During the coronavirus pandemic, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention says, its important to protect our mental health and help those who may be struggling. Dr. Allison Ventura, with UF Health Jacksonville, is encouraging parents not to be afraid to talk with their children about mental health and start a dialogue with them about how theyre doing. Oftentimes our first gut reaction is to want to fix, to solve and to get into that take action mode, Ventura said. But, as parents, really just sitting back and listening and understanding whats going on with your child and just letting them talk can really be the first step to having a good intervention and connection with your child to make sure were putting them in the right direction for help.Ventura also encourages parents to follow their instinct. I think parents are very intuitive and have really good gut instinct about when changes have happened with their children, so I think listening to your gut as a parent and saying, This is a change Im concerned about? Ventura said.