September is a heavy month. Between school, family, and college applications, students are under a lot of stress. It is important to recognize mental health in times like this.
We interviewed Mr. McHale, our school’s social worker, about suicide awareness and mental health within the Eastlake community.
“I think it’s a great time to reach out to someone, if it’s someone you know and you see messages, you could text them and say “Hey, I noticed this on social media, I’m kind of concerned about you, are you doing okay”, maybe offering to find the time to talk if they’re alright, or, depending on how connected you are to them, that might be a good time to reach out to someone like a family member of theirs or someone here at school whether it’s a counselor, myself, admin. A lot of times reaching out to someone directly might be a good way to start the conversation and just let them know “Hey, I notice you, I noticed this and you seem like you’re struggling”, that might be a good way to help them find some help or assistance”
“There’s lots of good resources, there’s places like the Center for Disease Control, NAMI, – the National Alliance on Mental Illness, – is a really good and informative resource, places like Trevor Project, those are some good options if you want to just inform yourself on statistics. The prevalence of these things is to get some resources, and there’s great resources around the school too, like I know right now the counselors are putting up posters around the school for suicide prevention awareness month and they’re all great resources to talk to. So to wrap things up, doing some research, talking to folks around the school are all great ways and preventative measures, checking in with each other, utilizing the resources here, talking to people and keeping the conversation going; I think awareness is a big, great preventative measure”
Resources are always available. Be sure to reach out if you or someone you know needs help.
