Woodbury And Sapp Interviewed Nationally Following Tragic Shootings

With the tragic killings of 20 innocent children last Friday in Newtown, CT, the subject of mental illness is the hot topic affecting many families, schools and professionals across the United States.

Today on Huff Post Live, Lon Woodbury, an Independent Educational Consultant and Founder of the web-based resource StrugglingTeens.com, was one among a panel of guests invited to address the topic. The panel also included Dr. Andy Sapp, PhD, President/Founder of Cherry Gulch, a therapeutic boarding school for boys in ID, Christina Shaver, a mother of a special needs child from IL, Steven Dickstein, a Pediatric Psycho-pharmacologist from NY and Brian Lombrowski, co-chair of the Youth Advisory
Group for the Building Bridges Initiative, and former President of the Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth. The panel discussed what we can do as a nation to help families and children struggling with mental illness.

Among the topics discussed was the shortage of child psychologists, the lack of community services available for families of children with mental illnesses, the need for more home-based resources for these families. Also address was the shortage of state funding for children in need.

Parents feel they don't know who to trust and where to go in all of this, which brought up the subject of parent choice programs and schools that specialize in working with these struggling children and their families.

As Lon shared "Parents have choices and the power in these situations and there are a lot of possibilities to get assistance for their children. In a good program it will be highly structured and contain therapeutic sessions, therapy groups, experiential groups, individualized help, cutting edge resources, and best practices."

For parent's just starting the journey of finding help for their children, Christina offered some advice, "Turn over every single rock that comes to you and exhaust every resource that comes to you." And rather than blaming, "focus on what is happening now and how to change it."

To listen to the interview in full go to:
http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/where-do-we-send-the/50cf3739fe344434d70001dd

Woodbury Reports Inc., is an independent educational consulting firm based out of Bonners Ferry, ID.

Lon Woodbury is the President/Founder of Woodbury Reports Inc. and creator of the web-based resource StrugglingTeens.com. He has worked with families and struggling teens since 1984 and is the host of Parent Choices for Struggling Teens, an Internet-based talk radio show.

Cherry Gulch is a ranch-style, therapeutic boarding school designed specifically for 10 -14 year old boys. Cherry Gulch's supportive, encouraging and respect-based approach is designed to build students up-rather than tear them down. Cherry Gulch is passionate about providing early intervention and prevention to help boys reach their full potential and become well-rounded, pro-social young men. We are dedicated to providing outstanding therapeutic and academic services to students and their families. This is accomplished in the context of a safe environment working toward "Building Brighter Tomorrows for the Boys of Today."