be putting words to this experience, because being able to articulate what you’re going through, being able to ask for help when you need it, being able to know what resources will work for what you’re struggling with, is a game changer. No matter what you’re experiencing, no matter how challenging the mental health struggles are that you’re currently entrenched with, someone else has been there too. We all experience emotions, we all have hard days and people can relate and help support you,” said Sutton.If you’d like to check out Sadie’s podcast or have a teen who might be struggling and in need of services with Ohana Center, you can find more information here: https://www.shepersistedpodcast.com/https://www.montagehealth.org/care-treatment/mental-behavioral/ohana/
May is Mental Health Awareness Month and a Bay Area college student is using her personal experience with depression and anxiety to support other teens and young adults struggling with mental health challenges. She’s created a podcast and one of her recent episodes focuses on Ohana Center in Monterey.
“The more we talk about mental health challenges, the more they’re normalized. It just felt like I had to share my story,” said She Persisted Podcast Creator, Sadie Sutton. That is exactly what Sadie is doing. That phrase, She Persisted, is now the title of her podcast, where she talks about mental health challenges.
“I struggled a lot with anxiety and depression and everything that goes along with that. We tried everything we could locally, whether it was individual therapy, family therapy, intensive outpatient hospitalizations,” said Sutton. She says nothing worked. Until she ended up inpatient at 14 years old, at a program outside of Boston, 3East at McLean Hospital, where she spent many weeks doing intensive Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. She says the shift in her mental health was tremendous. “I really just was so inspired by the fact that such a big shift had taken place and that I was so wrong in the idea that I wasn’t capable of recovery, that I wanted to share that with other teenagers. So much of my struggle could have been prevented. So I wanted to create the resource that I wish I had when I was struggling, and also a resource for parents whose teens are struggling. But don’t know what’s going on inside their head, don’t know what that struggle looks like,” she said.
Sadie is now a 20 year old college student, pursuing a degree in clinical psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. She’s focused on helping others struggling with mental illness, which is what inspired her podcast. “It really did bring that sense of purpose that if I can help one person that is in the position I was, if I can prevent one person from struggling as much as I did, it’s all worth it,” she said.
Four years into it, she’s done almost 150 episodes–covering every aspect of mental health: anxiety, depression, OCD, relationships, coping skills, etc–with a whole host of experts. One of the experts interviewed, Dr. Justin Mohatt, Medical Director for Innovation at Ohana Center in Monterey. His episode with Sadie is all about teen treatment programs. “We were seeing increasing rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidality in teenagers well before the pandemic. And unfortunately, the pandemic was like gasoline on a fire. And so things have gotten much worse since then. So there’s a huge need in our community and in communities around the country for this,” said Dr. Mohatt.
Ohana Center is a first of its kind in Monterey County and across the state. The center provides outpatient individual and group therapy for kids and their families. It also provides a day hospital program. When Ohana’s new building in Ryan Ranch is finished this fall, it will offer a residential treatment component as well–16 beds, for teens to stay weeks at the facility, for a higher level of care.
“We are developing a program that we hope will provide evidence based, strong treatments and assessment, and also provide a lot of prevention programing. Our goal is to not just treat the existing mental health issues of youth in Monterey County, but to bring down the incidence of mental illness,” Dr. Mohatt said. To do that, the center is taking a new approach, partnering with community organizations and schools, providing prevention clinicians to all Monterey Peninsula Unified middle schools, who are teaching mental fitness and resilience skills to kids in Monterey County. Changing the stigma surrounding mental health treatment, by talking about it.
A similar mission for Sadie. “We need to be talking about this. We need to be putting words to this experience, because being able to articulate what you’re going through, being able to ask for help when you need it, being able to know what resources will work for what you’re struggling with, is a game changer. No matter what you’re experiencing, no matter how challenging the mental health struggles are that you’re currently entrenched with, someone else has been there too. We all experience emotions, we all have hard days and people can relate and help support you,” said Sutton.
If you’d like to check out Sadie’s podcast or have a teen who might be struggling and in need of services with Ohana Center, you can find more information here: https://www.shepersistedpodcast.com/
https://www.montagehealth.org/care-treatment/mental-behavioral/ohana/
