Prepped and Ready: Parenting into the Teen Years

What is "Prepped and Ready"?

"Prepped and Ready" is a presentation to help equip parents for the transition into parenting teenagers. We understand this transition is a time of tremendous change for teens and it can be overwhelming as a parent to know how to help. "Prepped and Ready" aims to help you learn what steps you can take before a crisis develops with your teenager. We seek to empower you to address the hard topics that can be very uncomfortable and we talk about changes each one of us can make within our own homes to make them safer.

The "Prepped and Ready" presentation was developed after Shayla Sullivant, MD spent many hours with families in crisis at Children's Mercy. After providing advice to parents on the next steps to take, many parents asked an important question: Why didn’t anyone ever tell me this sooner?

The "Prepped and Ready" presentation provides a brief overview on the following topics, with an emphasis on suicide prevention:

• Eating disorder prevention
• Home safety (including storage of firearms, medications, etc.)
• Self-care
• Substance use (including vaping)
• Suicide prevention

As a parent, you face new challenges that our parents never encountered, but there are steps you can take that make a difference. "Prepped and Ready" can address problems before they become too big and together, we can take steps to prevent tragedies from happening within our own homes.

Presentations

Please contact us at Preppedandready@cmh.edu if you’d like to learn more about bringing this opportunity to your community.