DUBLIN, Ohio — October is known as national depression and mental health screening month.
On Monday, experts highlighted troubling trends during a mental health for adolescents event at Dublin Coffman High School.
What You Need To Know
- The goal of the event was to raise awareness and encourage parents to be mindful of behaviors and challenges their teens are facing today
- Several booths educated parents on various behavioral risks students can face in high school
- A goal is for students, parents and the community to work together
Bushra Alhyari is a senior at Dublin Coffman High School, and has been very active in ‘Teen Institute’, a program at the high school with a mission to empower students to make positive choices when it comes to drugs and alcohol. She hopes to spread the message of safe spaces and advocate resources students can use.
“We want to spread the message of living a life and going to high school where you don’t have to turn substances,” Alhyari said. “And, you have a safe community where that share the same values as you.”
The Teen Institute stall was among several others at the free event encouraging parents and students to learn about mental health risks affecting youth, and challenges teens are facing. Meanwhile, Hope Squad’s peer-to-peer suicide prevention services for youth works with the school district. They continued to educate crowds on signs that youth might be experiencing behavioral risks.
“Social isolation, not engaging with their friends, things like that can definitely be an indication that there’s something going on,” said Kirsten Borton, a Student Support Specialist at Hope Squad. “Things like school avoidance is a big behavior that we look into and try to identify that and be aware of that. Things like grades are dropping, not engaging in things.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Jess Shatkin, who is the Vice Chair of Education at the NYU Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, spent the night teaching parents ways to emotionally relate to their kids.
“Why kids really take risks, which is largely neurobiological and has an evolutionary purpose. And that allows us, when we understand that not to get so angry at them, but to come up with strategies that are usable and actionable,” said Shatkin. “And that’s what I’m going to focus on, is the strategies then that we can use to help keep our kids safe from risk.”
He shared statistics and various approaches related to listening to what youth need. Shatkin spoke about crime, drug-use, mental health, social media usage, and how suicide is one of the leading causes of death for 15 to 24-year-olds.
“We’ve seen an increase in depression and suicidal thinking and behavior that starts around 2009,” Shatkin said. “When most people were getting smartphones and there’s no question based on that correlation. Yes, it’s a correlation, but there’s so many points moving in this direction and it’s not a covid effect or a pandemic effect that might have punctuated it.”