Tag Archives: Teens

Local Intensive Outpatient Program provides support for substance use recovery, sees immediate results

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Wedgwood’s IOP is one of the few federally funded treatment programs exclusively geared toward adolescents and young adults (Courtesy, Brooke Hoyer)


By Deborah Reed

WKTV Managing Editor

deborah@wktv.org


Wedgwood Christian Services is already seeing positive results from their revived Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP), a six-week program that provides support for adolescents and adults with moderate to significant substance use.

Wedgwood’s IOP was relaunched in November 2024 after a brief pause due to staff transitions and low participation. WCS decided to revamp and revive IOP when a need for the program became evident.

(Courtesy photo)

“We started seeing a need for it and had some really good team members for that,” said Nick Bayer, Clinical Supervisor at WCS, adding that significant time was spent constructing a plan for the program. “It also gave us a real opportunity to sit down and say, How do we want to do it?”

Topics for each session are pre-planned to guide and retain focus of the group. One change was making IOP a closed group.

“We run it in six-week closed groups where you don’t have kids dropping and dropping out, it’s the same kids coming in,” said Bayer. “It really helped build that connection between people so they don’t have to retell their stories, or a new person doesn’t know what’s going on, as well as establishing a very specific curriculum.”

Why is IOP needed?

Research shows that one in seven teens will need treatment for substance use disorders. However, only 5% of adolescents in Michigan receive the needed treatment. Wedgwood’s IOP is one of the few federally funded treatment programs exclusively geared toward adolescents and young adults.

Engaging clients in therapy two or three days each week, IOP sessions are three hours in length and held at Wedgwood’s Ekhart Counseling Center in Grand Rapids. The program provides guidance, support and a plan for adolescents, young adults, and their families to rebuild lives and provide hope for the future.

(Courtesy photo)

Motivational interviewing is a major component in earlier stages of treatment while later stages focus on creating a new lifestyle, coping with triggers and urges, and maintaining a strong commitment to recovery.

WCS offers outpatient, intensive outpatient and residential care for substance use treatment. Bayer describes Wedgwood’s IOP as an in-between stage of care. Though intensive in terms of the amount of work and energy being put in, it does not completely disrupt the participant’s life.

Some youth slotted for residential care often try IOP first since residential availability is often low. IOP offers a higher level of support and therapeutic interventions without the intensity of a residential experience.

Vital connections

Wedgwood’s IOP recently completed the first six-week cohort – and is already seeing positive results.

Bayer said the IOP builds a feeling of support and unity among youth that is desperately needed. With several IOP youth on probation, being surrounded by other youth who understand the emotions of that situation is important.

“It’s one thing for me as an adult to talk with them about what it’s like to navigate the feelings of being a teenager on probation. It’s another thing for a peer also going through it to say, I know what it feels like.”

Access and exposure

Bayer said lack of available resources and the current culture contribute to rising adolescent substance use, with few adolescents receiving needed treatment.

(Courtesy photo)

“The nature of being an adolescent is to blame for substance use, different pressures and not knowing about different options,” Bayer said. “They’ve got a lot going on.”

Access and exposure to substances are also significantly higher than in the past. It is not hard to obtain cannabis or marijuana, Bayer said, and cannabis is currently the drug of choice.

“The supply is significant,” said Bayer. “My two-stoplight town has five dispensaries in it, and you see advertisements for it all over. As an adolescent, you’re bombarded with these messages constantly.”

So how do we help our youth?

Wedgwood’s IOP focuses on teaching abstinence and reduction from substances, while also teaching skills and interventions to replace the symptoms of THC and substance use.

“A lot of them are self-medicating,” said Bayer. “They’re having the stress, anxiety and agitation of going through adolescence. They find that maybe cannabis helps them calm down. But now they’re reliant upon it.”

(Courtesy, photo)

Motivational interviewing – a therapeutic approach using questions and rapport to help clients identify their needs and create their own therapeutic goals – is helpful because it creates ownership in the client.

“It’s really effective when it comes to substance use counseling because the big thing for change is motivation,” said Bayer. “If they don’t want to stop using, they’re not going to. It’s so much more meaningful when the goal comes from the person; they are much more likely to strive to meet that.

“It’s where the therapist is the ally of the individual. They are striving toward their goals, and you are supporting them in getting there.”

Much of that support is helping clients build skills in self-control and in safety when using. Because, Bayer said, there is a high rate of relapse in substance use.

“There’s a phrase we use in addiction treatment: relapse is part of recovery,” said Bayer. “Those that suffer with addictions enter treatment on average six or seven times before they have a sustained remission. It’s just hard, and relapse is part of recovery.”

WCS strives to give positive therapeutic support so clients in a relapse situation are not anxious about returning for care.

A full spectrum of care

Wedgwood’s IOP is accepted by most insurance plans, is licensed by the State of Michigan, and provided in several counties. Learn more about Wedgwood’s IOP and other substance use care here.

To learn more about Wedgwood Christian Services and the care they offer, click here.

Questions can be directed to counseling@wedgwood.org and 616-942-7294.

*Listen to the WCS Coffee Break Conversation podcast episode with Nick Bayer about understanding and supporting recovery here.


(Courtesy, WCS)

Unlimited access to online content raises concerns about increased risks to adolescents and teens

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Director of Clinical Services at Wedgwood Christian Services, Brina Tiemeyer, talks about how unlimited access to social media and online content poses risks to our youth.


By Deborah Reed

WKTV Managing Editor

deborah@wktv.org


Brina Tiemeyer, WCS Director of Clinical Services (Courtesy, WCS)

Concerns are being raised about the harmful ramifications of self-diagnosis and increases of mental illness due to adolescents and teens having unlimited access to online content.

Wedgwood Christian Services (WCS) Director of Clinical Services Brina Tiemeyer recently talked with WKTV Journal about children – especially teens – having devices and 24/7 access to the internet. This concern stems from the alarming uptick in depression, anxiety, loneliness and suicide resulting from social media.

“We may often think of the ability to connect on social media and access to endless content online as a huge benefit to awareness of a variety of mental health challenges,” said Tiemeyer.

“While there is certainly something to be said for increased accessibility to resources for those in communities where it is lacking, and the ability to find a wider circle of support of people dealing with similar challenges, the book and other research highlights that it can also come with some risks for children, teens and young adults, most notably self-diagnosis.”

While social media can be a place where teens can get advice and tips, it does not allow for fact-checking.

“A lot of the content on social media is from influencers or peers who maybe don’t hold the proper education or credentials or merit,” said Tiemeyer.

“The advice may work for that individual in their own lives, but when our teens are utilizing social media and the phone platforms so heavily, they are then going down that potentially harmful path of creating their own diagnosis, creating their own treatment plans. Which in return can decrease the mental health impacts on their lives.”

Fast-paced and oversimplified

Social media platforms such as TikTok, have short-form, fast-paced content that is oversimplified. Many influencers use that platform to post content regarding their personal mental health.

(Courtesy, pxhere.com)

“Kids are lonely. Social media can be so enticing because they’re searching for community, a place to feel understood,” said Tiemeyer.

Youth find validation when they see other people experiencing the same struggles. While that is a benefit, Tiemeyer said, the content does not address the complexity and variation of mental illness and how the same diagnosis can present very differently in two individuals.

“Adolescents and teens see these quick, short-form lists, and they use them as a checklist for their own challenges.”

Examples: Depression and ADHD

Depression can present differently between age groups, genders, life experiences, health factors and severity.

“When you go to the social media platform, it’s just a checklist of what depression is,” said Tiemeyer. “It doesn’t go into the content or details that look very different depending on your individualization of the presentation.”

(Courtesy, pxhere.com)

Another issue Tiemeyer often encounters are youth who feel they have checked all the boxes a social media video presents.

“A big one recently is ADHD,” said Tiemeyer. “They check all the boxes on ADHD, [but] ADHD can present as Generalized Anxiety Disorder. We’ll have teens come to an intake appointment, and they’re against taking the advice of the medical professional because they’ve had an excess of misinformation.”

Awareness and reduced stigma of mental health issues on social media is beneficial, empowering youth to seek care. However, those same youths often do not believe a medical professional if what they say goes against what they saw on social media.

“It has created a barrier within that therapeutic relationship prior to the relationship even starting,” said Tiemeyer. “Our therapists are trying to address the symptomatology of the individual sitting in front of them, but [youth] are coming in with this barrier of: But you need to treat me with what I’ve self-diagnosed myself with, what my favorite influencer on TikTok told me I had, versus what the medical expertise or professional is saying the true diagnosis is and what the treatment needs to be.”

Prevention through validation

How do we help our youth find the most beneficial path? Provide validation, Tiemeyer says.

“We’re all seeking validation,” said Tiemeyer. “That’s not necessarily bad or unhealthy, so providing validation that social media can be good, but then having those crucial conversations regarding the importance of lived experience and individuality, and how mental health can present differently based on different factors.”

Create space for conversation

(Courtesy, pxhere.com)

“We need to create a space for crucial conversations in real life,” said Tiemeyer. “Not hide behind our screens.

“If I have a dialogue back and forth, it’s going to be very different than if I’m having a one-sided conversation by watching a clip.”

We all need to feel believed, capable and safe, Tiemeyer continued. Avoiding invalidation and all-or-nothing thinking – such as telling others not to believe what they see on social media – is vital.

“We need to have this open mind, curiosity to understand, and willingness to learn so we can empower them to feel believed, capable and safe,” said Tiemeyer.

Appropriate oversight

“When we prep our adolescents to drive, there are stages to that,” said Tiemeyer, citing hours of practice, oversight and guidance. “Some may feel that’s way too intense to do [for] social media usage, but it shouldn’t be.

“We should empower the act of using social media because digital content is not going away. Empower it, but then provide them with the skills to utilize it in a safe manner.”


(Courtesy, pxhere.com)

Find help and guidance here:

WCS provides tip sheets for families on this topic. Mashable.com is also a reliable source of information on those hot topics of self-diagnosis and healthy online usage.

WCS also offers a six-week trauma-informed parenting class where one of the modules discusses appropriate social media usage.

Parent support partners connect families to active groups that provide training via role play to empower parents to have those conversations with their children.

Crossing that “line”

“If it gets to a point where you’re feeling suicidal or experiencing a crisis, it’s past the point of looking for that online community,” said Tiemeyer. “It’s time to talk to someone.”

(Courtesy, pxhere.com)

Reach out to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or consider using 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline Chat.

Call Wedgwood Christian Services’ intake line at 616-942-7294 to connect with a medical professional and begin that step of treatment.

“We know there is an increase in de-stigmatization around mental health treatment,” said Tiemeyer. “However, we also know that the second leading cause of death for children is suicide. There is a time where we need to intervene as the adults in that child’s life and get them the help they need.”

As a mother, Tiemeyer empathizes with parents who don’t want to hinder their relationship with their child by intervening.

“My response to that is: They have to be alive to have that relationship,” said Tiemeyer. “When it comes to the point of hopelessness and suicidality, we’re past the point of worrying about that relationship, and we’re at that point of: Let’s keep my child alive so I can keep growing that relationship.”

Meeting community needs

Click here for a full list of programs and services available through WCS.

For more information about teen phone and social media use, Tiemeyer recommends reading Jonathan Haidt’s new book, The Anxious Generation.

Teens have the most valuable component to accumulating wealth

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Courtesy Michigan State University Extension

By Laurie Rivetto, Michigan State University Extension


How soon after securing their first job should a young person start investing? Immediately! Sound crazy? It’s not. 


Setting aside money for long-term goals is an uncommonly wise act for a teenager. In fact, teenagers have something every older saver and investor wants yet can’t get, and that is time. Michigan State University Extension has numerous resources that can help young people learn key personal finance skills including how to manage and invest money.


Perhaps when it comes to building wealth, time truly is much more valuable to increasing the investment than the actual amount invested or the interest rate earned. The sooner a teen begins to set aside money in a savings or investment account, the longer those funds will earn interest and therefore the more money that will accumulate.


A smart teenager will set aside a portion every time they receive money, including wages from a job, money received as a gift, an increase in allowance, etc.; even just $10 here or $20 there will add up. A wise young person will then invest the amount saved. Those investments and those earnings will compound over time; what starts out as a dribble of deposits and earnings will build over time to a substantial stream of money. The longer the funds are left in the account, the faster the funds will grow.


How does that happen? It is all thanks to the magic of compound interest. Even Albert Einstein was impressed by it, “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it… [and] he who doesn’t… pays it.”


Compound interest can be explained by the following simplified scenario: Adrienne saves $20 a week in a savings account for a year. She then transfers $1,000 of those savings to an investment account that earns 6% interest per year. At the end of the first year, her account will earn 6% interest on the $1,000, so she will have $1,060.00. At the end of the second year, Adrienne will earn 6% on the $1,060.00; her account will be valued at $1,123.60. After five years, without any additional deposits, Adrienne’s initial investment of $1,000 will be worth $1,338.23. Adrienne earned $300 interest on her $1000 deposit; it was the compounding of the interest that earned her the additional $38.23.


If Adrienne is financially savvy and continues to save $20 each week over that same period, she will be able to deposit $1,000 into her account at the beginning of each subsequent year. At the end of five years, her $5,000 investment will be valued at $5,975.33. Adrienne earned $900 in interest on the $5,000 she deposited; the $75.33 was the result of compound interest. Adrienne has let compound interest work for her; she might well consider this free money.


The magic here is that Adrienne is earning interest on the money she actually deposited into the account plus the money that her account has earned for her. It may not seem like a lot of money initially, but with regular deposits and annual interest earnings, the fund will grow significantly.


Investing early in life delivers the most valuable component to investing—time. Teens interested in taking advantage of the time that is on their side can learn money management and investing skills through MSU Extension 4-H Youth Development Youth Investment Education Resources. A calculator from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission can help youth explore how compound interest can work in their lifetime.


Michigan State University Extension and Michigan 4-H Youth Development help to prepare young people for successful futures. As a result of career exploration and workforce preparation activities, thousands of Michigan youth are better equipped to make important decisions about their professional future, ready to contribute to the workforce and able to take fiscal responsibility in their personal lives. For more information or resources on career exploration, workforce preparation, financial education, or entrepreneurship, contact 4-HCareerPrep@msu.edu.


This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visit http://www.msue.msu.edu. To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit http://www.msue.msu.edu/newsletters. To contact an expert in your area, visit http://expert.msue.msu.edu, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).


Teens and tech—a troublesome pair

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Researchers have been unpleasantly surprised at the extent of the modern teen’s attachment to technology. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)

By Amy Norton, HealthDay


Too little sleep. Not enough exercise. Far too much “screen time.”


That is the unhealthy lifestyle of nearly all U.S. high school students, new research finds.


The study, of almost 60,000 teenagers nationwide, found that only 5 percent were meeting experts’ recommendations on three critical health habits—sleep, exercise and time spent gazing at digital media and television.


It’s no secret that many teenagers are attached to their cellphones, or stay up late, or spend a lot of time being sedentary. But even researchers were struck by how extensive those issues are among high school students.


“Five percent is a really low proportion,” said study leader Gregory Knell, a research fellow at University of Texas School of Public Health, in Dallas. “We were a bit surprised by that.”


In general, medical experts say teenagers should get eight to 10 hours of sleep at night and at least one hour of moderate to vigorous exercise every day. They should also limit their screen time—TV and digital media—to less than two hours per day.


The new findings show how few kids manage to meet all three recommendations, Knell said.


It’s easy to see how sleep, exercise and screen time are intertwined, he pointed out.


“Here’s one example: If kids are viewing a screen at night—staring at that blue light—that may affect their ability to sleep,” Knell said.


“And if you’re not getting enough sleep at night, you’re going to be more tired during the day,” he added, “and you’re not going to be as physically active.”


Ariella Silver is an assistant professor of pediatrics and adolescent medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York City. She agreed there’s a lot of overlap in the three behaviors.


Silver, who was not involved in the study, also made this point: The two-hour limit on screen time may be tough for high school students, since their homework may demand a lot of computer time.


It’s not clear how much that may have played into the findings, Silver said.


Still, she sees screen time as possibly the “biggest factor” here. Silver agreed that it may hinder teenagers’ sleep. But another issue comes up when social media “replaces” face-to-face social interaction.


When kids do not go out with friends, they miss out on many experiences—including chances for physical activity, Silver said.


While no group of kids in the study was doing well, some were faring worse than others. Only 3 percent of girls met all three recommendations, versus 7 percent of boys.


Similarly, the rate was 2 percent to 4 percent among black, Hispanic and Asian American students, versus just over 6 percent of white kids, the findings showed.


The report was published online recently in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

Silver offered some advice for parents:

  • Instead of telling kids to “get off the phone,” steer them toward alternatives, like extracurricular activities, community programs or family time. “Their screen time will go down by default,” she noted.
  • Be a good role model. Get off your phone and demonstrate healthy habits, including spending time being physically active with your kids.
  • Talk to teenagers about the importance of healthy habits. “Ask them, ‘How do you feel when you don’t get enough sleep?’” Silver suggested. “Ask, ‘How do you feel when you don’t get outside in the sun and get some exercise?’” It’s important, she said, that kids notice how their bodies feel when they do or don’t engage in healthy habits.
  • Set some clear rules around screen time, such as no devices in the two hours before bedtime. “Make sure your kids realize these devices are a privilege, and not a necessity to living,” Silver said.

The good news, Knell said, is that since sleep, exercise and screen time are interrelated, changing one habit could affect the others, too.


“There are certainly small changes you can make that may have a big impact,” he said.


Reprinted with permission from Spectrum Health Beat.