Fighting for teens' mental health

Our teens are in a pandemonium, fighting for their mental health and against the crises it can bring. Raging like an uncontained wildfire, mental health struggles are destroying everything in their path, especially youth and their families.

Posted 12:30 p.m. Mar 2, 2023 — Updated 5:39 p.m. Jun 29

Gale McKoy Wilkins, WRAL contributor,

and

Karen Wright Fairley, director of the Center for Safer Schools

RALEIGH, N.C. — I remember in early 2015, I felt mayhem, chaos, and confusion on the horizon. I was starting to become worried for our teens. All around, I saw things coming that could impact their mental health and cause crises across the country.

And now I see it. After the pandemic, countless stories on the news and new struggles for youth popping up around every corner.

In 2021, 42% of students across the U.S. felt persistently sad or hopeless and nearly one-third experienced poor mental health, according to the Centers for Disease and Control Prevention.

Working for prevention

While May marks Mental Health Awareness Month, the battle against mental health is a daily and weekly fight. To combat such a fierce battle, prevention is key.

When working with my staff, we learned that both early intervention and teaching proper information are necessary to prevent mental health crises.

According to a study by the International Journal of Mental Health Systems, mental health treatment should not be an afterthought. It should be prevented through education about it and early detection.

I have seen both of these ring true while working with high school and middle school students. My team and I weekly taught our students how to prevent a crisis from happening and escalating into violence.

Through life coaching and peer mentoring, we work to ensure our students know about the effects of trauma and stress. This enables them to recognize warning signs in their peers and then in turn help their peers have healthy responses to stress. By encouraging students to address emotional issues and manage behaviors, situations can be de-escalated before they begin.

Why do we use life coaching and peer-to-peer mentoring to equip students with these skills to help themselves and others?

Get Help: County-by-county guide to mental health and crisis resources in NC

Because teen peer support is important.

Teenagers are easily influenced by their peers. While this fact has negative potential — peer groups are an important part of development for teens. In fact, the ability to create a strong social support network among peers is one of the most important predictors of adult success and happiness.

Peer support helps students with mental health by:
Providing students with integrity and trust,
Building their determination and personal strength,
And teaching them dignity and respect.

However, some peers can endanger children rather than support them. Parents know the challenge it is to balance allowing their kids to find a peer group while giving boundaries that keep their kids safe.

With Project Arrow, we work to teach kids what healthy peer groups and support can look like by modeling it to them. We have genuine conversations, querying them about life, their concerns, and discovering who and what they need from our staff.

Transitioning to a new season

As we transition into summer, parents need to remember it brings a new array of emotions. Some students may feel successful about their year while others have regrets or anger. Many will have emotional highs and lows, and could even act out as they manage their emotions.

The battle against mental health and crisis continues into this new season.

Parents need to remember in these moments to make decisions that are the best for their family, explained Karen Fairley, Executive Director of North Carolina Center for Safer Schools.

She recommended these five tips for handling potential threats, especially those at school:

Law enforcement and the school are the best sources of information during a crisis.
Talk to your children and let them know you’ve taken steps to help them prepare for a potential threat.
Don’t repost or recast a social media post involving communicating a threat, acts of violence or school shooting.
Be candid with your family about the potential dangers of sharing personal information online.
If you have concerns about any potential threat, the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System is always available for you.

Keep an eye out for more tips from Fairley and me in future blogs.

Gale McKoy Wilkins is a wife, mom, grandparent and family life coach. She is the founder of Project Arrow, an evidence-based peer-to-peer and leadership program teaching middle, high school and first-year college students how to deal with trauma and crisis using life coaching. It's the first life coaching organization in the state to receive funding from the Department of Public Instruction and the first to implement life coaching in a school setting.

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