NCSS presents Youth Mental Health First Aid Training

NCSS presents Youth Mental Health First Aid Training

to 112 Missisquoi Valley Union

Middle and High School Staff

 

Reported on WCAX – Channel 3 News on August 20, 2015

New plan to help Vt. students struggling with mental health issues

Reporter: Jennifer Costa 

 

Lance Metayer organized
the training and served as one of the presenters.

 

 

Belinda Bessette was one
of ten presenters that trained the 112 MVU staff.

Lance Metayer, center,
and Steve Broer, on the right, as they present at MVU.

SWANTON, Vt. –

“They’re often very reluctant to tell me and very worried about me telling their parents,” said Lance Matayer, a school based clinician in Franklin County.

Matayer teaches middle and high school educators at Missisquoi Valley Union about recognizing the signs and symptoms of childhood mental illness.

He says 16 percent of kids in Franklin County engaged in self-harm last year. The frank discussion is part of a daylong training in mental health first aid. The Swanton school is partnering with Northwest Counseling to be the first in the state to train every staffer on things like how to spot mental illness early, reduce stigma, access resources and best respond to kids who are suffering.

“We are with these kids eight hours a day, every day. We have great opportunity to really see when they’re struggling,” said Dennis Hill, MVU principal.

Hill says these men and women are often the kids’ first line of defense when resources at home may be limited. But when mental illness goes untreated or underdiagnosed, he says it becomes harder to engage them in the classroom.

“The opportunities for us to impart to kids’ education, learning opportunities, self-esteem and social skills is diminished greatly,” said Hill. 

That’s why he says this training is so critical. Mental illness can manifest at school through truancy, behavioral issues, disengagement and substance abuse. But research shows intervening early increases a child’s chances of recovery.

“What this program I think is allowing us to do is being able to differentiate between what is a typically developing adolescent and what is maybe a student who is experiencing mental health challenges,” said Steve Messier, MVU student affairs director.

Statistics show 22 percent or about 1 in 5 kids will suffer from some form of mental health issue before the age of 18, either personally or within their families.

“It’s a challenge here but it’s a challenge everywhere,” said Messier.

For the first time, MVU will staff a mental health clinician throughout the school year to help kids through tough hurdles like divorce, depression, anxiety and early childhood trauma.

“There’s more to being an educator these days than ABCs and it really needs to be a holistic approach to serving students,” said Hill.

Hill says Franklin County has the highest number of kids in Department for Children and Families custody, and rates of mental health cases are rising, but he’s not sure if more kids are suffering or better diagnosis means fewer are slipping through the cracks. Either way, he says trainings like this one are the best defense against preventing future tragedies. 

The program came with a $5,000 price tag. But the cost was completely covered by two Franklin County foundations.

 

View the entire 2:59 segment which aired on WCAX by clicking on this link

 

http://www.wcax.com/story/29845249/new-plan-to-help-vt-students-struggling-with-mental-health-issues