Local News
Teaching Students about Mental Health
Suicide
Awareness Month brings attention to a serious subject that many people prefer
to brush under the rug. YScreen Clinician Sharon Stoffel has been in the mental
health field for almost 35 years – and also works with community suicide
prevention programs. Stoffel says screening students is important to help identify
kids who might need help…
Stoffel says “health class
is the best but we go to all different classrooms, depending which school we’re
at. And we do a little bit of education with students as well, about mental
health kinds of things and about suicide. And then at that point, we give them
a permission slip, they take it home – and then the parent will hopefully give
permission for them to be screened.”
Stoffel
says about 65-70 percent of students participate in the screenings in
national average.