Anxiety and depression are two of the most common mental health issues among young people in the United States, and the increasing rates of both are prompting school systems such as the one in New Britain to develop programs that will help students.
There are about 10,000 students in the New Britain school system, and close to half have sought out mental health services offered by the BOE, according to Kelly Grant, director of pupil services.
“For us, mental health is that spiritual, social, emotional and physical well-being that the students bring with them when they come to school every day,” Grant said. “We work really hard in New Britain [so] that mental health is adjusted along with the academic piece because we realize if you don’t have that positive piece you can’t access your education.”
According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), every teenager has some anxiety when dealing with stress; the difference is the level of anxiety that each individual suffers. There are those who deal with temporary anxiety, which is usually harmless, and then there are those who suffer from anxiety disorders, which can be harmful.
The ADAA reports that 25.1 percent of 13 to 18 year-olds experience anxiety and approximately five percent of 13 to 18 year-olds have severe anxiety disorders.
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In New Britain, Grant has teamed up with Nancy Sarra, the Superintendent of the Consolidated School District of New Britain, to enforce protocols to deal with mental health-related issues among the adolescence in New Britain.
“We spent the first part of our year really driving home the point that our staff needed to invest time into making sure our students are socially and emotionally healthy,” Sarra said. “Studies have proven that the more a child (or even adult) is emotionally engaged, the more successful they will be.”
To help students complete a successful year , all New Britain public school teachers are responsible for identifying at the beginning of the year a student learning objective (SLO), one objective for academics and another for the social and emotional well-being of the student.
Sarah J. Hannigan, Behavioral Health therapist at the Community Health Center, based at E.C Goodwin Technical High School in New Britain, agrees that a student’s mental state is a contributing factor in how a student performs at school. Anxiety is the most common issue experienced by adolescents, making it the number one target for schools to address
“(Teenagers) deal with a ton of anxiety. Especially 11th and 12th graders probably more because you know they are going to go off to college or go on to the working world or they are not sure what they are going to do,” Hannigan explained.
E.C. Goodwin school psychologist, Michael Parrot, who deals with nearly 25 to 30 students a week, recommends that teenagers seek a coping mechanism that works for them. He says, holding it in and waiting for it to boil over can be dangerous.
“The most important thing is allowing a student to find which one works the best for them. A lot of students just need some time alone and just need to get out of the environment that is stressing them out, and just take ten minutes to breathe and be with their thoughts,” Parrot said. “Some students like to go for walks, some students like to listen to music and some students really like to, who let things boil in their head too much, like the opportunity to write everything down from their head and get it onto a paper or just come down here and talk.”
While anxiety continues to be a dominant issue for students in public schools, Hannigan, Parrot, and Grant agree that depression is another prevalent mental health issue among young people. Left untreated, its outcome can be tragic, they say. The BOE of New Britain offers students in the public schools several school-based services that help to address emotional issues that could contribute to depression. Every school in New Britain has a school psychologist, social worker, and a school-based clinic where therapists like Hannigan can treat students in school.
Social workers work with students and their families in the home, to help students feel better about going to school. Every public school in New Britain has an early intervention process team participation or consultation that takes into consideration the following elements:
- a child’s learning/behavior problems at school
- the academic, emotional/social development and adaptive functioning of a child,
- in-service training programs and recommendations for appropriate personnel to promote positive behavioral student support within the school community
- crisis intervention services
- individual/group/family counseling for some children and their families to resolve school problems.
Hannigan says she treats students with varying levels of depression, from mild to more severe, and that young women seek treatment for depression more than young men. Hannigan says her experience shows that young women tend to exhibit symptoms of low self-esteem, and seem to struggle with relationship issues more than young men.
Bullying is another factor in the schools. Advanced technology and cyberbullying can allow seemingly endless taunts and harassment to follow students where they should feel most safe: tin heir own home.
“A lot of what I see is that kids really don’t get a break because even when they leave school there is social media, so they never get a break from… when someone is trying to bother them,” Hannigan explains. “Even if you have a bad day at school or a bad day with friends or whatever, you can usually go home and that can be kind of your safe place. But, I noticed with all the technology, the students don’t really have it (safe place).”
Parrot parents should carefully attend to any of the warning signs of depression. If parents notice their children are abnormally isolated, are always in their room, are sleeping more than usual, are afraid of going to school, have a loss of appetite, are eating more than usual, or are exhibiting any noticeable changes in their normal behavior, they should take those symptoms as a red flag and have a talk with their child about the possibility of addressing those issues and seeking help.
But Hannigan also says parents be careful about not appearing to judge their student in a way that would make them uncomfortable, or to do anything that would make the child less willing to express their thoughts and feelings.
Parents should avoid making a child feel ashamed about his/her feelings, particularly if the child is dealing with depression or other related issues. Providing the child with the proper help should be the number one priority, according to Hannigan.
The New Britain school system also works with Central Connecticut State University in the ‘Love Wins’ campaign, in which outside mental health clinicians visit the schools to speak with students.
“We have begun that work with Nelba Marquez-Greene and The Ana Grace Project,” Sarra said. “We have numerous elementary schools that are ‘Love Wins’ schools. These schools implement a ‘Love Wins’ curriculum which focuses on the social-emotional wellness of a student.”
With a large population of students to serve, the administration also makes it a priority to look at school climate and make sure it is a safe environment for students.
“The big thing New Britain does is that we are looking at school climate,” Grant said. “This year we have started climate walk-throughs in all of the buildings so that we become safer and [the schools become more] comfortable places for students and their families when they enter the buildings. We are looking at climate and that is a huge piece.”
A school like E.C. Goodwin also offers a wide variety of resources for students including individual counseling and group counseling. Students can be assigned to these services if they are in a certain high-risk demographic group, or if they have experienced specific struggles students relating to mental health, according to Parrot.
The group counseling groups are broken out into separate sessions, sorted by gender, and then by specific issues including social skills, stress management, and anger management. This allows the school to offer comprehensive and specific counseling to students with different needs. Counseling is usually weekly or every other week, depending on the group or individual student. According to Parrot, students also have the option of stopping by Parrot’s office or to see any of the other social worker’s office, on an as-needed basis.
Students also can avail themselves of counseling at Wheeler Clinic, which has several locations throughout the state, and through consultation with their own primary care provider.
Hannigan is concerned that people may not want to seek help due to the shame and stigma some people attach to mental health.
She said some parents in particular worry about the stigma some people attach to having a child who is seeking help for mental health.
“Then there are those parents who feel ‘if I can’t help my child, then what makes you think that you can’ so there is that element I see,” Hannigan said. “There is just that stigma attached to it, about a person with anxiety, depression, mood disorder or anything with that.”
However, that truth is that, with the increasing rates of youth anxiety and depression, seeking support for mental health issues is the smart thing to do, and can save lives. Grant emphasizes it isn’t something to be embarrassed about, because there are so many other individuals out there facing similar circumstances.
“We are just trying to engage children and their families,” Grant said. “We are trying to build relationships in classrooms. We are working on building a positive school climate in every single building so children can feel good when they get to school and want to be at school.”