66 | NOVEMBER 30 • 2023 

“People were blamed for 
having mental health problems,
” 
Edelson explains. “People were 
seen as somehow inadequate or 
inferior.
”
While neither is ultimately 
true, mental health often car-
ried a sense of shame in the 
decades prior. Rather than 
seeking outpatient therapy, 
people experiencing mental 
health challenges often resorted 
to inpatient care at psychiatric 
facilities or hospitals.
As she guided the clinic into 
a new area and continues to 
navigate its future, Edelson 
made it a mission to continue to 
break down these barriers. The 
goal was to create a positive, 
nurturing experience for youth, 
adults and families alike, with 
carefully vetted therapists and 
proven therapies and medica-
tions, which now carry less side 
effects.
Times have changed tre-
mendously for mental health 
care and awareness. Now, 
mental health has shed much 
of its taboo, with celebrities and 
influencers openly talking about 
their mental health struggles — 
thus encouraging today’s youth 
to do the same.
“This was not heard of 40 to 
50 years ago,
” Edelson says.

NORMALIZING MENTAL 
HEALTH CARE
In the past 10-15 years, Edelson 
has found that mental health 
care has become a much more 
normalized method of treat-
ment for youth experiencing 
mood issues, anxiety and more. 
“It’s become more acceptable 
and encouraged,
” she says.
On a regular basis across the 
world, one can easily read about 
royal families and other leading 
political figures supporting 
mental health foundations or 
simply talking about their own 
mental health, as England’s 
Prince William and Prince 
Harry have done.
Digital technology like social 
media, which comes with both 
benefits and drawbacks, still 
helps expose youth to import-

ant knowledge 
about mental 
healthcare and 
treatment.
Even popular 
kids’ movies, 
like the 2015 
Inside Out fam-
ily comedy pro-
duced by Pixar, uses animated 
cartoons designed to represent 
emotions to talk about these 
feelings.
Weingarden says seeking out 
care for your mental health is 
no different than seeking out 
care for conditions like strep 
throat, a broken leg or juvenile 
diabetes.
As more and more people 
accept this concept, the stigma 
surrounding mental health con-
tinues to disappear — and thus 

puts today’s youth on a better 
path toward wellness.
“I always remind kids I’m a 
brain doctor,
” Weingarden says. 
“This is your brain; this is not 
about you not wanting or not 
being able to do things.
“You’re not doing anything 
wrong,
” she adds for kids or 
parents who are struggling. 
“Let’s correct things just like 
you would if you had any other 
medical concern.
” 

HEALTH

LEFT: Lily Levy, LMSW; Lori Edelson, LMSW; Kayla Conrad, Ph.D.; Dan O’Neil, MA, LLP; Paula Jorne, Ph.D., and Margie Yaker, LMSW, at the 2006 
Birmingham Maple Clinic summer event. RIGHT: Arlene Frank, Advisory Board Member; Kayla Conrad, Ph.D.; Lisa Diaz, LMSW; Nancy Dietrich, 
Ph.D.; and Carolyn Matrin, BCBSM Auditor, at Birmingham Maple Clinic open house for new Troy location.

NORMALIZING MENTAL 

Conference room in 
Birmingham Maple 
Clinic’s Troy office.

Waiting room of current Birmingham 
Maple Clinic office in Troy.

continued from page 65

