Last week on Regional Radio, we brought you the story of the latest data from the Illinois Youth Survey data that was taken by Illinois teens this past spring.

Tony Kirkman is the Executive Director of the Piatt County Mental Health Center and breaks down the data specific to Piatt County and DeWitt County youth - in addition to the data from the statewide collection. While not surprised, he says vaping continues to be an issue teens battle.

A concerning trend for Kirkman is the growing trend of teens who report parents are providing alcohol or marijuana to their teens. He says parents are providing their kids with poison.

Kirkman says this is problematic because a teen's brain is not fully developed and these substances have a direct impact on the development of the brain. 

For Kirkman, he was impressed that substance use is down among youth. He notes youth seriously considering suicide is also down however, while the sharp, acute mental health disturbances are going down, the long-term depression and anxiety are going up.