The college experience parents remember, is very different than what students experience today. There are new pressures, and challenges they face emotional and psychological beyond the walls of the classroom. Join us for an in depth discussion with Vincent Cascio a Licensed Mental Health Therapist serving the student body of a local community college.
hello to all our viewers welcome back to pink my glial confessions i’m so excited to have a guest here today that i’m going to tell you a little bit more about in a second but i just want to give a shout out to everyone that’s been following us getting the reminders really appreciate that as you know i’m stephanie garces donate the attorney of founding attorney also garces law we are a law firm in arlington heights where we help parents secure their legacies and um really prepare for the unexpected that is our mission so today i have a special guest vincent cassio dear friend of mine but also highly professional in his field and a true um wonderful colleague of mine he is with the wellness program at elgin community college where he helps college students uh really navigate the college life among other things um not only just professionally but from the challenges that they face to the unexpected events that they have to endure as a college student we all have been there where we’re sort of changing our life in a weird way but but obviously in a positive direction so that that’s what vincent takes care of and vince and i basically always want to call you vinnie but i’m gonna talk for this for this uh live but i want to thank you so much for taking the time today to speak with us um so before i get to you in just a second i want to kind of brief everybody about what we’re talking about our topic today is very interesting we’re going to talk about questions surrounding college selection the planning process um which are basically the top of mind of many parents i’ve actually have a lot of clients that are parents that are that are wondering where’s my kid going to go to college um even before covid the stress and the pressure of succeeding and going to a top school and and this is the same thing that they’re facing today um so that’s gonna be the basis of our conversation today and vincent like i said i’m really excited to have you so please feel free to give us a background about you go ahead of course well again first and foremost thank you for having me and thank you for so much for using your platform to talk about mental health because it’s so important and it’s so important especially during these times um kelvin 19 has impacted everyone uh college students are not the only community that has impacted so i’m so honored to be here and have this opportunity to talk about it um just a little bit about me i’ve been in the field for over oh my gosh close to 10 years i think yeah and i’ve worked in a variety of settings from residential to private practice to um now in higher education so i have a very well-rounded uh career work with all individuals of all ages really and uh yeah no i’m excited to be here and we can talk a little bit about the college process and what are college students
yeah absolutely and thank you for um really representing elgin community college i want to give a shout out to elgin community college because they are a wonderful college i’m actually on the paralegal board there and it is so awesome and they’re doing great things i mean they are constantly promoting uh different different people backgrounds diversity um also highlighting the services that they offer like you um that you offer vincent’s i just want to make sure people know shout out telegene college for doing great things in the community so um thank you vinnie for joining us i’m actually very flattered about what you said and you know what i’ve never had anyone thank me for using my platform so thank you for being part of the journey um so we’re going to dive in so that people can get to the nitty gritty of this so you know then you remember this how how it was so nerve-wracking at some point to pick a college get good grades like literally do everything that you can in your power to get to where you wanted to go professionally but you know hindsight’s 20 20 because i think about when i was applying to college i thought i knew what i wanted to do i thought that my background was going to be a reporter i actually wanted to be a reporter i was thinking i’m going to be on tv i’m going to do this and um i actually went another direction as you know i.e garcia’s law as i was invented along the way but but you know it’s interesting because nerve wracking um is only part of it right um there’s a bigger picture so applying to colleges selecting the schools so those are the three areas we’re going to talk about today for some of you that are listening uh some of the questions we want to address i’m just going to give a point here so that people understand where we’re heading um what is college selection process like not every college student potential college student knows how to do that um i’m gonna say uh briefly that there’s a lot of people watching or parents that maybe didn’t go to college nothing wrong with that but definitely um something you can educate yourself on today here um a lot has changed since right right unless the lesser known emotional and physiological changes of students that they’re facing today i think are a lot different than what we were facing in our time so that’s that’s another thing especially with social media which we’ll talk about and also we want to be a resource to parents about how to select the school for their for their kids or try to navigate that um so really quick just to recap for some of you that are just joining me now as i mentioned earlier i’m as attorney stephanie garces donaire owner of garcia’s law firm where we help parents secure their legacies we are a law firm in arlington heights my website’s at the bottom of this page as you can see and i really really want everyone to know that we are using our platform and what we can to make sure that you guys are educated on things today we’re talking about college admission it’s going to be wonderful college students there are big topics so college election time what to expect what are the challenges in today’s settings so if you missed last episode for last week you might have messed up it was really good for those of you that may or may not be going through a marital issue and contemplating divorce we talked about what to expect from changing your trusts um and and perhaps even updating it when you’re going through a divorce so if you want to recap on that you have to check out my youtube channel i’m not going to do it all over again um no i’m kidding so make sure to check it out you guys will like it there’s a lot of information in there patrick slaughter was a great attorney that we have that helped us with that so i know a lot of you have burning questions so they’re coming in as we’re talking so one of the first questions that someone is asking is are there benefits to having my child go to community college before attending a larger more expensive college what do you think yeah no that’s a great question even thinking back to my own personal experience when i was going through you know high school and deciding if i wanted to go to a community college or go straight to a four-year institution uh these are some things that i wish i would have thought about in that in that moment or in that time and you know as a young person you’re not equipped with all those those ideas right away or maybe even that guidance so one of the things with community colleges is that um one of the main components that a lot of students look into community college is the affordability right so students can typically expect to pay about half as much to attend a community college compared to a four-year institution yes well you know so if you take a look at tuition rates um being able to save money staying at home and not live you not have to pay for room and board yep and then also just being able to work more you know if you have a job in high school you want to continue that job you can stay in that job you don’t have to look for another job while on campus at another institution um so there’s a lot of affordability and a lot of flexibility that comes with going to community college first versus straight to a four-year institution yeah absolutely and i’m gonna you know i know um i’m gonna flip it on its head because i actually took the route of going straight to a four-year university and i take 2020 because it’s very much a financial decision for many families i mean in today’s world especially with covid i feel like a lot of people don’t you know they’re not even sure what their kids going to do they go back to the euphoria university do they go um to college but near the home and a lot of these community colleges are great places to start not only economically but also they have really good staff they have really good opportunities i had plenty of friends that joined me my junior year of college and they said oh i was at um you know the community college near where i grew up and then they transferred into the school and i’m pretty sure they didn’t graduate with much debt as opposed to some of my other counterparts that had dead up to here you know and and it’s why it’s it it’s more status perhaps it’s the name i mean great i don’t regret going to a for university i think it was amazing but perhaps if you are looking for what does it benefit my child absolutely it does and i actually don’t think it hurts them i think it benefits you in the long run so it’s a different experience i mean i’ll sing that much right definitely yeah and you know it’s so funny when you say um like the status component right oftentimes back then that’s gonna age me but yeah then uh it wasn’t status it was a status issue people would be like oh you went to community college first but now employers are not looking into that they i mean they they look they want they want to know that you have the competency and the skills and the requirements to complete that job so they’re looking at your nation they’re like perfect you went to community college you been straight to four year whatever this fits the requirements let’s get to work and so that whole status thing is no longer an issue it really wasn’t to begin with you know um i agree with that i mean i think if you think about the way things were back then and i say back then i mean i’m dating myself too but like a lot of people i think it’s because people especially in a pandemic i mean people are losing their jobs people are reconsidering does it make sense to send both of my kids that are around the same age to two four-year universities where it cost me an arm and a leg i mean these are the decisions that parents are facing today and i 100 agree with you uh vincent it’s one of those things where it’s things have changed and actually for the better i mean i think as the things go back to normal maybe one day with the pandemic i think people will consider universities um a little bit more of a look let’s say lucrative but it’s an option it’s lucrative for the school expensive for the parents maybe they’ll go the community college route and um there’s a lot of things that are offered at the community college too i actually took a lot of summer classes there yeah they were cheaper they were hard they weren’t easy um but again definitely have benefits to that um also say sorry i was just also saying go ahead keep in mind you know for families and students that are you know on that process of going into college or making that decision you know have those conversations with your child and talking about what kind of career they want to go into because sometimes depending on your career you may not even need a four-year degree you know it’s like vocational if it’s more hands-on you know careers labor intensive careers those don’t need four-year degrees you can easily get a certificate or or a two-year degree whatever that may be so it’s really important to have that conversation and to do your research um another thing that i talk to students about too when they come see me is uh grades so maybe they weren’t the best student in high school or they just didn’t pay much attention like they’re clearly smart but they just didn’t give much attention to their studies right so community college is a great opportunity to boost up your grades and um really benefit from those transfer agreements from community college because we have a lot of wonderful agreements with local institutions universities that can make it a lot easier for students to go into those schools than previously before now kind of just going off for my curiosity for can you explain for the audience what you mean by the transfer agreement what is that what does that mean unlike layman’s terms of course so basically what that means is um four-year institutions may have uh agreements or contracts with community colleges so they’ll take in a certain amount of credits so that way they it’ll transfer over so again you have you have you can benefit from the affordability of the classes your your kind of core general education courses you can get those completed at a community college transfer over them to to the four-year institution and go ahead and finish the last remaining one or two years of your degree and so yeah it’s a lot more affordable right ways to get access to that education that’s wonderful i mean i didn’t know that and i always learned something new from my guest but that’s something that i will definitely pass along i mean if you heard that that’s big news i mean i think people think oh if i go to a college what if the credits don’t transfer i remember hearing that from france but i would imagine that that is like a school of thought of like just another thing to be concerned about so that is so excellent thank you for sharing that with our viewers um i got another question that came in this one’s a little bit more on the opposite side of benefits it’s actually we were talking about earlier with mental health and so i love this topic because i think it needs to be discussed a little bit more and who better than vinnie cassio to talk about this this is my personal therapist so for what you’re for anyone that’s wondering here’s the question that came in what are the warning signs about my child that i should look out for if they’re having any mental health issues that i don’t know about that’s a great question it is a really good question and again we don’t often have that opportunity to talk about these things and you know this is where i would love to kind of use my moment here well parents who are watching this to take the opportunity and talk to their kids about self-care and about mental health you know so that way we can eliminate the stigma the negative stigma that is associated with mental health in regards to what to look for so um obviously this pandemic has impacted everyone in so many different ways in particular students you know whether you have a middle schooler a high schooler or a college student they’re all certainly feeling the isolation the depression the anxiety um the uncertainty of what the future is going to be like um and that in itself will promote high anxiety so one of the things that you can easily see uh in your kids if they’re if they’re experiencing something like this you’ll see some behavioral changes and what that look what that can look like is feelings of sadness anger irritability you’ll see um they may have like a lot of interest in things their energy levels are inconsistent they’re tired one day and super energetic the next um maybe their appetite changes so you’ll see a fluctuation in weight gain and weight loss um most evidently you know with middle schoolers high schoolers you’ll see a severe um a significant excuse me uh impact of their academic performance so maybe they’re getting bad grades that they’re not turning in homework so their teachers are reaching out to you now with college it’s a little different so parents are not going to be able to know right away how their student is doing academically because of the good old book called burpa ferpa protect the students uh privacy so you’re not gonna immediately have access to that unless you get a letter note in the mail that says your students on academic probation or academic warning so it’s really important that you have that open communication with your students so that way you can do you know check-ins hey how you doing what how are the how’s school really going for you are you feeling okay do you feel overwhelmed so those are some things that you can certainly look out for yeah absolutely that is so important thank you for using your moment as you said to really explain that because i think you know a lot of times i think it’s hard for anyone to really even as a person to really dive into someone’s personal life even if it is your kid and say hey how are you really doing i mean sometimes people are closed off you know and so that’s that’s difficult but but yes please talk to your kids talk to the students and college students obviously i think they’re in another category which is interesting because um you’re right that’s a different phase it’s a different time and i think um it’s not the same as like when they’re younger because you have a little bit less control over them but nonetheless the conversation needs to take place and i’m really really happy by the way vinnie that you talked about the whole stigma behind mental health there is a big stigma when mental health i think the biggest thing is that some of it’s cultural some of it’s historical um some of it’s like before our time as you want to call it that right now there’s been a movement of talking about a ton of issues diversity you know the black lives matter movement aside from mental health all of these things are topics that people are talking about all the time and i’m just glad that you talked about the stigma so don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone that’s my message i am not the therapist here but i would say that that you should because if you don’t if you don’t step out your comfort zone you may always wonder could i have done more you know if if someone does fall into a bad mental health space so great question for whoever asked that um so the other thing that came up and i think this is also very interesting to discuss is um what other programs or those programs are offered for college students in in the in the mental health space yeah so for the most part every institution whether it’s a four-year institution or community college they offer mental health resources to all students so um whether it can be very you know temporary base where it’s like a couple sessions a semester or it could be long term or what they can do is refer students to long-term services in the community so you know if it’s a community college for example again those services are on campus or they refer to community agencies that can uh accommodate those needs but if it’s a four-year institution again those vary it’ll be uh on campus or they refer again within the community so similar to what a community would be but those are great i mean that’s a great question and i i always encourage um parents when you’re taking your kid to visit the university or you’re taking them to orientation that should be the first question that you ask mental health resources are easily available and accessible to all students regardless of you know need or disability or whatnot because we have to understand that the growing uh what i would like to call a pandemic in regards to mental health for young adults continues so anxiety and depression has increased significantly with the pandemic but even prior to the pandemic anxiety and depression uh have consistently gone up every year for young adults wow so it is a it is a it’s a it’s a it’s certainly a need that needs to be you know well it kind of sounds like it’s a it’s a crisis i mean that movie is a good way to explain it because something that’s going up i mean i think and i think too in general i mean depending on what the audience is thinking when they’re hearing this they may think oh it’s not a big deal i mean there are reasons that this stuff exists and so uh one of the questions that they came in but i think you answered it if someone is asked is there is there everyone is is there professionals like vinnie at the college um level and i think the answer obviously is yes um so so that’s an interesting question i love what you said earlier about as parents we should be asking first question and you know what’s interesting again it brings me back to when i was in college i don’t think once i ever even considered if the university had a mental health wellness program or whatever you want to call it now i do remember there was a wellness place where you could like go and like sit in in a room with like relaxing music or something so i remember that but as far as speaking to a professional yes it’s available so make sure uh the viewers you take advantage of that when you are visiting i mean i would think now too uh vinnie i don’t know if this is the case but are you seeing an increase in your work where you’re having more students come to you than before um and are there more people like you that have to be hired because of the need or the crisis yeah no that’s a great question honestly um it kind of fluctuates so there’s definitely that need there’s definitely students who are interested and willing to go there um but it’s also important that clinicians if they work within the institution that they work collaboratively with faculty members and with staff because if you think about it the our first like kind of guard if you will is our faculty because they’re immediately consistently meeting with students you know whether teaching in class or doing office hours so they’re the ones that are going to frequently refer students to our services right you know so that’s why it’s important i know for my department we have a really wonderful relationship with all of our faculty so that way they know that we’re here to not only support them but to um you know support our students so yeah we’re available and it’s definitely seen an increase in student usage we’ve had to you know hire more clinicians which you know understand and just understandable the current circumstances have certainly impacted our students significantly you know right well if the need is there and it’s able to be met i mean i think that’s great and i think that’s what i want the viewers to know that you know you should be asking the right questions but you should also keep in mind that like mental health is an ongoing thing and and it correct me saying wrong vinny but i know as as time progresses between someone who’s in middle schooler or a high schooler i mean these are the unexpected challenges that we’re covering today i mean there’s so many challenges along the way like if you think about as a on a personal level all of the issues and the challenges you faced personally from when you were you know a middle schooler to now i mean it’s like all over the board so um this is an ever growing topic and quite frankly i just i love hearing what you have to say about that because i think um we should be talking about it more yes another question came in uh in regards to this is an interesting one uh students again so do you think that students involved in a sport a fraternity or sorority are less likely to experience emotional and psychological stressors oh that’s a that’s a very good question yeah good question
you know and bless them we don’t want to generalize all students but it refers to our students who are our student athletes they’re actually more likely to experience mental health issues than others just because of the pressures to perform the pressure to do well you know not only in a physical you know sport that they’re passionate about but also academically trying to figure out what goes beyond the sport if they don’t plan you know to pursue professionally that sport after college you know what am i going to do professionally for myself career-wise and obviously this pandemic put a huge you know stop on all athletics for quite a while so a lot of students missed out on seasons or they’re starting their season late so now they’re trying to figure out what how this works within their own personal schedule and then also just kind of who they are as an individual because sometimes students kind of weigh heavily on that sport identity and uh so it’s so important that parents have that conversation with their student and let them know like hey listen we’re here we’re here to support you whatever it is that you need we’re going we’re going to get you that help because um oftentimes student athletes are resistant to seek out mental health you know they’re prideful or they’re like no i can do this i can just tough it out kind of like you know if you’re in the last ending of the game trying to tough it out
metaphors and you know it’s important that for student athletes to understand that no you don’t have to always tough it out it’s okay to talk about it it’s okay to reach out for help you know and i love that because you know and it’s funny that the question was about fraternities and sororities i mean it’s no different i mean you have pressure from your peers you have pressure from your parents you have pressure from the school the coach like everywhere across the board the pressures exist so i love that we’re talking about that because you know student athletes i mean they’re i have a ton of friends that went to a uh division one school where they have sports is the is the bread and butter of the school quite to be honest about it but that is what it is and and i remember um how how much time it takes to train to have to perform you know the way that they want you to perform but just the amount of time outside of school and social events that that you have to dedicate and according to the to the um to the school you know you have to go based on what they’re telling you so you have to stick with that schedule so you know i could totally see that being stressful and actually um the balancing it’s a balancing act you know really can you really be a student as an and excellent school it’s hard i mean there’s a lot of stress so great question about that um so as a parent um in general when parents are thinking about this what can they do to make this election process easier for their kid when it comes to you know picking out the school and we know we talked about checking the wellness programs mental health programs that they offer but what else is a general matter that you give advice to your other you know students can parents be doing to make it easier on how how you know the process already is for that yeah yeah 100 um first and foremost i always encourage parents to to just listen you know first and foremost listen be compassionate offer some grace to the child because again this is a hard hard decision and understand that our young adults as much as we’d like to protect them they are very much aware of the insecurities and the anxieties that our families are experiencing right that’s financial pressures you know emotional pressures in the home there’s so much stuff that’s going on and as much as we like to think oh they’re not paying attention they are and they know what’s going on so be mindful of that be compassionate about that’s why i always say create that open communication with your child so that way you can talk about those things but in regards to school you know certainly don’t pressure them to pick a particular school you know parents have us you know their alma mater their or whatever like oh you have to go to this ivy league and the students like i don’t want to go there yeah i know let’s not pressure them let’s let them you know be independent and grow and make those decisions for themselves with your support um it’s important that we don’t compare our students with other students so sometimes parents may say like well so-and-so went to this why don’t you know why can’t you do that and that’s not their path that’s not their you know their their life goal you want to give them that consideration and that that grace to let them decide and carve out their own path you know obviously financial aid is a huge component to funding english because not everyone is made millionaires so you know um being able to afford college and having that conversation with your with your uh daughter or son or her child and let them know like hey this is the realities if you want to go here great let’s look into scholarships let’s look into grants that we can apply for um because maybe we don’t have every we don’t have the funds to make that happen right away you know and of course evaluating the academic opportunities so is this school really good for what you want to pursue like if the school doesn’t have a strong psychology program for example when i was going to school i was thinking about that you know hey do they have a great psychology program that will help me get into grad school yeah there are some some forethoughts we want to be mindful of when uh choosing the right school yeah and then of course visiting the campus like making sure that you actually visit the school before you make a decision oftentimes i’ve encountered students uh they come to you know the community college after a year at the you know four-year institution and they tell me to like i didn’t visit the school i just you know chose it because of the status and i hated the whole experience and so that’s really important how you feel how the student feels in that environment you got to give yourself an opportunity to check that out you know i love that you know i one of my most fond memories um that i had looking for colleges is actually visiting the colleges some of the colleges too by the way in case parents don’t know this there are i mean it’s far fewer between i’m thinking of one in particular but there are some schools that even offer like a like a following student for a day or whatever you want to call it where you actually have a student show you the campus and show you hey this is what it’s like this is what the classes are like this is important amy i know one of the biggest things when i was picking schools and actually my friends were picking schools some of my friends said i don’t want to be in a classroom with 300 students right that’s stressful to me i want to be in a classroom where there’s 20 of us and it’s more you know um smaller and so those are things to consider so yes absolutely and as parents please go visit the college with your kid i mean i can’t stress this enough i mean sometimes they think parents underestimate that it’s like oh like your aunt sue will take you sure aunt sue can take you but it’s not the same and i had one of the best memories um you know visiting conscious with my mom and dad and it was fun because you know they see something that i didn’t or i saw something that they didn’t and that’s kind of how you you decide so i think that’s a great way being present but also asking the right questions so i love that um out of curiosity i know we talked about the wellness programs and the mental health um is that generally included in a tuition like it’s not out of pocket to the students is that right for the most part so i can’t speak on every institution um no for the institution that i work for it is included in tuition so it is completely free and easily accessible to students i will say the stuff that we offer is more short-term so it’s not going to be a long-term opportunity but if we understand that the student needs those long-term services we make sure that that student gets those services before we just kind of let them go you know what i mean like all right yeah we make sure we connect them with the right appropriate services and clinician um so that way they get their needs met and because of the state of the world right now yeah there’s unfortunately there’s a little bit of a wait list for some private you know private practices or organizations so you know institutions are mindful of that so that’s why we we’re very even though we say like there’s a set limit um we we’re mindful to not just leave our student behind if they need that additional help so until we find a resource for them we’ll continue to work with them but some institutions again it is included in tuition others well oftentimes in four-year institutions they’ll require a type of student insurance to tap into so it varies and then that’s why it’s really important to ask those questions at orientation hey what does it look like am i does my student get this for free or do we have to you know pay for that what is that going to look like well right and i think that’s a great question i mean i actually before i even asked that i thought that it was included but you know what you’re right and actually things change right like if the need is high and maybe the institution decides you know what this can be a thing that we can outsource as opposed to you know um covering the costs or whatever so that’s a great that’s a great point um one of the things i i know we haven’t talked about like i was trying to circle back is we talked about what it was like when we were growing up and we were still growing up right but how is it how are the challenges that that students are facing especially unexpected challenges different in in today’s world i mean i know that’s a loaded question but i just want your professional opinion because i know that for a fact there are so many things that have been amplified you know the things that are you know with social media or even gosh it’s like social like what we’re on right now like social media facebook like what are the pressures that people are facing that are kind of newer that you’re seeing that maybe weren’t a thing in the past yeah no i think growing up we grew up you and i at least in the on the onset of social media so yes my face oh my god i’m dating myself myspace
live journals you know those were just like an introduction and we kind of went along with the wave of social media right well our young adults now they’re the rushed into social media where it’s 24 7. so unfortunately a lot of our students are young adults are experiencing bullying on a non-stop basis you know we would experience the bullying but then at the end of the day we can go home and be okay but now it’s that bullying is amplified because it continues it’s 24 7 it’s you know snapchat instagram facebook um twitter tick tocks like everything you know everything is just at you and you get you know unfortunately again the bullying but then also the access of information so being exposed to everything that’s going on politically and within the world you know obviously we talked a little bit about black lives matter and you know the unfortunate violence that’s going against our asians our asian community um and then just seeing the atrocities in other countries were constantly exposed to that and if you’re not if you’re not careful with how much consumption you’re taking in it can since it can really impact how you feel about yourself and how you feel about the world and it makes you feel very unsafe so that constant you know again 24 7 news outlet social media outlet it’s adding even more pressure to our young adults on top of already like the financial burdens or the family stress or the personal stress that you’re going through so our youth are they’re experiencing a lot more than we don’t more than we give them credit to you know identify you know yeah absolutely and i think it’s a great topic i mean i know um a lot of my friends are starting to have kids you know and i know that they talk about this all the time because it’s like what it’s what’s it going to look like in 10 years i mean what’s going to be the new form i’m really happy to talk about bullying by the way because i think that’s one of the most unexpected challenges that a lot of the kids face um actually ironically over the weekend have you seen the movie wonder i don’t know if you’ve seen it i haven’t seen it now okay you’ll have to watch it so i was watching that movie over the weekend it was so good it was about a a child that um had a facial deformity and um it’s with julia roberts and and owen wilson so good and it actually hits the nail on the head about bullying and this is more so like it was in class bullying which is what you think of when you think of bullying but like certainly like online you know and that and even like now with kids having their phones you know like like my niece and nephew have phones and i certainly didn’t have phones at their age you know snapchatting and all of that but kind of going back to the movie it talk you see how kids act in a certain way in front of the parents and the adults and perhaps they’re bullying somebody and that’s what the movie is about and it’s very interesting because it talks about how um the parents really corral against you know their their kid to try to protect them from this but but this is interesting because what you’re saying is uh loud and clear is that this is an ongoing 24 7 thing the bullying the the consumption which actually i agree with that especially when it’s you know a political year and it’s everywhere i mean and it’s even on facebook i mean i know i’m on facebook now but i know that people get their news on facebook and sometimes that creates a level of fear and concern and stress i have been stressed personally by reading some of the stuff that’s going on so it’s just interesting because i think if you if you think about what life was before at what point you know we didn’t have phones um that weren’t smartphones right there was no phones that you could just check the news oh i’m going to check twitter i’m going to check tic tacs even my friend sent me or whatever or like these um online celebrities people that are becoming youtube stars or whatever you want to call it same thing i mean i think this is so interesting because it talks about the the issues that we’re seeing now and the issues that quite frankly i think you’re seeing more more and more as the times progress so um this is this is wonderful one other question that came in um just so that you can address this i think that you might have already answered but we’ll talk about it again where can my child go for help if they’re if our health care provider doesn’t cover therapy or counseling that’s a good question not everyone has insurance or or has insurance that covers it so where can they go yeah no that’s great that’s a great question and every uh township is different but one of the first things i always encourage families to look into is look into your immediate township so if you live in a certain city uh contact they’re like for lack of better terms like their 4-1-1 you know i’m trying to get more information because they will have a list of community agencies and and organizations or private practices that will provide services for either free or sliding scale
you know so based on your income they’ll determine what’s appropriate and what’s affordable uh for you to get those services um another thing that i always encourage um families to be mindful of is the national suicide prevention lifeline to have that in your phone have that in your child’s phone program that in there because it’s such an important resource um it’s uh the number is 800-273-8255 that is the national suicide prevention lifeline it is free it’s 24 7 um and they’re trained uh professionals that answer those phones and and uh will take the opportunity to talk to that individual and if they’re in a crisis or they’re feeling really really sad really low um on top of that that they can also provide resources in the community and let you know which agencies can can accommodate those needs obviously if it’s an emergency certainly call 911 um and get that individual the help that they need whether that’s hospitalization or whatnot and you know they’ll work with you every hospital will work with you financially to figure out how to best afford the treatment because at the end of the day we want to make sure that the individual is safe so those are some things we’ll look into well i didn’t know that you know when we talk about the national uh suicide prevention life fund that’s at the bottom of the screen i think i think me as a person that’s not in your field thinks oh that’s for individuals facing suicidal thoughts or having but but it kind of sounds like it could also be a one-stop shop and for looking for resources so thank you for highlighting that i don’t think i knew that um i known it now and it’s super important because again we’re also talking to all the viewers that we’re not assuming we know your financial status but we’re assuming that you’re human like us and you have felt uh you know challenges in your life and so yes if you’re looking for resources you heard it here vincent cassiu knows this stuff so national suicide prevention hotline is uh is down down in the below and and call them for resources and that is a great way um to kind of get this information out to people watching today so thank you so much for explaining that and last but not least vinnie where can everyone find you if they need to contact you what is the way to contact you um you can go ahead and email me uh below yeah it just popped up so if you have any questions or concerns go ahead and reach out to me and i would be more than happy to refer some community resources your way um or answer any general questions that you may have please take advantage of this you guys because i know vinnie personally but he really doesn’t mean what he said he stands by his word you have a lot of integrity don’t you say this friend but you are a wonderful and intelligent human being so research to the community so thank you for for speaking on that um i want to thank you for your time vinnie it’s been a wonderful talking to you today and learning more about what you do and really just again using our platform to really get this information out there mental health is not an easy topic but we covered it today and we also covered how to pick colleges and the unexpected challenges the students face so um feel free to share this video with anyone that may be interested and as always thank you to our viewers who are supporting and watching us all the time on pink mike leo confessions where we cover topics that you guys care about and really helps us know that the audience is they’re curious about this stuff so if you ever have any topics that you want covered feel free to reach out to me personally um and as you know you know what i do but i invite you to hear next week um and and anytime you guys have questions about um who the guest was or what we’re doing or what we do or what i do as an attorney you have my number below where you can text call anytime and i invite you here next week to cover another topic but i’m not going to tell you which one it is so i’ll keep you clean um and again thank you so much for your time vinnie thank you to the viewers i’ll catch you next week on pink mike legal confessions i hope everyone has a wonderful and safe day and enjoy it thank you vinnie thank you