Are you struggling with mental health? Well, if so, you are not alone. 20% of high school students have had serious thoughts about suicide. When people choose suicide, it’s not only impacting the singular person, but a multitude of people. Losing a loved one can cause others such as family and friends to spiral with grief.
Therefore, in honor of Suicide Awareness Month, the following are resources you can use for help at any point. Although it might be uncomfortable to talk about, seeking help is much better than suffering alone.
According to Woodhaven High School Principal, Mr. Jay Vesperman, there are ample resources available for the students. “At Woodhaven High School, we’ve made student mental health a top priority. We recently expanded our counseling department to five counselors for our 1,650 students, and we’re fortunate to also have two social workers on staff. In addition, we partner with Corewell Health to provide in-house support through Marley Brereton, LPC (Licensed Professional Counselor). Having these resources available right here in the building ensures our students can access the help they need when they need it.”
It is important to be informed with the resources at the students disposal, thus, should have a more in-depth understanding of what can be beneficial for highschoolers. What better way than to ask a well known counselor at the school, Mrs. Friel. She specifically works with students having the last name A-C, but has collaborated with the other counselors to come up with these indepth resources.
When asked about specific resources she responded with a plethora of inschool and out of school goal setting to try and better improve the situation of the student.“One-on-One Counseling, Group Counseling/Support Groups, Classroom Guidance Lessons, Crisis Intervention, Referrals to Outside Resources, and Awareness Campaigns.” Not to mention the separate, individually devised plans to help “We would typically connect students with a mix of immediate support, ongoing services, and self-help tools. Often times we make a plan with the student depending on the severity of the student’s struggles, some of those supports could be as simple as some self-help strategies to more in depth and ongoing check-ins and supports from the counseling office, academic support, and outside resource supports, crisis hotline, and therapist referral if needed.”
As well as when asked about the qualifications that they possess to assist with the mental health issues of students, she responded with, “All of the counselors have their masters in counseling just like outside therapists and are trained and can help with any social-emotional concerns. We also have a specialization in school counseling and help students with academic, career, and college concerns as well. We attend multiple trainings each year that focus on mental health and crisis response. Counselors also have to keep up their license to renew it every five years and have continuing education hours to complete.” This clearly indicates that not only are the counselors well equipped to help with the challenging topic of mental health, but continue to improve their ability through training and license renewals.
A popular club at the high school that may help if you know of other people struggling with their mental health is Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD). According to Mrs. Frost, “ Students Against Destructive Decisions promotes protective factors by empowering students with peer education, positive role modeling, community service, and activism.” With the ability to try and prevent destructive decisions within the community, it is safe to say that suicide is an incredibly destructive decision, “teen suicide as it is among the top three leading causes of death among adolescents ages 15-19.”
Mental health is a powerful thing and it is very important that as a society, everyone takes care of themselves. If you are serious about hurting yourself or someone else please contact 988. This is a suicide hotline for emergencies. Please, use your resources because suicide should never be the answer.
