An Orange County father is sharing the tough story of finding out his loved one was on the brink of ending their life. “I wasn’t prepared for how my family member felt and how they were suffering,” said Christopher Martin.It wasn’t easy for Martin to speak so openly about his loved one and their new journey through mental health.He, like many parents, is trying to help teens through the crisis.”With the access to social media and the Internet, the access that they have, ironically, they can be so much more lonely than we were,” he says. Martin says his loved one was suffering before his eyes with suicidal thoughts.He admitted it’s easier said than done to pick up on the signs.”I didn’t know it was happening until I got a call from somebody at school saying, ‘Hey, they’re thinking about doing this.’ I found out after that fact that there had been self-harm. So, there had been cutting, not cutting with the intent to end their life. There was self-harm. There was also self-harm in the way of eating disorders,” Martin said.Windy McCarty Van Bemmel, a licensed mental health counselor in Central Florida, says kids are coming in with an escalated level of anxiety and escalated levels of depression.”We’re seeing an increase in our kids’ volume, specifically with our adolescents. So, we’re seeing about a 4% increase throughout our kids,” Van Bemmel said.Van Bemmel serves as the director of business development at University Behavioral Center.She says even though more young people are using their facilities and services, there’s some good news in the numbers.”I’m always really happy to see our kids be able to talk about their mental health and be so open about it. In my generation, it wasn’t such a common thing to be able to share this is what I’m going through, here’s my mental health status today, but we see a lot of kids talking about it with each other, their teachers,” Van Bemmel said.”The thing we should be concerned about is getting our kids into care when they need it and knowing what to look for, whether it’s an outpatient provider or you start to see some of those signs,” Van Bemmel said.For Martin, he’s grateful his loved one told somebody so he could get them the life-changing care they needed.Martin and his family sought help at La Amistad Behavioral Health Services in Maitland.”They were given the tools to dig themselves out of the hole,” Martin said.He hopes that by sharing his story, parents and guardians learn to listen and kids understand they don’t have to fight this battle alone.”They just needed somebody to show up no matter how they treated me, no matter how they treated themselves; just show up. For those of you who know someone depressed, listen. If someone talks about self-harm, tell somebody because that’s a cry for help,” Martin said.”Active listening goes so far. When you’re a parent, just listening to your child and letting them know, ‘I care about you. I’m not judging you. I’m not telling you this is the way you should think.’ This is the way you shouldn’t think. The best thing you can do is open up the conversation. Are you doing OK? Tell me what’s on your mind. Are you thinking about this? And doing it in a non-judgmental way,” Van Bemmel said.Central Florida offers a list of mental health services for people in need.For families or individuals who may be underinsured or don’t have insurance at all, reach out to the Mental Health Association of Central Florida.They have a free outlook clinic. MHACF also offers free resources and classes.There’s also the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Greater Orlando.This organization offers free classes, resources and programs for children and families.For those in a severe crisis, call or text 988, which is the National Suicide and Prevention Lifeline.It’s available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.Other resources and treatment facilities for those in acute care crisis, which means someone is mentioning they’re suicidal or have suicidal ideation, include but are not limited to:Palm Point Behavioral Health in TitusvilleUniversity Behavioral Center in OrlandoCentral Florida Behavioral Hospital in OrlandoAny of those hospitals will welcome patients any time of the day for a free assessment. If you or someone you know is struggling, there are resources available: If you or someone you know may be contemplating suicide, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.orgNational Alliance on Mental Illness Greater Orlando: click here.Mental Health Association of Central Florida: click here.Top headlines: Sheriff: 3 arrested in Osceola kidnapping case after victim secretly texts 911 from backseat Lawsuit: Brian Laundrie told parents that Gabby Petito was ‘gone,’ that he needed a lawyer 3-year-old dies after running into traffic in Melbourne; mom struck while chasing after child