|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
A growing number of local students are being identified as emotionally disturbed, anxious and depressed, a Palo Alto school official said Wednesday.
In response to that trend and the recent suicides of two Gunn High School students, school and community groups are seeking to create an organized “safety net” for local teens.
“We’re seeing more social-emotional issues with our students than we’ve seen in a long time,” Carol Zepecki, director of student services for the Palo Alto Unified School District, told the Palo Alto City-School Liaison Committee in a meeting at district headquarters Wednesday morning.
The causes are complex but include economic concerns and drug and alcohol abuse, she said.
Zepecki called for the formation of a committee to coordinate suicide responses and teen-support initiatives of various groups, including schools, local organizations and churches.
Although no agency stepped forward Wednesday to lead a coordinating effort, Deputy City Manager Steve Emslie suggested that a “working group of stakeholders” meet and continue talking over the summer.
Palo Alto Superintendent of Recreation Rob DeGeus volunteered to oversee an update of the city’s youth master plan, a major, long-term undertaking.
City Council member John Barton, who served on the school board from 1997 to 2006, said Palo Alto’s high schools “do a great job for a percentage of the kids, but for a lot of others they’re simply irrelevant. Our approaches are irrelevant; how we connect to (students) is irrelevant,” Barton said.
“I think we need to radically rethink our high schools and radically rethink what it means to be a teenager in this community,” he said.
More than 90 percent of suicide victims have a significant psychiatric illness at the time of their death, according to research presented by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
School board member Melissa Baten Caswell said that in focusing on broad concerns such as student stress, which she acknowledged is very real, people lose sight of specific issues they can and should address.
“I believe mental health is one of those issues. If you’re a parent and your child has a mental health issue, stress can make it worse, but it’s still a mental health issue. We’re doing a disservice to a lot of people in the community who need to be identified and treated,” Baten Caswell said.
Due to concerns about potential “copycat” suicides locally, school and community leaders said they want to strengthen the mental-health safety net for all teens.
“We want to do more than just talk about things. We want to make sure we have action items,” Zepecki said.
As part of her research since the two suicides, she said she has spoken with national experts and learned about a variety of mental-health and suicide-prevention strategies, including peer counseling, drop-in counseling and various curriculum options.
“We want to be sure that we look at all of those and then take some of the really good options and apply them,” she said.
Parents of troubled teens often tell her they feel like they’re the only parents who are having that experience in Palo Alto, Zepecki said.
“I say, ‘Oh my goodness, lots of parents are experiencing this,’ and they are surprised.”
City Council member Larry Klein said a clear focus for a community coordinating committee is needed, asking whether it is “front-line suicide prevention, stress or mental health problems that go way beyond suicide.”
Interim Police Chief Dennis Burns and several officers joined council and school board members for the liaison meeting, which typically attracts a handful of people to address joint concerns.
Police representatives said many officers and dispatchers have been sent to a 40-hour mental health course in which they learn how to recognize people with schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder and distinguish them from people under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
Also participating in the meeting were former Palo Alto Mayor Vic Ojakian — who has extensively researched youth suicide following the 2004 loss of one of his own sons — and Becky Beacom from the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.
Beacom, manager of health education at the foundation, said there is a “huge effort” in the local medical community to respond to the suicides.
School board member Camille Townsend, who chaired Wednesday’s meeting, said she was surprised and heartened by the strong attendance.
“This shows the interest, concern and professional care of this community,” Townsend said.
Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital will be hosting a free parent-education session on child and adolescent depressive disorders. See story at Panel to focus on youth depression tonight.
The difficult part of dealing with this is not leaving any kids with the feeling that suicide is a viable form of self-expression, or a way to call for help. Suicide is very dramatic and I am worried that it may attract those who are drawn to drama.
A necessary and complex ongoing issue that may be well addressed by
this committee. For several years I have thought the grade and high
schools should include a therapeutic environment. Professionals and
peers might be effective support and guides to cope with problems chidren and teenagers experience in their daily lives. It seems relevant that teachers have enough to do presenting and discussing
material to their audience. It may be a good use of their time to
identify students worthy of further attention and direct appropriate
follow up. Some students are skilled and willing advocates. It may
be a good idea for input from them, as well. Hopefully, identified youth(s) will not be identified and ostracized.
Although this is not a new problem, my experience in the Santa Clara
County leads me to believe the resources are well placed and may be inclued also.
It’s not just the kids who are stressed and depressed; experiencing anxiety. Many adults in this community, many parents, are suffering as well and may not be in a place to recognize the same in their children. Times are very tough right now, for ALL of us!
It would help for people to make note of that and perhaps keep the thought when our kids friends are around. Or, even our own friends. Let’s not forget Heather.
It always seems easier to spot something outside our personal circle. Call it familiarity or denial, but when we see one another day to day in our own families we usually see enough positive to mitigate the negative or unusual to reassure ourselves all is well.
Sometimes it takes another person to get a clearer picture.
I really like what John Barton said about radically rethinking our high schools and what it means to be a teenager in our community. That’s the most sensible, realistic thing I’ve heard in this whole discussion. We can start by listening to what the kids have been telling us every day since they were very small.
In Denver Colorado and many communities in the nation there are Listening Posts in high schools, colleges and middle schools. These are staffed by caring senior citizens who volunteer to listen to kids talk about anything that they wish. The Listeners are retired grandparents club members, etc., who are not paid and show up at a school for one or two mornings per week. If any topics are brought up which involve illegal activities the students are simply told that this subject is beyond our ability and we ask the student to accompany us to a school psychologist. For more information go to thelisteningpostinc.org. This is a non-profit which seeks to engage kids in conversations without judgement or harmful comments of any kind. We are trained to Listen and Ask Questions without interfering in the school’s business. Our founder, Dr Mabel Barth has been developing the Listening Post for the past 30 years. Call us for free advice, comments. 303-777-7402 or 303-346-1049.