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Show Activities planned for Mental Health Month seven million children and adolescents ado-lescents in this country are mentally ill. A recent National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) study shows that young people under 20 are in the peak age range for developing depression, obsessive-compulsive disorders, phobias, and substance abuse disorders. Suicide is the second se-cond leading cause of death among teen-agers. We are especially concerned about children at risk," says Dr. Williams. "Children who, because of certain genetic, psychological, social and familial factors, espe cially in combination, are particularly par-ticularly vulnerable to developing serious mental disorders. ' Dr. Williams says these factors include low birth weight, physical trauma, learning difficulties, poverty, homelessness, poor parental supervision super-vision and child abuse. The need, he says, is to help parents, teachers and other adults, who often mistake symptoms of serious se-rious mental illness for behavior resulting from normal growing pains, to learn to recognize the warning war-ning signs of mental illness. The Davis Mental Health and Alcohol and Drug Center will sponsor spon-sor a series of special activities to increase awareness of the risk of mental illness in children and ado-lescents-and how the community can respond-during the 1991 May is Mental Health Month. "Nothing should be more important impor-tant to us as a community and a nation than ensuring that the next generation enters adulthood in good mental health,' says Russell A. Williams, Ph.D., of the Davis Mental Men-tal Health and Alcohol and Drug Center. "Our hope is that adding to the understanding of mental illness in childhood and adolescence will increase in-crease the likelihood that people will get appropriate treatment while they are still young, before their il lnesses become intractable," says Dr. Williams. The main activity Davis Mental Health and Alcohol and Drug Center will be hosting during May is a health fair display at Layton Hills Mall on May 17, 2-8:30 p.m. and May 18, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. to celebrate the importance of enhancing enhanc-ing esteem with our children and youth. Self-esteem masks will be created at this display as well as drawings for two white water river trips, one family river float trip, and several registrations for community education classes offered at the Davis Mental Health centers. "Many people don't realize that mental illnesses start much earlier and that children are at a greater risk of developing themthan previously believed, ' says Dr. Williams. In fact, he says more than |