Support the prevention of mental illness and suicide

Mental Health America means "providing practical tools that everyone can use to improve their mental health and increase their resiliency regardless of their personal situation." 

With 1 in 5 adults struggling with mental health issues.

Opinion letter published in The Daily Chronicle, in  Centralia, 

Washington.

From the National Alliance of Mental Illness:

NAMI provides advocacy, education, support and public awareness so that all individuals and families affected by mental illness can build better lives.

January is Mental Wellness Month and has been designated to recognize the importance of attending to our mental health and the mental health of our friends and loved ones.

According to NAMI, one in five adults experience mental illness each year, and one in 20 experience serious mental illness each year.

Mental health disorders also affect our nation’s youth, as one in six aged 6-17 experience these each year. Fifty percent of all lifetimes mental illness begins by age 14, and 75% by age 24. NAMI also lists suicide as the second leading cause of death among people aged 10-34.

In the United States, 90% of people who die by suicide may have experienced symptoms of a mental health condition, according to interviews with family, friends and medical professionals.

One of the major problems with mental illness is that less than half of people with a mental health condition receive treatment. As stated earlier, many mental health disorders can begin at an early age.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), two of the most common mental health disorders in young people are depression and anxiety disorders.

Not everyone who is depressed is suicidal, but depression is the leading condition associated with suicide and many times is left undiagnosed and untreated. It is important to know the warning signs of suicide because four out of five individuals considering suicide give some sign of their intentions either verbally or behaviorally.

If you suspect someone is experiencing a mental health crisis or is contemplating suicide, consider reaching out to them with empathy and understanding. Call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. Dial 911 if it is an actual emergency.

The Jason Foundation is another available resource. The Jason Foundation is dedicated to the awareness and prevention of suicide through educational programs and provides tools and resources to identify and assist those who are at-risk. 

Please visit jasonfoundation.com for more information about helping your friends and loved ones who are suffering with a mental illness. 

Taylor Harling, Divisional Director of The Jason Foundation

Mission Statement: The Jason Foundation, Inc. (JFI) is dedicated to the prevention of the “Silent Epidemic” of youth suicide through educational and awareness programs that equip young people, educators/youth workers and parents with the tools and resources to help identify and assist at-risk youth.

JFI believes that awareness and education are the first steps to prevention. We want to establish a Triangle of Prevention by providing students, parents and teachers the tools and resources to help identify and help at-risk youth. This is accomplished through a curriculum unit for students and informational seminars for teachers and parents. The programs provide resources to accomplish this goal. The materials are easy to use and are intended to provide educational information. There is no intent to diagnose or treat suicidal ideation. JFI’s intention is to empower youth, educators and parents to help recognize when young people are in pain and know to get professional help involved as soon as possible. The Jason Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit 501c3.

Coronavirus tragic toll on mental health of young people

When we think about how hard our young people work to succeed, this report from Brunswick, Maine is a brutal reminder about how difficult it is on youth, when they feel isolated and loose site of hope, in spite of their budding talents. We must treat mental health exactly like any medical disease.

BRUNSWICK, Maine, published in the Lewiston Sun Journal - Death of a Brunswick teen who took his life a sign of pandemic’s toll on young people. By Rachel Ohm

NAMI Maine has launched a peer support text line for people who are 14 to 20 years old. The program is staffed by people under 23 years old. If you want to talk to another young person about how you’re feeling, text 207-515-8398.

The Midcoast community is mourning the loss of a high school football player whose parents have cited the coronavirus pandemic as a factor affecting their son's mental health.

This tragedy is a somber reminder about the toll the coronavirus pandemic is taking on the mental health of young people in Maine and elsewhere.

Spencer Smith was a 16-year-old sophomore at Brunswick High School who loved football, his friends and family, and worked two jobs, his father, Jay Smith, told WMTW News over the weekend. Smith killed himself Friday, after struggling with the isolation and time away from friends and sports, his father said.

“The social distance ain’t working for the kids,” Jay Smith told the TV station. “The kids are having it hard.”

Jay Smith could not be reached for comment Monday, and Angela Smith, Spencer Smith’s mother, did not respond to a Facebook message.

Superintendent Phillip Potenziano informed the community of Spencer Smith’s death in a letter on Friday. He said the family had requested that the school not share information about the cause of death, but acknowledged “there have been rumors that this was a suicide death.”

“I want to take this opportunity to remind our community that suicide, when it does occur, is a very complicated act,” he wrote. “No one single thing causes it. But in many cases, a mental health condition is part of it, and these conditions are treatable. It’s really important if you or your child is not feeling well in any way to reach out for help. Suicide should not be an option.”

The Midcoast Youth Center, a coalition formed in the wake of a youth suicide in 2016, also issued a letter to the community about Smith’s death. “His loss has been felt throughout the greater Bath/Brunswick community. We are devastated, confused and angry,” the letter read.

“The times we find ourselves in are some of the hardest any of us have ever had to face. The pandemic continues to rear its ugly head, physical distancing has led to social isolation, and we lack clear leadership to safely navigate our lives. Our children and schools are under incredible stress, each trying their best to make sense of these circumstances. There are no easy answers.”

Pandemic Toll on Young People

Across the country, the mental health of young people has suffered during the pandemic as they’ve spent more time away from friends and teachers, had fewer opportunities to socialize and have been forced to respond to disruptions in routine. Compared to 2019, the number of mental health-related emergency room visits through October this year for children ages 5 to 11 and children ages 12 to 17 increased about 24 and 31 percent, respectively, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We know the isolation and the stresses of this pandemic are impacting people’s mental health significantly,” said Greg Marley, a licensed clinical social worker and director of suicide prevention for the Maine chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “We’ve seen significantly higher rates of anxiety and depression. It’s been really harsh on people who are trying to address disordered eating, and it’s always, always hard on people, no matter what their age, if they’re involved in relationships where there is interpersonal violence.”

And while the pandemic has impacted everyone’s mental health, Marley said it can be harder for young people to process disruptive or uncomfortable events because of the way their brains work, while adults are better at seeing the big picture and looking past immediate obstacles.

Suicide rates among adolescents, pre-adolescents and young people were increasing well before the pandemic. According to an October 2019 report from the CDC, the suicide rate among people ages 10 to 24 was stable from 2000 to 2007, but increased more than 50 percent from 2007 to 2017, to 10.6 deaths per 100,000 people. Marley said social media is one factor that has been cited as contributing to the rise in suicide rates among young people.

The pandemic, he said, has had varying impacts on young people. For some, it means the adults in their lives have a closer eye on them and are more in tune with how they’re doing. For shy or introverted students, the pandemic and move to remote learning may actually be helping them. But for others, the social isolation and inability to participate in sports or gather in groups can be devastating.

“If you’re really goal-driven around sports or group events, whether that be chorus, drama, cheerleading or any kind of sporting team, and you’re cut off from that during this period of time, that’s going to be hard on you,” Marley said. “I hear that over and over again, particularly from youth that are really sports-oriented and their families.”

Nikki Correa, an assistant professor in counselor education at the University of Southern Maine and a former school counselor in Las Vegas, has been studying the pandemic’s impact on students and teachers and is expecting to soon publish a study that surveyed close to 160 school staff, the majority of whom are in Maine.

Correa likened the pandemic to other mass tragedies or crises such as school shootings or terrorist attacks, but on a larger scale. Her research, conducted in the late spring early in the pandemic, found that school staff perceived students were showing a variety of difficulties related to COVID, including being unhappy, depressed, losing their tempers and showing hyperactivity. Teachers and school staff themselves also reported feeling moderately to severely anxious and depressed.“After doing this and seeing the results, I can only imagine what it’s like now,” Correa said. “I can only imagine it’s gotten worse.”

A Quiet Leader
Smith was on the Brunswick High football team and had spent all summer training for the season, WMTW reported. When he found out there wouldn’t be a normal football season and it would instead be flag football, he figured that as a lineman he wouldn’t be playing.

“As soon as he found out it wasn’t going to be a regular football season, looking back, we noticed he stopped working out. He stopped riding his bike as much to the point he didn’t even work out anymore. Instead of working out, he took naps,” Jay Smith told the television station.

He said remote learning was also a challenge for his son and that this his grades started to slip this fall. “Thinking back the last few months, we realize we missed catching the signs that things were getting worse for him,” Smith said.

In Facebook posts over the weekend, Angela Smith highlighted her son’s recent struggles. “This remote learning is crap,” she wrote in one post. “I just lost a son because he couldn’t be with his friends. He was trapped in the house. He felt like he lost his friends and had a hard time with his school work. He felt he had no future. He hated what society was becoming. So he took the easy way out. Parents please take everything your kids are saying seriously. Give them a huge hug and don’t let go.”

John Schroeder, a senior on the Brunswick football team, remembered meeting Smith when he was an eighth-grader and had started working out with the team. He was quiet, but a hard worker who wasn’t intimidated by the upperclassmen.

“He was like a quiet leader,” said Schroeder, 17. “He wouldn’t tell you what to do or anything but he would lead by example. We could see his love for football and how he wouldn’t complain about anything. He just had the right mindset.”

Schroeder said the news of Smith’s death was a big shock and that the team is trying to come together and find healthy ways to cope. Players have met in small groups with their coaches, who told them that if they need anything they shouldn’t hesitate to reach out.

“I think a lot of students would agree with me that now a lot of school work is based on self-motivation and having everything in your control and when you’re not in the classroom, having your teachers encourage you to do all these things,” Schroeder said. “It can be difficult to put yourself in that hard-working mode and not seeing your friends all the time, that can also hurt a lot of people’s mental health. You feel a lot more alone than you did before.”

A call to the high school principal’s office Monday was referred to Potenziano, the superintendent, who said in an email he is grieving alongside the Smith family and the greater Brunswick community.

“There will be a time to review and strengthen what we have in place for students, but right now it is the time to support this family, our students and staff,” Potenziano said. “As superintendent, I know that the pandemic has been a stressor for everyone – students, staff and parents. Students’ academic life and new family life patterns, work life and social life have been completely disrupted. Our entire state and nation are reeling from feelings of isolation.”

The school district is collaborating with local and state mental health professionals. The high school’s crisis response team is also present in-person and virtually to provide information and support to students and staff, he said.

HOW TO ACCESS RESOURCES

There are a number of resources available for teens and young people in Maine who are struggling with mental health. In April, NAMI launched the Teen Text Support Line, a peer-operated text support line that provides young people a safe place to connect with others. The text line is available from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. each day and can be reached at 207-515-8398 (TEXT). It is not a crisis line and those in crisis should contact the Maine Crisis Line via phone or text at 888-568-1112.

For schools, Correa, the USM professor, said it can be difficult during hybrid learning to keep tabs on students who might only be in-person two days per week. “I know schools are trying to do everything they can like reaching out to students and families, but it’s been extremely difficult to stay connected because the majority of the week students are home, and it’s hard to stay connected with them,” she said. “You can set up a meeting on Zoom or Google Meets, but sometimes a student just doesn’t show up.”

Marley, at the Maine office of NAMI, said staff shouldn’t hesitate to utilize school resource officers to check on students and parents who aren’t responding to communication. Family members, faith leaders and doctors are other resources young people can turn to. For parents, Marley said now is the time to check in on their children.

“The biggest thing I would like to leave parents with is that invitation to use this time to step in. Get outside and take a walk and throw snowballs. It’s during those fun, relaxing activities that conversation happens,” he said.

Echo: Mental Health crisis- a New Hampshire patient experience

This is a first person account about how the lack of designated mental health care beds has impacted on one patient. It's very rare to have a mentally ill person write a timely opinion about the crises they face, every day, especially when they need in patient care.

An "echo", blog from The New Hampshire Union Leader (opionions re-blogged, from articles found while randomly cruising selected national newspapers):

Another View -- Karen Prive: 

Responding to NH’s mental health bed crisis ~ by Karen Prive

FRANKLIN, NH- I was 6 years old the first time I attempted suicide, followed by more attempts through my teens. 

While today I enjoy relative stability much of the time, last April, I was in the midst of worsening hopelessness and inner voices were telling me to die. 

My husband took me to the emergency room where an evaluating psychiatrist determined I must be admitted; however, there were no beds available. 

I was kept in a room the size of a closet that had been stripped of all furnishings other than the hospital bed. A security officer sat outside my door, and a nurse visited every couple of hours. For three days, I battled the demons inside my head, without medical treatment and often alone. 

Not surprisingly, my condition worsened. When someone is in a psychiatric crisis, their mind is not their friend — and all I had was my mind. On the third day I finally was admitted and received help.

In the last eight months, not much has changed for those in psychiatric crisis in New Hampshire. 

On Oct. 23, NAMI NH (National Alliance on Mental Illness) reported that 56 people waited in New Hampshire emergency rooms that evening for an inpatient psychiatric bed. To be eligible for admission, a person must be deemed to be in imminent danger to themselves or others. Yet these patients will wait in ERs for days or even weeks, for a bed to become available so they can receive treatment for their crisis.

According to analysis of New Hampshire death certificates, there were 223 suicides in 2015 (the last year with complete data reported), and the New Hampshire Bureau of Health estimates that there were more than 2,800 serious non-fatal suicide attempts for which the individual received care in a hospital for treatment of their injuries. It is important to note that there are many more less damaging attempts made as well — there is no mechanism to track non-fatal suicide attempts that do not result in serious injury or death. For youth, the CDC reports that in the last year, 7 percent of all New Hampshire high school students have seriously considered suicide, and approximately 900 of these kids actually attempted suicide during that time.

Yet as a society, we do not like to discuss suicide, nor the importance of adequate mental health care. It is though we assume that if we don’t talk about it, the problem will go away. In the last decade, the number of community-based inpatient mental health beds in New Hampshire has decreased by over half, with psychiatric units completely closing at five hospitals. New Hampshire Hospital has lost a large number beds as well.

Clearly this is a crisis we must treat as seriously as we have viewed the opiate crisis. Over the last few years, services for those with substance abuse services have become more plentiful, more visible, and in some cases, free. This is because the public deemed the opiate crisis an emergency that must be addressed. We ignore, however, that often an addict first used drugs or alcohol as a way to find relief from psychological or emotional distress, sometimes seeking to self-medicate an undiagnosed or untreated mental illness. Only later did the addiction take over and become the driving force in their life. If this addict manages to get into recovery, his or her underlying mental health condition often becomes problematic again, and unless they can get needed mental health care, they are at high risk of returning to substances to relieve their distress.

If we increased the availability of mental health services, including necessary inpatient beds, New Hampshire would likely see a lower suicide rate as well as a downtick in the drug abuse problem. There is outcry over the number of overdoses, but not similar outcry about the number of suicides. While there is still incredible stigma attached to mental illness and the need for mental health care (who wants to be labeled crazy?), we have had societal agreement that addiction is something we must address. Yet, addressing the opiate crisis is a bit like sticking a bandage on a wound and ignoring the infection lying underneath. We must address the issues of suicide and mental illness as well.

Karen Prive is the treasurer of NAMI NH, and lives in Franklin NH.