San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Schools focus on improving students’ mental health
It’s a tough time to be a high school student in America.
A survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that was published in early February found that 57 percent of high school girls and 29 percent of high school boys reported experiencing “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” at some point in 2021.
The same study, the 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, indicated that more than 40 percent of the 17,232 male and female high school students interviewed said they’d felt so sad or hopeless within the past year that they were unable to do their regular activities such as schoolwork or sports for at least two weeks.
Add to this mounting pressures of cramming for finals, studying for the SATs, juggling sports and clubs and navigating interpersonal relationships, and high schoolers are grappling with a lot.
And it’s not just happening in the Bay Area — it’s happening everywhere.
Tony J. Walker, senior vice president of academic programs for the Jed Foundation, a national nonprofit that aims to protect the mental health of teens, said he can’t remember a time when young people faced so many challenges to their mental health.
“Young people are growing up at a time when it can be easy to feel overwhelmed; even before the pandemic, we saw a decade of increasing rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors,” he said. “These are all incredibly worrisome numbers, and the result of a confluence of stressors teens and young adults face right now.”
While the situation seems dire, many local high schools are doing their best in the face of adversity to provide relief.
Some of these solutions include mental health workshops and after-school clubs designed to tech students coping skills. All of the solutions are making impressive strides to make resources readily available for kids who need them most.
Building mental health resource teams
One strategy is to outsource mental health services.
To this end, several school districts have partnered with a Milpitas-based organization called Counseling & Support Services for Youth (CASSY) to create mental health resource teams on campuses to supplement staff counselors and help students access services. During the 2021-2022 school year alone, this organization logged more than 17,000 individual and group therapy sessions at schools.
Executive Director Marico Sayoc said the organization was founded in 2009 to put professional mental health therapists on school campuses. Since then — particularly in the last few years — as school resources have dwindled while the need has skyrocketed, CASSY therapists have been in high demand.
“If you’re a student and you’re having a crisis, we can work with you,” Sayoc said. “Our services eliminate barriers to transportation because we’re already in the schools and we’re free.”
Sayoc noted that most students who seek CASSY services come in overwhelmed. They’ve got anxiety. They’re battling depression. Some are just fearful of living at a time when climate change and gun violence loom over everything.
In short, they are looking for a safe space.
In response, CASSY offers two different types of services.
Tier 1 support is preventative work and usually takes the form of workshops on how to cope with certain issues pertaining to mental health. Tier 2 support is one-on-one or group therapy in direct response to a dire need. Participating school districts sign on for different programs.
Palo Alto Unified School District and Campbell Union High School District are two districts that have signed up for Tier 2 services. The Millbrae Elementary School District also is working with CASSY to provide proactive mental health workshops for parents on the last Thursday of every month.
“The idea behind these is that in order to help the child, you have to help the parents,” Sayoc said. “We’re trying to make it easier for everyone.”
Joining the club of mindfulness
Other schools are responding to the teenage mental health crisis with clubs that
“When teens have a community that recognizes the struggles they are facing and offers support and solutions, they feel connected, supported and hopeful.”
Pam Spaulding, wellness director at St. Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco
emphasize mindfulness.
Specifically, St. Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco and the College Preparatory School in Oakland both have clubs affiliated with Bring Change to Mind (BC2M), a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging dialogue about mental health and to raising awareness, understanding and empathy.
Pam Spaulding is the adult moderator for the new BC2M club at St. Ignatius, and the club had 116 students sign up at the school’s club fair in September 2022. So far in its first year, the club has planned several monthly events that engage the entire school community in a conversation about mental health.
These events have been simultaneously creative and thoughtful, attracting widespread support from the entire school community.
Late last year, club members hung numerous posters advertising the new #988 suicide hotline and invited San Francisco Suicide Prevention to come talk to students about their services. Club members also raised funds by selling wristbands emblazoned with “BC2M #74741” to raise awareness about the national Crisis Text Line.
Earlier this year, the club hosted a stressball-making activity to create coping tools to help manage stress. In March, St. Ignatius BC2M club members will create posters honoring their mental health heroes to reduce the stigma of mental health and celebrate conversations about well-being.
Finally, to celebrate Mental Health Awareness Month in May, the St. Ignatius club plans to host a Wellness Fair that will feature therapy pets, yoga, meditation, resources for mental health support, coping tools and a panel of students sharing their personal experiences.
“Readily available resources give teens the tools to create change,” said Spaulding, whose formal title is wellness director. “When teens have a community that recognizes the struggles they are facing and offers support and solutions, they feel connected, supported and hopeful. Breaking the stigma of mental health discussion and care creates hope for change and hope saves lives.”
Looking forward
There’s no question these in-school programs and resources will save lives. Experts say there are other ways to achieve the same objective.
Sara Potler LaHayne, CEO and founder of Move This World, said another answer is an emphasis on social-emotional learning (SEL), which enables students to develop emotional intelligence skills for long-term wellbeing.
“SEL ensures all students have the tools they need to feel supported and cared for, and adults have the tools to step in when warning signs indicate a student needs more intensive support,” LaHayne said. “SEL can mean the difference between a child going unnoticed when they are disengaged, and a child getting time with a counselor because a trusted adult knows that particular behavior is out of character.”
For Christy Livingston, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Healdsburg, individual therapy is an answer as well. Specifically, Livingston has focused recent work on addressing detachment and disconnect among teens.
While she said there’s no one-size-fits-all rubric for helping students through these challenges, basic approaches include grounding, being mindful and finding meaning in the little things.
“The day-to-day just seems to feel more overwhelming for teens and so much of this work is also helping parents to find ways to connect with their teens again, and teens to connect with their own experiences,” said Livingston. “Even finding ways to structure their day that allows for an intentional break instead of feeling obligated to begin homework creates an opportunity to remove guilt for not being able to accomplish tasks when they first get home.”