hi kelly and welcome to another segment of the at today we're talking about emphasizing mental health in schools because it's such a pressing topic within our community lately the national institute of mental health found that an estimated forty nine point five percent of adolescents have a mental disorder of those adolescents in the estimated twenty two point two percent have a severe impairment these findings prove that we should be more concerned about our children's in teens mental health the emphasis of this will lead to the prevention of violence in schools school shootings have become alarmingly frequent since the columbine tragedy in one thousand nine hundred nine children and adolescents lives are being taken from these mass killings the terror that strikes everyone's minds when we hear school names like sandy hook elementary and marjorie stone douglas high school is appalling school shootings and violence have become so common in this day and age and this should just not be the case a tribune review analysis found that over the past fifty years there have been nearly two hundred fifty school related shootings across the united states and the washington post has determined through studies that since columbine the children that have been impacted from a school shooting grew from one hundred thirty five thousand students to more than one hundred eighty seven thousand students in response to these violent acts the public the public has tried to find a solution by saying we need stricter gun control laws or we need to arm our teachers in the cat in the classroom the schools are sponsored to this is implementing safety procedures so the students are aware of what to do if was shooting ever does happen and she doesn't sixteen the c d c found that nearly ninety percent of public schools had a written plan for responding to school shootings and seventy percent of the schools had drilled their students on the plan as well as having these procedures known to the children schools should also place a larger emphasis on being aware of and improving their students mental health approximately half of all lifetime mental health disorders start by the mid teens and the onset of all major mental illnesses happen as early as seven to eleven years old most students who are threatening other students are being bullied or threatened themselves we need to be aware of any conflicts students involving students to get ahead of the problem before it becomes a bigger issue school counselors teachers psychologists social workers and the administration need to be more aware of the mental health of their students they need to build a trusting relationship with their students so they will have better communication with each other now peter sonship high school has about a thousand five hundred students and it would be impossible for counselors administration and teachers to know about every single but they do have knowledge of what's going on in a student's life and should check in on the students also by building a trusting relationship with the students it will be more likely for them to come forward if they're worried about one of their peers a student needs to  safe around their teachers and counselors in schools and safe to tell them any problems that they are having today i'm here with shannon williams who's the founder of self care housekeeping and also a mental health professional thank you for coming today hi thank you for having us so i can you tell a little bit about your profession first sure business is it's a house keeping a household support services designed for people who are experiencing mental  health such as mental illness or stress depression anxiety overwhelmed overworked you know the gamut of mental health understanding that our physical space is affected when our mental space is affected my background is in social work i have been an advocate for gun violence prevention for the past five years prior to that i was a behavioral health counselor prior to that life skills facilitator at juvenile juvenile placement facility prior to that but  the entire orchestra of the school in the district should be well versed on mental health but also students should as well you know because when we don't have language for things and we can't say this is what's going on with me like to other people ourselves it comes out in our behavior you know there's a think of thought that the way that we communicate mainly is verbal in this night is through our behaviors and so when someone of that is experiencing something rather they are diagnosed or have not been diagnosed or if they're experiencing something like trauma due to a really really bad event and they don't have language for it and don't realize it they're they're being affected by whatever is going on with them this coming out in behavior in we see it a lot in school environments and we're talking about young adults we're talking about the pending population so you know you all are people who can go out and seek out mental health support on your own without your peers you know those very important we have the involvement of the schools of the parents and students so how can i like workshop on mental health but you know there are ways to do that so in the training of the district employees should be at least have mental health first aid as a training course for them as well as trauma informed care because you don't know who you're coming up against you know and our trauma doesn't get checked at the door so god forbid if we have someone who's been physically abused or sexually assaulted or bullied in so on and so forth it's coming into every space that they're in and you know sometimes we harm people interrupt without realizing that we're harming people so yeah definitely in the training but also in the policies that the district has in relation to mental health and personal space and disability and the accessibility you know because if we don't have the proper protections for people who are experiencing things and also everyone else again the harm can happen and then in the design of the curriculum in the classroom i think it's very important to center that these are safe spaces you know what happens in these classrooms they have in these classrooms with one of these classrooms leave absolutely but you know you're doing your peers should feel safe to exist here to say what you need to say to experience your teachers in whatever capacity that you need to because again like that might be your lightning rod and that might be the person that will save you but if you don't feel that way then you know someone's life will be lost for many was last can be last well how can i like the school get involved to get that training for their teachers to get that connection and this year it's mental health first aid is a national organization the teachers can actually be trained and being facilitators so they can be trained and then also be trained to be facilitators so not misquote that but there are individual organisations to travel and they do teach this information because it is very important and there are other like things like i know there are extracurricular time in foreign projects like trying one form and arts and such that creates that space as well which are good kind of auxilary things to add to that but but largely like those training tracks tend to be offered in different spaces and they are accessible ok so why do you think that teachers are trained in like all these fields yet if it is so important mental health is a space that we just don't know well you know it's a space that we're starting to get familiar with and starting to acknowledge at all me being a black woman and black culture we don't acknowledge mental health period so i'm a person who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder three years ago i've known that there's been something different about me since i was at twenty six and originally i thought that there was something physically wrong with me because mental health issues wasn't something that would even think about naturally and i thought i had a thyroid issue and i thought my hormones were off and i went to see my p c p and he said everything just don't think that we as a society have a clearer understanding of how important the health is and how intricate it is and how it affects every every part of our last i think we're just catching up right now yet so do you think there's one mental health disorder that would go over another or do you think there are all are would do you mean by go over like them are more important than the other like they should place more in so when we talk about categorizing and mental health we do not know all of the factors that you know make up a person's physical experience or mental experiences you know that affects them all differently absolutely i mean just like anything else you know bullying affects some on getting security more and the schools do you think that's like backed by they don't really want to get involved with mental health i don't think anyone doesn't want to get involved with whatever will make things better but again i think it's a lack of knowledge and we know we know policing you know we know public safety and i think because we don't know mental health like our drawback and our non reaction is always going to be public safety and you know more policing more you  know tighter locks or whatever it is that they're doing now so i don't think that anyone's against it i just don't think that the understanding is there and so then i also read that there was a mental health act that came out in twenty seventeen for emphasizing mental health in schools more but it was only introduced i think to the house maybe and why do you think schools still have it if even like that it was introduced i'm not  with the bill so i can't speak on that specifically but i mean as far as like the process of laws being introduced and policy being supported i guess i was an advocate for about five years and it just depends on what our social climate looks like and what our legislator looks like and so if we have across the board legislators who are supporting it i mean like openly supporting a bill or you know whatever it is then you'll see that and you'll see that dynamic change because they'll be open and vocal about it but if this kind of like will will pass in and we don't like it's kind of a close that you might see some support others but if it's only been introduced it's not even far enough along for us to even see what was going to happen with it and again i haven't seen the bill so i don't know what's in it and what some folks might see it being problematic in you know otherwise ok i think this is all the time we have for just this portion of the shell  and we're back to continue discussing mental health with shannon williams cell to get more into like the violent side of things is why would you think that males tend to get more violence than  physical activity in you know the idea of our boys and our men having any being in touch with their their feelings or emotions or mental health is just completely out you know so like it's acceptable for them to act out violently it's acceptable  will for them to fight and do all of those things it is not acceptable for boys to cry or feel hurt you know or express hurt you know i guess females exactly socially allowed to do exactly when you're old are allowed to do those things and you know violence with girls just looks differently but again it's socially acceptable for boys to act out in such violent ways and especially because now like our access to guns it has increased over the years you know it's not the same you know over the past twenty years like our restriction on being able to purchase guns or at least like the hurdles you have to jump over to be able to purchase a gun have been diminished more and more and more as that happens and sale of them gun purchases increased more and more more especially over the last ten years or so and so you know  the gun violence that we see you know it definitely correlates to like how many how many guns are in circulation as well yeah so do you think schools should be more concerned about their males  not more concerned about because again violence looks different from have boys to girls and and that's not to discredit the type of violence that girls experience and also exhibit you know in their spaces as well and when violence starts and lester's intervention is going to keep passing around this energy in this going to mass around and it may indeed be you know someone being shot or hurt killed or other things that are bad as well so across the board we should be focusing on mental health for boys and girls but i think we should understand what that looks like from boys to girls so do you believe that schools should have mental health screenings that they get and the air power that you have so how would they go about doing what they have to get a psychologist or someone like that and you would definitely need a clinician like that clinicians are the only ones who can you know diagnose and read those appropriately i think that is important and most if not all spaces and i may be biased of that but i think it just it's always helpful to know where someone is and especially you know if you can sue in the space of trauma you don't know with someone bringing in the or and they may i need to know what they're bringing in the door so to be able to kind of say they like diagnose them with something but they still need help they're out like they hear how could a guidance counselor talk to them about like their trauma and what they've experienced in the perfect world our guidance counselors will there are options like community and national and state supports that kind of help you know with that process so how can the community like what types of organizations are there for them to get involved and well there are plenty of  trysts and therapists and yes the workers i'm from pittsburgh so my space is pittsburgh and then those those organizations regionally but there's an organization it's called a peace of mind which is attached to a the vision towards peace is a therapy service in a peace of mind is a community based service they focus is on therapeutic in healing practices and activities i'm so that's when i have a new there's there's a grieving a support service i believe by how marc and i can i think of the name of it but just for children adolescents who experience last for death and to help you know are kids and there are young adults to process that and that elaborate on how can that like increased attention on mental health improve it oh awesome that's a really so again like when we have language for things that makes them real and so when the things that are already exist in this are now acknowledged and we are aware of them then we can like navigate our space more health like in a more healthy manner you know and so when before i was diagnosed i had this is a way that i was supposed to be and that this is the way i had to exist in space but you know when i depressed or on the downswing of what i call that i can't physically be in space with people like in like public speaking it's violent and it hurts it does it we heard me and i had to know that community just will operate better you know and safer and more healthy yeah so i know guidance counselors are trained and the community can come together and do that but how can like i as a state it be more informed about  while the great thing about being a student is that i have all the time all the time in the world you know so engaging with your school for your school takes an interest in mental how been engaging with them in this process is always a good start you know you all can always seek out like the organizations the activities all of the great things and bring them into your space but also be accountable to one another you know so when you see someone struggling or if you think that they might be struggling or if their behavior shifted a little bit  have the support anywhere else to have someone reach out and say i see you yeah it makes all the difference so how can i like approach that person all of a good way depending on your relationship i think is important but if you're not good friends if you're not good friends with them then i think you can always go to someone to say like hey i feel like there's something different about you or something might be going on and i just want to let you know you know i see you and and i'm concerned if i can do anything to how i'd like to do so and you know depending on how they respond which they might say like you know on fine and keep going on and that's fine you know you can't force anybody to be in a space with you if you're not they're not ready or comfortable and that's perfectly ok but making yourself available and even if they do shut you down making sure that they know that you're still available you know i like that that my position didn't change just because you don't want to be here with me if you ever do if you ever do i'll still be here and i still see you yeah and like it's creating a safe environment for someone to know that this person isn't out to get me trying to you know trick me into anything but i actually care about my well being and eventually they may come to you or immediately they might come to you but you know they're like a difference but if you're like better friends with them i know they're probably more comfortable with you but what if they're still shying away from the same thing again like you you can't force anybody to force anybody into space that they're not comfortable with should you seek out like their parents they know now no i not so confident reality is really really important ok really important because you don't know what's going on you don't know who's involved you don't know like what their their parameters are what they want to share disclose the last thing you want to do is make an assumption that we should get these people involved especially if they're already involved in their own when the harm side of it so it's very important to  always prioritize this person's confidentiality in their willingness and their comfortability with who they want in that space with them ok what about like when i tell a teacher or a guidance counselor now you know ok it's very very difficult and being a social worker that's always the hard thing because you want to like oh but you know i want to include the family and friends yeah but you can't do that you can't and it's up to them it is totally one hundred percent up to them unless unless you feel like their lives are in danger or someone again you know if it's a situation where that you feel like they might be suicidal then you have to tell somebody or if you feel like they might hurt somebody else then you have to tell somebody you know the last thing you want to think and have when you're going your spirit or your heart is that i could've stopped that you know i saw that yeah so how could a student like go get help because like you said you couldn't go get help without your parents whatever you were little and so how could like get help is an environment where they provide those spaces your guidance counselor your school nurse or whomever it might be if you don't have the supports i don't then those folks to me that if there are community organizations that exist being well abreast of you know and having that information in the school to you know to make sure that everybody knows that if you don't have it at home and you can't get it at school that this organization exists but also like creating those spaces say those safe spaces with each other you know because sometimes like peer support goes a long way and in the interim before you know you're able to get you know whatever professional help if is needed it's good to have some sort of support in the spaces in those gaps so you can get that all it out like your parents even knowing or which is why it's important to know like what's what exists in your physical location and also what it would exist in your city your state and federally like would you have access to and with the school in your district have access to a making that information available accessibility is it's difficult sometimes and sometimes like the information in there and the resources there but i don't know it's there i can't get to it you know yeah ok well i think that's all the time we have for today it was great talking to you like less and i love talking about this important issue mental health needs to be emphasized in schools that have a lasting impact on students and preventing violence we need to communicate more with each other to understand what someone is going through and what we can do to help them thank you for tuning in today and come back next time for another segment o