Mental Health Mentality: Agents of change

Survey: Do you have something to say about mental health awareness or suicide prevention in SCS or the Shelby County area? Share feedback in our survey at surveymonkey.com/r/mentalhealth280living.

In the first installment, 280 Living reported on how recent Chelsea High School graduate Madison Bearden — along with her fellow peer helpers and local organizations like AFSP, Children’s of Alabama, Birmingham Crisis Center and NAMI — created the inaugural mental health week at SCS after seeing a need for suicide prevention and mental health awareness.

This is the second in a three-part series examining the mental health program Shelby County Schools (SCS) will have in place in the 2018-19 school year. Look in the September issue for an examination of some proposed solutions for mental health awareness in the Shelby County community and what community members, students and parents have to say.

Though educators are often the first line of defense for suicide prevention and mental health awareness for students, Shelby County Schools (SCS) Director of Student Services Melissa Youngblood is hoping a new mental health campaign, Shelby County Schools Care, will involve the entire Birmingham community. 

Schools, stakeholders and other community members have had conversations regarding mental health in the wake of multiple deaths by suicide. Youngblood hopes they will join SCS and play a role in mental health discussions in the upcoming year. 

“I think as we learn about these different tragedies that are happening, the conversations on mental health are real,” Youngblood said. “If we are going to be change agents, we are going to have to have some tough discussions on what we are doing about mental health within our school system, within our state, within our state department [and] the federal system.”

Youngblood said a major motivation for Shelby County Schools Care is that more students than previous years are at risk of self-harm and struggling with self-care, according to annual assessment data from school counselors. In addition, she said the data documented many younger students, not just high school and middle school students, experiencing mental health issues.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) statistics indicate 37 percent of students with a mental health condition ages 14 and older eventually drop out of school and do not graduate.

“We have seen an increase of students dealing with trauma, anxiety and depression, so this will definitely be an area of focus,” Youngblood said.

Over the course of the 2017-18 school year, Youngblood worked with SCS and stakeholders to prepare and introduce the new mental health campaign. 

The initiative, which she said will launch in August of the 2018-19 school year, was created to provide more assistance in three of the six learning support areas — student intervention, support for transitions and crisis assistance and prevention — that SCS provides through Learning Supports Framework, a systematic approach that has been in place for five years.

Over the summer, SCS began working with school board members through meetings, activities, retreats and data-based presentations, sharing what the initiative is trying to accomplish and the resources necessary, Youngblood said. From there, SCS plans to present education on mental health during monthly principal meetings, which will be trickled down to staff, teachers and eventually students. 

Students in leadership positions, such as peer helpers and student government, will play a major role in spreading the word, Youngblood said.

SCS social worker Emily Littrell, who has been working with Youngblood on the campaign, said because of the prevalence and impact of mental health issues, SCS wants to equip and educate students with healthy coping mechanisms and a broader understanding.

“We have students who really want some resources, want to see a mental health counselor, want to have some kind of contact,” Youngblood said, even though some parents are not on board with giving permission for students to receive mental health counseling, or don’t necessarily understand what mental health services mean or their significance to the child’s learning, Youngblood added.

Fifty percent of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14 and 75 percent by age 24, according to NAMI, but there’s an average delay of eight to 10 years between recognizing symptoms and seeking treatment. This years-long gap has been shown to detrimentally interfere with day-to-day learning, in addition to encouraging truancy and causing many students not to graduate. 

 Mental health issues, Littrell said, can prevent a student from reaching their true potential. 

“A lot of what we are trying to accomplish here is being proactive instead of reactive,” Littrell said. “We just want parents to understand if they choose to engage in some support services or a counseling service for their children, that in no way means that they are labeled or treated differently than any other student in our system.”

Littrell said part of parental reluctance can come from the negative stigma associated with mental health, which is what SCS wants to combat through Shelby County Schools Care.

“We just want to educate the kids on how you handle it. Not everyone is going to have a mental illness, but some people are going to struggle with mental health issues, and they will need to get the help that they need,” Youngblood said.

Youngblood said SCS is focusing on explaining to the community — from students to stakeholders to staff — that everyone has mental health they can manage in healthy or unhealthy ways. Topics to be discussed in the new campaign include suicide prevention, dealing with stress, peer pressure, social media responsibility, managing anger, possible connections between substance abuse and mental health and dealing with adversity. 

“So we just want to say, ‘Hey, we recognize that you are struggling, these are resources that are necessary, and we want to help,’” Youngblood said. 

Littrell said they plan to incorporate Shelby County Schools Care educational presentations in the form of pamphlets and booths in various school events and parent nights.

Shelby County Public Relations and Community Education Supervisor Cindy Warner said the school system is working hard on the campaign over the summer after multiple student deaths in the 2017-18 school year led to urgency.

Mental health issues interfere with more than just learning. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) reports mental health issues are also closely tied to many suicide attempts in both adults and children. In previous years, 8.6 percent of individuals in ninth through 12th grade reported making at least one suicide attempt in the last 12 months. 

“You’ll see [Shelby County Schools Care] being very visible. There will be posters, there will be videos and there will be resources on our website,” Warner said. “What we are about to do, you’re not going to see any other school districts in the area doing it. It’s going to be over and above what I think you’re going to see other school districts doing.” 

In addition, Warner said, they are introducing student-based social and emotional learning, which teaches how to manage emotions, achieve goals and maintain positive relationships. Warner said “all administration, district level leaders and anybody in a leadership position of any kind” participate in a year-long professional development unit.

“We have a lot of mental health partnerships we just started, andwe will be implementing,” Youngblood said, which includes a new partnership with Chilton-Shelby Mental Health.

The partnership will focus on providing students with mental health services within their schools, instead of students having to travel to another facility, as they did in their previous Gateway partnership, Youngblood said. Chilton-Shelby Mental Health offers services including counseling, psychiatric consultations and case management, Littrell explained, as well as a mental health counselor who will act as a liaison between the school and the facility in order to “facilitate whatever services the student needs to be successful.” Mary Parker Phillips was recently hired for the role.

“Some of our parents, even if they wanted the child to have the opportunity to see a therapist, sometimes there’s issues there — maybe it’s transportation, maybe the parents can’t get off work,” Youngblood said. “We are removing that barrier to get access for that kid.”

Youngblood said they plan to introduce Shelby County Schools Care through a video and presentation to all of the students on an undecided day in the upcoming year, where there will be a “frank, age-appropriate discussion” on mental health awareness, approaches for positive mental health and ways to be supported for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. 

“We want to remove that stigma and say, ‘It’s all right to talk, it’s all right to seek help,’” Youngblood said. “Every student matters, and I want to make sure they know that. If we get them early on with some coping skills and some resources and discussions and really allow them to deal with some of the emotions and social well-being, then I think that’s key.”

If service providers are interested in helping with the new mental health program, Littrell suggests contacting SCS about being added to their resource manual, and if parents are interested in volunteering, they should contact their respective school. 

“We are asking for [the community’s] help and assistance. We want everyone to be a part of the solution,” Youngblood said. “I think just having these conversations and working together, our kids will see and our staff will see and our parents will see that we can make the change. We really can, if we pull all of our resources together and do what we need to do.”

To learn more about the new mental health campaign, contact Youngblood at myoungblood@shelbyed.org.

Survey

Do you have something to say about mental health awareness or suicide prevention in SCS or the Shelby County area? Share feedback in our survey at surveymonkey.com/r/mentalhealth280living.

Your response may be included in our final part of the Mental Health Mentality series.

Additional Services

► Teen Link text services: Teens can text 205-382-5465 and talk to trained counselors about anything. The text messages will be kept confidential.

► Crisis lines: Locals can call the Birmingham Crisis Line at 205-323-7778 to talk on the phone with a trained counselor 24/7. If the line is busy, call the toll-free National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

► Help findingtreatment: Visit findtreatment.samhsa.gov to find support groups and local counselors and psychiatrists in your area.