Dorothy recalled how her mental health started declining in early adolescence.
“I lost interest in things that I had a lot of passion for,” said Dorothy, now in her late teens. “I lost interest in gymnastics; I lost interest in horseback riding. I didn’t really want to do the things that gave me a lot of joy. And that was kind of like the precursor for anxiety and depression. I started disengaging. I didn’t really want to hang out with people as much. I started using drugs and alcohol. I was like, ‘Oh, you know, this helps me forget about things and it makes me feel better.’”
As Dorothy’s depression worsened, she leaned more on mind-altering substances to cope.
“It had kind of taken complete control of my life,” she said.
Dorothy, who lives in Illinois, was one of several high school or junior high students who recounted their mental health struggles on video for the Youth Mental Health First Aid training program.
Fifteen community members who registered for the training watched the videos in the Kutztown High School library on Saturday morning. In breakout discussions following the short videos, they considered the best and worst approaches an adult could take to offer help to a young person experiencing a mental health challenge or crisis.
“These are real people; these are not actors,” said Chris Bard, a mental health counselor who led the training. “They’re actually sharing their stories. These are stories I hear even locally, right?”
Bard, who works as a local school counselor, said he hears stories like those shared on the video on almost a daily basis.
Youth Mental Health First Aid is an evidence-based course that gives people the tools to identify, understand, and respond to a young person who might be struggling with a mental health or substance use challenge and connects them with the appropriate support and resources when necessary.
Like CPR, Mental Health First Aid prepares participants to interact with a person in crisis and connect the person with help. First Aiders do not take on the role of professionals — they do not diagnose or provide any counseling or therapy. Instead, the program offers concrete tools and answers key questions, like “what do I do?” and “where can someone find help?”
The training was hosted by Kutztown Strong, a nonprofit organization formed in 2014 as a grassroots response to the opioid crisis that claimed the lives of some adolescents in the Brandywine Heights and Kutztown school districts as in many other communities across the country.
Kutztown Strong President Sue Collier said addiction often takes root because of mental health problems, so identifying early signs of such struggles is critical.
You don’t have to be a licensed mental health professional to play a role in prevention, she said. The course teaches what to look for and how to listen effectively.
“We want to remove the stigma and give people the toolbox they need if they encounter problems,” she said.
Mental Health First Aid teaches a five-step action plan, A-L-G-E-E, to support someone developing signs and symptoms of a mental illness or in an emotional crisis:
• Assess for risk of suicide or harm.
• Listen nonjudgmentally.
• Give reassurance and information.
• Encourage appropriate professional help.
• Encourage self-help and other support strategies.
Saturday’s participants included school counselors and teachers, Kutztown University graduate students who are training to be counselors, and parents and coaches who want to be better prepared to deal with mental health challenges of kids.
A youth volleyball coach in the Fleetwood area, Sarah Hottenstein said she and other coaches are often involved in helping members of her 16-and-under girls’ teams solve a host of problems that arise that have nothing to do with the mechanics of the serve.
“We try to foster the environment that if you’re having a bad day, come talk to us,” she said during a break in the training. “We try to coach the players holistically.”
The training, she said, will expand her problem-solving skills.
As part of his role with the Pennsylvania Army National Guard counterdrug program, Joseph Rivera of Allentown goes to schools across the state teaching an opioid awareness course for youth.
He registered for the Youth Mental Health First Aid Training mainly to learn different ways of presenting a program that relates to certain aspects of his program.
Source: Berkshire mont
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