The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
‘There is no health without mental health’
Town adds resources for struggling youth
NEW MILFORD — As stats on increased youth suicide risk and mental health discussions dominate national headlines, one Connecticut town is taking action.
From plans for new school-based health centers, to free counseling sessions at the Youth Agency, to videos and podcasts produced by local teens, a shift has come to New Milford. With another school year approaching, the town turns its focus to providing essential youth mental health services.
Nearly two years of remote and hybrid learning have been hard for kids, who were isolated from friends and normal support systems at a time when they needed it most.
“Everyone felt stuck, I think, and there weren’t many places to turn,” said Annabelle Colonna, 17, and a student at New Milford High School. “Now that we’re coming out of it, I think we need to have plans in place.”
Although the mental health stigma has lessened, many students still feel nervous talking about their personal mental health, she said.
Addressing student needs ‘within the school walls’
New Milford schools will use federal funds to create physical and mental health clinics in their schools with the help of the Connecticut Institute For Communities, Inc., or CIFC. Currently, the schools are reviewing space and cost estimates, Superintendent Alisha DiCorpo said.
“Our goal is to provide families with an option of having outside providers within the school walls for easier access for the needs of their children,” DiCorpo wrote in an email.
Last June, nearly one in three high-schoolers across the nation said they felt depressed more often, and three in four school districts reported students exhibiting multiple indicators of increased mental health stresses, according to an infographic from Capitolworks LLC, a nonpartisan consulting company. The infographic also states mental health-related emergency room visits have increased for youth and teens since 2019.
Melanie Bonjour, who is the school-based health center program manager for CIFC, has worked in this space since 1993 and plays an integral role in New Milford’s process.
CIFC has had success with its school-based health center programs in Danbury and Newton, Bonjour said. In the aftermath of the devastating 2013 Sandy Hook school shooting, Bonjour said the group set up a school-based health center in anticipation of mental health needs.
“We've been very effective in working with the school population in responding to children's needs and supporting the community,” she said.
The services are not meant to replace existing health and counseling services at schools, but supplement and enhance them.
Bonjour knows the town’s health director, Lisa Morrissey, from her time working in Danbury, and the two connected to talk about New Milford’s needs. Morrissey then connected Bonjour with DiCorpo, and from there several meetings and planning sessions ensued.
“We've had the conversations, we have agreements in place, so we are working with them,” Bonjour said. “We are moving forward.”
According to Board of Education meeting minutes , the district is planning for two administrative rooms and one exam room at each school. Notes also state the centers will be primarily focused on mental health.
The principals at all the schools have expressed interest and support for the program, Bonjour said. She hopes to have behavioral health services available to students by the time school starts.
These services can be offered in any “confidential” space such as an empty classroom, Bonjour explained.
Bonjour and school leaders will assess student needs to determine an implementation plan.
“A number of factors will prioritize where we start. But I think ultimately the goal is to have the services available in all the schools, at some point in the future,” Bonjour said.
The Youth Agency steps in
In addition to schoolbased services, the local Youth Agency has added free counseling services for middle and high schoolers. Months of research, paperwork, consultations, and approvals have gone into the program, which launched under director Jason O’Connor on June 28.
“This was a program we had to build here,” he said. “We didn't have any counseling services.”
By launching during summer break, O’Connor and his staff hope to capture students before they go back to school, providing a “bridge of service for when they return and beyond.”
And in offering the sessions for free, the agency hopes to eliminate financial concerns that could be a barrier to entry.
O’Connor, who has a background in social work, took over as director in the summer of 2020. He said he’s passionate about incorporating a social-emotional and therapeutic model into his work with youth, and was planning to emphasize mental wellness, pandemic or not.
“I would always kind of impress upon our youth and providers that there is no health without mental health and mental wellness and emotional wellness,” he said.
O’Connor said one reason youth have been particularly susceptible to pandemic-related stressors is that they haven’t built up the same resiliency skills adults develop over time. Adults have more “historical evidence” of failures and trauma, and have learned resiliency and coping skills that kids might not have yet, he said.
So far, O’Connor said they have about six clients receiving services.
A public service for all
While counseling is just kicking off, the agency’s video production team, made up of local teens and supervised by Stacey Kabasakalian, has already been working hard to start those tricky conversations.
Through public service announcement videos and podcasts, the teens work to destigmatize mental health topics and talk about resources.
The team records about one podcast episode a week and a video about every two weeks, spending hours and hours at the agency to create the final product.
O’Connor has even lent a hand in their videos, stepping in to act when needed.
Podcast topics have run the gamut, from eating disorders, to consent, to vaping and anxiety. The team just finished recording one on racial justice and have released their first full podcast season. The teens said the podcasts are aimed at family and friends, in addition to those suffering.
Two of the teens said they became interested in the issue after watching friends in middle school struggle with mental health.
“Ever since then, it was really important to me to figure out how I could help my community and the people in my community,” said Ciara Lynch, 18. “Mental health issues don’t just affect that person. They affect the people around them.”
Lynch, a 2021 New Milford High graduate, explained the ripple effect of one person’s mental health struggles. She said this past year was particularly challenging for seniors who were trying to figure out their next big step in the middle of the pandemic.
“I think it really shook up our future in a way it wouldn’t have if the pandemic hadn’t happened,” she said.
Colonna, who is also on the production team, said a lot of mental health issues are “super common,” and she wants to help people find good solutions.
“I felt like here at the Youth Agency, this was such a great platform to start talking about it and provide resources,” she said.
In the past, Lynch and Colonna said they haven’t been as confident in existing school resources, which they said were focused on awareness rather than action. That’s where the agency has filled in, Lynch explained.
The teens don’t just want to hear stats, they want answers.
“Just now in the Olympics we saw Simone Biles, she had to step down because of mental health reasons, and that’s on a way greater scale,” said Paz Moran, 17, who works on the video production team.
“Even if we’re not Olympians, we still can find those resources.”