Borden-Henryville to present suicide prevention event
Jul. 29—BORDEN — A local school corporation is inviting families and community members to engage in a conversation about a tough topic.
Borden-Henryville School Corp. will present a "Let's Talk" dinner and discussion about suicide prevention from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday at Borden High School. The talk will feature a presentation by Anne Barrett, a school psychology intern for the district who is in her fifth year in the school psychology doctoral program at Indiana State University.
"We're seeing the need in the direct community, the wider community and the nation and how important it is to have these prevention efforts at the forefront," Barrett said.
Dawn Meador, director of special populations at Borden-Henryville, emphasizes that mental health and suicide prevention is a priority for the school district.
"I think the biggest thing for our district is making sure we have sustainable, comprehensive services to educate the whole child, and our efforts are expanding to make sure we are truly impacting students," she said.
Meador said there has been a "significant increase" in symptoms of anxiety and depression among students at Borden-Henryville, especially during the pandemic. She notes that the district's efforts are not just about suicide prevention but about mental health as a whole.
On Tuesday, the discussion will include warning signs/symptoms, risk factors and local/national resources for suicide prevention, as well as conversation about how to ask someone questions about whether they are having suicidal thoughts and how to respond.
"We want to make sure the conversations are as easy as possible," Meador said. "We want to help students, empower families and have the tools necessary as a school corporation to go above and beyond. It's not just looking at academics and scores — we truly care for the whole child."
"Let's Talk" is sponsored by the Tony Bennett Memorial Foundation. Pizzas will be available at 5 p.m. before the presentation, and Borden-Henryville is offering child care services during the presentation.
Barrett's work has involved a research team at Indiana State University in creating a suicide prevention program for middle school students, and she organized a similar program for grades 7-12 at Borden-Henryville in the past school year. In 2020, she delivered a presentation about her suicide prevention research at a National Association of School Psychology conference.
She has worked for two years for Borden-Henryville as an intern, and she is working with Katie Schafer, who is also a school psychology intern at the Henryville campus.
Schafer said the goal is to answer any questions parents might have and to "provide a common language between schools and the community." She has also noticed the increase in mental health issues among kids.
"Pretty much what I've seen is that COVID has been hard on everyone — kids lost a lot of things and activities, even just socialization with each other," she said. "I've seen a lot of increased anxiety in students...and the same thing with depressive symptoms. A lot of the things that we see popping up I feel like is pretty much common throughout the nation."
Both Barrett and Schafer have been involved in "Bring Change to Mind," a new after-school program for students in Borden-Henryville. The program, introduced in the past school year, is focused on mental health awareness and suicide prevention. Recently, the district has also hired several mental health specialists to serve students.
Meador said it is important for the event to be conversational in nature.
"We want kids have the tools necessary to be able to have candid conversations and build relationships between parents and their students, that way if a student is struggling, parents will feel comfortable or know what to do, what to say or where to get help," she said.
