The Brief

How to Support Your Child’s Mental Health Early

• Mike Khader • Season 2 • Episode 5

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70% of mental health issues can be prevented with early support.

Paula Jesty is the Director of M.I. Understanding - a Canadian initiative using storytelling and puppetry to help families talk about children’s mental health. 

From recognising early warning signs to using creative tools that make tough topics easier for kids to grasp, Paula reveals practical ways families can create safe, supportive environments at home. The conversation also touches on screen addiction, school collaboration, and why open dialogue is the most powerful form of prevention.

Key Takeaways: 

  • Early prevention and signs of anxiety: when a tantrum means something more.
  • How puppets and storytelling make tough conversations easier for kids.
  • Ways parents and schools can team up to build resilience.
  • What families can do to curb screen addiction and create calm at home.

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Mike:

This is the brief. I'm sharing lessons from years in the courtroom representing parents and couples on custody battles, co-parenting, mental health, finances, and more. After 20 years as an attorney, I'm also bringing true law stories from the courtroom to empower you with solid and straightforward advice. I wanna help you become a better partner and parent and be here in a time when you need it the most. Hello everyone, and thanks for joining in on this week's episode of The Brief. Today I'm joined by Paul Esti, a communications professional and media producer who turned her talents towards one of the most important issues facing family today. Children's Mental health. Paula is the founder of mi. Understanding an initiative that creates free creative tools from videos to puppets and interactive exhibits that help families, schools, and communities support children in real time, especially during those moments of stress. Change her work has connected parents, educators, and health professionals in a collaborative effort to build resilience and spark vital conversations. I'm excited to, introduce Ms. Paula Justi. Paula, welcome to the show. Oh, Mike, thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be here. You know, I have to tell you, I am always thankful for all our guests who come in and share, you know, their knowledge, their experience, and their advocacy in different areas of parenting or family court if you're going through a divorce. However, when we found that there was a mental health advocate regarding children, I was extremely excited. And I gotta tell you, I looked up your website and I gotta tell our listeners. Please check out MI Understanding. We'll definitely put the link down on the bottom for our listeners. So Paula, what is MI understanding?

Paula:

That's a good question and my understanding really started off as an opportunity to create a community of support for families struggling with children's mental health. When we started this 10 years ago, we were working with Western University here in Ontario, Canada, and, uh, stumbled across some really interesting research around the fact that 70% of mental health can be solved with early diagnosis and treatment. And when we looked a little further into it, kind of why isn't this happening? It's the stigma, shame, and lack of understanding that are keeping families from seeing those early opportunities to build resilience. And my team and I thought we have to do something. My background is in television. I knew some amazing guys on the Canadian side. They used to work with Jim Henson, and we thought, you know, if we took that caliber of puppeteering and partnered with the hospital, schools and university here in Canada, we could create some really clinically sound stories. It would help families start those early conversations and help them see those early signs so they can start supporting resiliency.

Mike:

That's phenomenal. And Paula, I commend you and your team. From there, you hit a couple of buzzwords and you used the word stigma. I find that one of the most difficulties that I have, even as a trial attorney trying to settle cases is. People are still uncomfortable talking about mental health or if they need mental health because of the stigma that it creates. How do you deal with that in your space?

Paula:

Well, one of the challenges, especially when you're dealing with younger people, is it's not just the the one person, it's the family. So everybody brings their own kind of feeling about mental health to the table, which is why our title is, am I understanding It's a bit of a play on words. And the challenge it addresses is my understanding of mental health is gonna be different than yours. So how do we increase that understanding when you're dealing with little ones, sometimes those early signs of mental health issues come up in the form of naughty behavior, right? Uh, they don't school obstinance. They're picky eaters. What we're trying to get families to recognize is that these are really great opportunities to build resilience because even if they are an anxious little one, or they are struggling with mental health. It's like building a muscle. How do we get those understandings around so that everybody around the child can support them, but at the same time, that child can recognize that there is opportunities to build resilience.

Mike:

Is there some signs that. A parent could look for to see, you know, where is the line of they're being spoiled or they're having a tantrum to, okay, hold on one second. This is outside of the norm, like, like are there any telltale signs there any benchmarks that parents should be looking for at particular ages? I mean, our

Paula:

approach is because we think it's. You know, we try and take it from such a positive optic is that all little people have worries. Everybody has worries. Right. I'm sure at some point you've had worries, Mike, we all have had worries right Paula, as we speak. I have Worries. Worries. Right. But, but it really kind of taking it from the standpoint of. In the same way we teach little ones to, to ride a bike or to, you know, play hockey or have a skill set on that front. We wanna get them to understand that anxiety around going to school, transitioning from one parent's house to the other. If we're talking specifically about what you see on a regular basis, there's an opportunity for the adults to get involved. To create a supportive and secure environment so these little ones can overcome these things. So, I know my son, when he was little was petrified of the vacuum, right? Such a silly thing, But instead of punishing him or yelling, or even shaming him, it was a really good opportunity to kind of say, okay, the vacuum's not gonna hurt you. What is it about the vacuum? Apparently we got to the bottom of the fact that one of his toys had been accidentally vacuumed up, which horrified him. Right? But really kind of seeing that this is an opportunity not only for that child to maybe work through that fear or anxiety, but you're also showing them that they have the capacity to overcome some of these things, which is fantastic.

Mike:

That's important. If a parent sees a child has, and I don't want to use the word unrealistic, but if a parent sees that their child has some form of fear or anxiety about an issue, a topic, or an object to address it head on, you know, using the vacuum as as an ideal experience.

Paula:

Yeah. Well, and one of the things that we did is we recognize where we're a bit different from other parent resources is the fact that a lot of the resources out there kind of saying mom and dad and for example, here's some resources. You are gonna digest them, you're gonna disseminate them to the kids. And we're really not taking in consideration the fact that mom and dad might have their own worries, might be in a very stressful situation. So what we've done is we've created stories that everybody can watch together. So one of our most popular stories is about change. So a dog and a chicken in this case are going to school. They find out they're gonna get a new teacher. And so they start worrying about what is this new teacher? Somebody's heard the teacher's gonna be horrible and give a lot of homework. So the mom in this case reminds them about bendy thinking. Bendy thinking is thinking the best instead of the worst. It's something simple, but it's a really nice way that everybody involved can address the situation. We try and write it from two angles. We try and write it from the caregiver's angle where they see and understand what the child's dealing with. Child is not being naughty. Again, they're trying to work through some big feelings and from the child's standpoint, we want them to understand that there's nothing wrong with them. They're dealing with somebody that, something that's true to them, and they need to know that they have a community

Mike:

around them that can support them. Great. And, and it's funny you mentioned that because when I went to your website and we are definitely gonna share it for our listeners, the videos are very helpful and, you know, using the puppets very, I don't want to break any trademarks, but you know, it is very, you know, puppeteers and think of Jim Henson and Sesame Street mm-hmm. Where I think that a lot of children, just by looking at them can relate. Do you find that very effective in all issues?

Paula:

I think

Mike:

it's

Paula:

even kind of surprised me. A good example is we did a video in partnership with some of the childcare programs here called Parent Understanding.'cause one of the things that they were finding is that people working with families, lawyers, doctors, teachers, it's easy for them to develop stigma when it comes to supporting family. I think one of the things puppetry is even I've been surprised how effective they are at having conversations, starting difficult conversations. One of the partnerships we did here was with, uh, like I said, the school, a couple of organizations that supported families, and we developed a video called Parent Understanding that's on our website. And the idea with that was, is that we recognized that. Lawyers, doctors, teachers dealing and trying to support these families. It's easy for them to develop stigma. It's easy for them to forget what the parents are trying to deal with. So we did a video where a mom is called to the school once again because she's gotta deal with her child once again. Instead of having another parent sit down, where again, that could have created stigma in its own right. We had our puppet come up and ask the parent a lot of questions. and so the parent was able to explain to the puppet what they were dealing with, what they felt. So puppets kind of cross that line. And you know, it's really important too, to recognize when we're talking about these things, you know, we take the backend very seriously, Mike, right? So we do the focus groups, we do the research. We make sure that clinically everything we're putting to that website is, is been sound and vetted properly. But once we get there, then we're able to kind of take that communication and gentle the message by using

Mike:

puppets. I find it. Very important. One of the most difficult conversations I had is my own son who has delays, John Paul. And it was very difficult to speak to him about certain issues. But you know, I would go on YouTube, for example, Kala's, Google and YouTube, and I would try to have the, and there would be videos and and talking points and it was almost that third party intermediary would help. Yeah. Talk about particular issues being picked on in school or talking about therapy or talking about emotions, whatever that issue was for the week that we were dealing with, and I, and it didn't, A puppet that seems very familiar to a parent and to a child. I think it's very effective. So once again, kudos to you on that tool. We use the word stigma. As an attorney, when I hear parents, if there there's a custody battle, if they're trying to get some type of visitation, many times they'll be embarrassed to talk about it, where it's literally as their advocate, as their attorney, where I'm supposed to put their best foot forward. One of the biggest challenges is talking about. The stigma of mental health, what type of advice or or practical tips can you give someone to, you know, I use the word lean in, let's break that ceiling. Let's normalize talking about mental health, the way we talk about other facets of health. You know, any tips you could give on that.

Paula:

Yeah, I was gonna say watch our videos. I think the big thing is it's that early intervention piece, and that's why we're so focused on that is the fact that if you start early conversations, then that stigma's gone away. You know, when we started this resource, we obviously did a number of focus groups, and it was amazing. When you talk to adults, one of the reasons there is that stigma is because they felt shamed when they were younger and they had those feelings or they didn't feel supported or understood. So again, it's really the focus of what we're doing is how do we increase that awareness and understanding so we can create safe spaces for people to share that how they're feeling. And joking aside, you know, we've used our resources obviously with children 12 and under with families, but they're really effective to start conversations with adults as well. And it's amazing the amount of times I've done talks and lectures across Canada. You know, we finish and the video ends and we go to start talking again, and all of a sudden, an adult, the third row says, that's me. I haven't told anybody, but that's what I'm dealing with. Right? So again, it's the magic of puppets and I think it's that gentleness that we try and the approach that we try and take as far as making everybody understand that this is just a story in a conversation.

Mike:

It really is. Once it becomes normalized and you recognize this is an issue that we're dealing with, makes it easier. I talk about my own personal experience and other young parents that I know when we have to deal with an IEP or when you learn that your child has a delay or needs a particular type of special need that you know they're saying your brain planes tricks on you. Mm-hmm. You start trying to rationalize something that can't be rationalized and you try to pinpoint. What do I do? How do I do it? What is it that I'm dealing with? And it's that fear of the unknown, the stigma. I believe that's gonna be the word of the day using these tools. I can't stress for any parent that's listening, it's very important that to deal with this issue, being in denial or refusing to accept the fact is just as bad as not addressing the fact. You know, denial. It's real. You know, people don't wanna recognize an issue.

Paula:

Absolutely. And one of the things we're trying to do here, we work really closely with the school boards and community groups here in Canada. And where we find this is most successful is when the schools are using it. They're setting the re resources home to mom and dad. And the mom and dad have resources. They have the language.'cause that's a big part of stigma too, is that. Is my kid just having a fit or have we got something going on here? Right. Perfect example. We have a video on separation anxiety, right? Which will be hitting Canada and droves in a couple of weeks with youngsters going back to school. The honeymoon period is over and all of a sudden little ones don't want to go back to school anymore. They wanna stay with mom and dad, you know? So there's a video where, again, we really are trying to outline. This is the parent's role. Notice how the parent is calm, right, and collected and staying together. Here's what the kids are doing. This is not abnormal behavior. If this is happening in your home, and if they're dealing with it at school and they're dealing with it at home, all of a sudden it's just shared language and we find that that's a really effective way to bring down stigma.

Mike:

You entered a perfect segue'cause you mentioned the school and collaboration. You know, many times there's it saying a child's biggest advocate is their parent. The next biggest person is the school, their staff, and then you have their medical or professional staff providers. What is the role of collaborative help when it comes to children and, and how do you implement the collaborative of the parents, the school, or any other professional service provider?

Paula:

And that's really the backbone to this entire organization is creating a community of support.'cause if we get back to those numbers I talked about at the very beginning, 70% of mental health can be solved with early diagnosis and treatment. Why isn't that happening? And it's because the schools, parents, medical community and community at large aren't working together. So that's why we really try and create those resources that can be used at school, that can be passed on to home, that can be used with the medical community. We have a program that we use up here called MI Friends, which is kind of the next step where families register for the program. It's free, but it helps them track behavior, come up with strategies, and build a plan. And what's phenomenal with that program, we just did a research report in the spring and found what was really effective about it is it did increase that family's mental health iq. It helped them understand what their role was and what was going on, and it gave them the courage to be an advocate.'cause now they had the language. Now they were able to say, my child struggles when they do X. Or when we try and get to school, we're late because of Y. Or in your case, you know, we're struggling transitioning between mom and dad's house. So Sundays are horrible and Fridays are dreadful. They're able to reach out and get that support.'cause I think for a lot of parents, we get back to that shame and stigma. They're made to feel like it's a bad, I'm a bad parent, my child is acting this way'cause I'm a bad parent. And we're trying to change the narrative and get families to recognize, no, you're not a bad parent and for argument's sake, that's not a bad child. But you do have a challenge and here's a great opportunity to get them to develop some

Mike:

resiliency. A lot of times I have clients that just don't know any better. You don't know what you don't know. Would you have any practical tips in any municipality, any city or any state? If a parent is having a difficult time, I call it the bureaucratic waters. How do you navigate the school district? How do you navigate professional service providers? Is there any tips that you can give a parent that's having difficulty creating that collaboration?

Paula:

Yeah, we did a program close to the Pandemic that was actually the predecessor to the program I just mentioned, and my friends that was called Par, the Pipe Program, parents in partnership with Educators. And what we did with these families is we sat down, we got a copy here, they call it the Ontario School Record. I'm sure every jurisdiction has its own, but basically got everything in a binder. So we got. All the information for families together, something that they could do at home, and then really help them go through it to kind of determine what were the challenges they were dealing with. And I guess, you know, obviously we, the pipe program is in everybody's jurisdiction, but from that, the learnings are, you know, make sure you, you write stuff down. One of the things we have online with our My Friends program, track the behavior, get yourself prepared. So when you're going in to meet with the school, treat it like a business meeting, dress up nicely, get in there, be the professional you need to be. You are your child's advocate. And so really continue to push and get the help they need. And if you're not getting it there, don't stop. Look into the community and find out where you can get the supports you need. As parents, we need to be creative now. I think where we play a role is we're the kind of the first stop, right? Look and see if we can give you some resources or some language that you need to get the support that you need and the confidence so you can be that advocate for your child that you need to be.

Mike:

That's very important for many times, particularly for a lot of my clients or a lot of litigants, particularly in big school districts where English is a second language or you're coming from a a single parent household, they just don't know. What their options are, their rights. A few weeks ago we had a parent advocate. She said a lot of similar things. Document, document, document, dates, names, times, who you spoke to and any submission, any paperwork you give to a doctor, to a school per, make a copy of it. And then that way there's a log of what you did and and your efforts. And that's pretty much you're echoing what the parent advocate said also. So that's, you know, useful. So parents. Make copies of everything, document phone calls, dates, and take names of whoever you spoke to, particularly in the bigger school districts and and bigger organizations.

Paula:

Absolutely. Keep track of everything. And I think also recognized too, a big part of our program was recognizing. Teachers are under a lot of stress right now. Right? So teachers are under stress. You as a parent are under stressed and the child is stressed, right? And so we try and divide it. It's not the teacher's problem, it's not the parent's problem, it's not the child's problem. But you all have in common is a problem, And that's really what you want to focus on.

Mike:

What do we know if it's. A behavioral issue as anxiety from peer pressure or, or just, you know, a new school, new friends, or if it's something more deep rooted like a medical diagnosis, are there any telltale signs that a parent should be able.

Paula:

That's a good question. I'm gonna be careful answering that because as you know, I'm not a mental health practitioner. We certainly work with those partners, but one of the things that continues to come up is the fact that little kids have pretty basic lives, right? They get up, they take, you know, brush their hair, they eat, they go to school, they play, they go to bed. And if consistently that, they can't perform those tasks. It might be the beginning of a problem, right? So having the odd bedtime that is skewed is problematic. Having a bedtime that is repeatedly skewed to the point they're waking up tired. Now it's impacting their eating. Now it's impacting school. You might have a bigger problem on your hands and that's when you wanna reach out, right? And so it's, as a parent, recognizing that. And it's, it's a hard thing'cause how do you go from, we've had a couple of bad nights to like, if we, we can't get up for school. The wheels are falling off the cart, the whole family's going to hell in a hand basket, right? But it's really just determining, okay, is the child able to kind of make it through a day? And if this is happening more and more often, then it's often time to reach out.

Mike:

That's a good sign. So if it's affecting their ability to function in school or if it's affecting the family, this is something that I've been looking at and I've been posting it on, uh, my social media, online gaming addiction. Certain states here are literally banning smartphones in school from bell to. I think it's a phenomenal idea. Gaming addiction is just like any other addiction because it, it revolves around the dopamines. Is there any advice or have you ever dealt with this online gaming addiction, whatever the game platform is? YouTube, Google, the, the TikTok phenomenon. I gotta tell you, that's one of the biggest challenges I have as a parent. And the only thing that makes me feel better, which is wrong, is like knowing. Every other parent I know has the same issue. The same issue. But

Paula:

you see how it's problematic, right? I mean, you know, I was talking to a group last week and saying, I got one of the flus that were going around in the spring, so I had a couple of days where I was bedridden. And of course, day one you read day two, you're like, fine, I'll scroll. I said, by the end of the day, I just felt horrible above and beyond feeling sick, but I just felt drained and anxious. Right? And I'm thinking, my gosh, if I've had a day of scrolling and this is how I feel, imagine how these kids are feeling on a regular basis. And talking to teachers, they saying it's getting more and more difficult to manage these kids because they're so used to dopamine hits on a regular basis that they're acting like. Addicts in class who aren't getting a hit because they can't concentrate, they can't sit down, they can't focus. This is really becoming a problem and it's definitely impacting mental health. We had a resource we came up with a couple of years ago talking about setting social media limits. But it really requires parents who are often tired and exhausted and had full days to, you know, really focus on what are the rules in this house. And I think, again, it gets back to starting early families who are able to start those rules early on. Only social media for an hour after school, and then it's off. We're only doing it in the living room, right? There's no social media after seven or whatever the rules are that work for your house. I think those are the families that are most successful in at least setting boundaries, because once these kids get on, it's really difficult to get them off.

Mike:

I consider myself a hands-on dad, and it is difficult once the dopamine addiction kicks in. Right now when I see young parents, I tell them, just don't get'em a phone until the last, you know, don't get'em a tablet, don't get'em an electronic device. But it's, it's not just difficult to set

Paula:

these rules at home. I mean, it's, as soon as they walk out the door, I mean, I was that horrible mom. Who, you know, my kids didn't get a phone until grade eight going into high school, and I was steadfast about that probably'cause I was seeing a lot of the research that was coming out. So then you deal with the fact that, you know, their friends are at home in grade six, seven, and eight. Planning play dates and you know, texting online at night and the whole nine yards. So I wasn't very popular with my kids until in both cases. The kids because they were dealing with stuff above and beyond what they could ran into difficulty. So their classmates got themselves into situations, bullying, putting stuff up that wasn't appropriate because they were deal, they had a device that was so much bigger than they were at that moment. So for a lot of parents, I hear, you know, easy idea, great. I won't give them something until grade eight or nine, but then I'm gonna have to deal with very unhappy kids who feel like they're socially ostracized.

Mike:

What my daughter or my son, this person has it. That person has it. And again, you don't want to be the Grinch on Christmas and not provide that electronic device. Something else that I find difficult. I just remember being in grade school. You know, we didn't even have beepers. Right? You know, cell phones weren't so common. So if there was drama in the school yard, it was just there. It was left in the school yard. You go home and then the next day there will be the drama. Now between TikTok and these videos and the cyber bullying, you know, you got the TikTok reels, you got the Snapchat, that it's just constant around the clock where our children are being consumed by electronics and these social media platforms, and you can't get'em off the screen because even when they do their homework, they do it on tablets Now. It's very problematic. Right now I'm actually contemplating filing a class action lawsuit against some of these gaming companies for creating and enticing these addictive behaviors. They've done research and

Paula:

suggested that in 2013 when these things came out in full fledge, the kids that started using these are the first generation of kids that had severe mental health issues. Right. And it's followed them up and impacted them. And that's why one of the reasons we're seeing such an increase in young people struggling with mental health. And the other thing is too, it's easy to say, okay, parents, it's back in your court. You need to set these rules and regulations and create a safe and secure house. World Health organizations said parents are in crisis. Parents are feeling overwhelmed and stressed and burdened with everything that's going on in the world. There is research to suggest that if we can create a safe and secure environment for our kids at home, it's probably the best gift we're giving them over, giving them toys over, giving them experiences, creating an environment like we had growing up. Or we can come home and there's no stress and there's no drama and there's no, you know, that stuff that we're dealing with on a regular basis. We get a break and we know that things are gonna be okay for a little while. That's crucial when it comes to supporting mental health.

Mike:

It, it is. I, I find a calmness and a steady hand. You know, sometimes I tell my kids, we don't need to have stimulation 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We could just sit down and do nothing. We could just sit down and play Uno. It doesn't have to be constant running around and, know, my son will say, literally, I'm bored. I'm bored. What are you talking about? We doing so many things. And it's not that they're bored, it's just that they're craving that dopamine rush that they could only get. From the screen again, I'll figure something out. But I know that this is a crisis all over the world. Anywhere that where, where there's internet and children have electronic devices and I think so it's not just necessarily the addiction, it's the ramifications of that addiction, social isolation. The peer pressure, the bullying, nevermind all the other nefarious things that could happen on, you know, the gaming platforms. I wasn't expecting to get into detail about this, but you could see doesn't matter where you are, that this is a major pandemic. Absolutely. On a more personal note, here we are, we're talking about gaming, we're talking about mental health. From a personal note, you came from media and TV production. What happened? Like what made you get from here? We're seeing, you know, media, TV production, very glamorous to what you're doing now, which is a noble and fitting cause.

Paula:

Oh, thank you. Well, I, you know what it was growing up with a sister with mental health, you know, and you, we think the struggles now for families to get help are hard. Imagine being back in the eighties. Right. Uh, and we were lucky enough that we had parents that understood and recognized the importance of that early intervention, the importance of that family support. And the importance of creating that safe and secure environment for her so she could thrive and develop some resiliency. So I kind of thought that that's how everybody was until I got into the real world and had kids of my own and had a daughter who struggled with anxiety. And realized, even though I had an understanding right, and not a complete understanding,'cause we've talked about the importance of those community partners, but the schools and the community groups and the families around us really didn't understand what was going on. So kind of thought, okay, so if we can create a video that explains. What we're going through and explains what we're dealing with, maybe we can start some conversations and break through that stigma and shame. So it kind of started with a pilot that we took to the hospital and the school board here in the community groups, and they were like. That that works, that's really effective. And then develop from there. Right? So started with kind of the first five things that they were seeing at the Children's hospital here, and then have expanded into emotional regulation, self-regulation, setting up for success, all of these things that, you know, family saw during the pandemic. And actually this year we're even going a little bit further. We're actually developing an indigenous version of the program to support the indigenous communities across Canada. Wow. And we're looking at the neurodiversity community as well, who have created a wonderful community for these children, but the minute they go outside, there's that lack of understanding. So we're constantly looking at opportunities to start early conversations and create safe spaces

Mike:

for discussion. That's phenomenal. Paula, for all our listeners, if they wanted to reach out, please share your website, share your social handles your website. For anyone that's dealing with any difficulties, it's not difficult. The only hard part is recognizing and doing something about it. Paula, please share your information for our listeners.

Paula:

Absolutely. We do have an American website. It's m the letter, MI understanding.com. We should mention one of the biggest stigmas when it comes to seeking assistance or help is cost. And so we work really hard with community partners to make it so all of our resources are free and available to anybody who needs them. We have, uh, posters and postcards, so if there's schools out there. That wanna get some of those and put them up in the schools. If there's families that wanna share the resources, certainly reach out. We'd be happy to talk to you. But I think the most important thing is go to the website, start exploring, and I, Mike, you said you were on the website. I'm sure you noticed one of the things, we used to have one of those lovely websites with all the perfect pictures and everything else. We found families are really hitting a point of crisis, and so we thought if families have the courage to go to our website, we want them to immediately see how we can support. So when you jump on our website, the first thing that we say is, look below and click on the link that'll take you to the challenge that you're currently having. Separation anxiety change, social emotional regulation. There's all sorts of great things in there, and when you click on those, you go to the video, there's a video that parents can watch first that kind of has, uh, things to think about when you're watching the video. There's tips and tricks and resources, and then there's a video that you're supposed to watch with your child, not put on for the child while you go into the other room and have a coffee. This is an opportunity for you two to watch the video together and start putting a plan in place on how you're going to work as a team.

Mike:

I saw some of those videos and what stuck out the most about the video is, you know, many times, many of our guests, they'll have a website about them and there's very little resources for the parents or for the children and your website. It was literally, uh, encyclopedia. For any issue. So again, I strongly urge everyone, copy the website and and pay you to visit Paula, I really appreciate your time, your knowledge, and sharing your thoughts with our audience. I hope that we will, you can come back to our podcast again and you can give us some updates and we'll talk more about the mental health crisis facing our youth. Once again, thank you so much for being a guest and taking time outta your busy schedule.

Paula:

Thanks for having me, Mike. It was a real pleasure.

Mike:

Thank you. Tune in next week, folks, for our next guest. Paula, thank you for joining us today and for the incredible work you've been doing with MI Understanding. For parents listening. I hope this conversation reminds you that you don't have to wait for a crisis to start talking about mental health with your children, early intervention, open conversations, and simple tools that can make the difference which can be found@miunderstanding.com. As always, I'm Mike Caterer and thanks for tuning in, and don't forget to listen to our next podcast next week. Thanks for listening. This is Mike Caterer, and I'll help you and your family navigate custody disputes or divorce matters with your best interest First. You can book a free consultation with me and learn more by following me on Instagram at Mike j Cater. I've also included a link in today's show notes. Tune in for our next episode of the brief coming next week.

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Mike Khader

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