By Lisa Carolin
The sensitive and important topic of youth mental health drew close to 70 people to the Washington Street Education Center on April 29.
The Youth Mental Health Forum attracted parents, youth, city council members, library administrators and school administrators.
The facilitators were Reiley Curran and Lindsay Baker from SRSLY Chelsea, and Becca Jaskot and Kathy Walz from St. Joseph Mercy Chelsea along with Marcus Kaemming, executive director of instruction, curriculum, and human resources for the Chelsea School District.
For most of the meeting, adults and youth were in separate rooms.
Adults got into small groups to discuss questions posed by the facilitators beginning with the question why youth in Chelsea are experiencing mental health problems.
Among the answers were:
Pressure for grades and getting into college.
Pressure to do well in sports.
Difficulty dealing with self-esteem.
Hard for kids to disconnect from social media.
Feeling if they’re not perfect, (teeth, hair, the right purse) they don’t fit in.
Comparing themselves to other kids.
Spending too much time on their phones.
Parents spending too much time on their phones.
Being bullied.
Feeling insecure.
Cliques.
Not getting assessed by mental health professionals in the school system from an early age.
Stigma of seeing a counselor. “If every kid had to go for a visit with a counselor, it would be the norm.”
Not enough real connectivity on a personal basis, rather than on the phone.
Culture of Chelsea
Pressure in the school district to be a high achiever and to fit in with high achieving groups, and if not a part of one of those groups, nowhere to be applauded, which can cause damage to a child’s psyche.
Not enough sleep.
Not enough activities.
A lack of compassion and empathy among kids.
Answers among the groups of adults about the question of what to do about these problems included:
- We have health class. What about a mental health class?
- Start teaching kids about mental health in elementary school.
- Don’t be afraid to ask someone if they’re thinking of hurting themselves.
- Be aware that video games and television programs can desensitize kids.
- Think about implementing social and emotional learning skills before third grade as part of the curriculum.
- More opportunities to explore trades and non-academic career paths.
- Having school therapists.
- A youth center where kids can connect with mentors such as Chelsea graduates who come back and work with youth in the community.
- More community service – helping other people feels good.
- Mental health training for teachers.
- Being direct with people that you are worried about.
- An assembly to show kids statistics to make them more aware and know that they’re not alone.
- Little boxes at all the schools where a kids can put something about how they feel, and then counselors can read those comments.
- Changing school start times. Kids don’t get enough sleep. How do we fit everything in because if we don’t take care of our mental health, the rest of it doesn’t matter.
- Youth group opportunities at the library and at local churches.
- Family oriented therapy.
- Involving pediatricians to do suicide screenings and risk assessments on youth.
- Everyone in the family limiting phone use.
- Making The Why You Matter campaign more than just a one-day event in high school and telling kids every day why they matter.
- A help line kids can text to.
Youth participants were in a separate room with facilitators to share ideas about why youth in Chelsea are experiencing mental health problems.
Their thoughts included:
- Feelings of isolation and not being connected.
- Feeling pressure and the need to succeed, which leads to perfectionism.
- Social media making them think they need a perfect life.
- Being afraid of the stigma of asking for help.
- The pressure of explaining what you’re feeling and having to have a reason of why you feel bad.
As far as what to do to help these problems, these were the ideas from the youth group.
- Weekly de-briefings with peers about what’s going on.
- Weekly checkups with counselors.
- School wide assemblies.
- Educating students’ parents.
- Training for students to help friends.
- Places to go after school, especially for middle-schoolers.
The plan is to hold another Youth Mental Health Forum in August. In the meantime, three groups of volunteers are being formed:
- One is for access and treatment-screening, referral, care process of youth.
- The second is regarding stigma and education-training, skill-building, raising awareness of the issues.
- The third is about connectivity and resiliency-prevention for all ages.
To learn more, contact Lindsay Baker at [email protected].
