Helping students cope with mental health takes center stage
Feb. 12—CONCORD — Livia Cheney, a Bedford High School junior, said her own personal experience helped reveal to her that students need more help when it comes to understanding mental health.
"A couple of years ago I had an episode where I could physically feel all of my thoughts filling up my head pressing against my skull and I didn't know what to do," she told the House Education Committee last week.
"I was scared, I was irrational, and I was in pain. I was ultimately sent to the ER (emergency room) but by the time I spoke to the psychiatrist there I had calmed down. I was ashamed. I had just wasted so many peoples' time and effort."
As policymakers grapple with how to expand capacity in New Hampshire to treat those suffering with mental illness, advocates are looking for ways to help students deal with their own feelings.
Martha Dickey, whose son, Jayson, took his life in 2017, pressed lawmakers last week to let all public school students get excused absences from school to deal with mental and behavioral health issues.
"A mental health day is not intended for a student to avoid classes or assignments, rather an approved mental health absence can help open the door for schools to assist struggling students with overall mental health care," she said.
A dozen states have similar laws to this proposed bill (HB 332).
The Kids Count Book last year reported the percentage of children, ages 3 to 17, reporting anxiety or depression in New Hampshire had risen from 14.4% in 2016 to 18.4% in 2020, nearly a 28% increase.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness of New Hampshire (NAMI NH) reports suicide was the second-leading cause of death among residents 10-to-34 years old from 2015-19, the most recent period surveyed.
Nationally, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported that 37% of high school students in 2021 said they experienced poor mental health during the pandemic and 44% said they persistently had felt "sad or hopeless" over the past year.
Mental Health America recently reported 16% of U.S. teens, age 12 to 17,had at least one major depressive episode in 2022 and 11.5% reported having experienced severe depression.
The survey found 17% of Granite State youth had such an episode. That's a higher percentage than 25 other states.
The same group also ranked New Hampshire seventh best on its low prevalence of mental illness among youth and access to care.
Cheney came to the State House with other student peers to promote legislation (HB 505) that would require the teaching of "comprehensive mental health" in public schools.
'Comprehensive' mental health curriculum
Narayan Sajeev, a junior at Nashua High School South, said the Governor's Youth Advisory Council on Substance, Misuse and Prevention is on board with this idea.
Health class is required in public schools but many offer the bare minimum of one semester during freshman year in high school and mental health is given little mention, he said.
Sajeev took an online course on mental health but said "in-person learning" would be more helpful.
Lily O'Brien of Thornton, a junior at Plymouth Regional High School, said she has had friends self-harm or develop eating disorders after dealing with stressors at home and school.
"This is a great disservice to the students of New Hampshire," she said.
Andrea Keen, a Plainfield educator, wrote the committee that the shortage of mental health professionals is making this problem worse.
"Many children are facing challenges at home because of adults who suffer from substance abuse and or job insecurity, house and food insecurity and/or adults who suffer from poor mental health," said Keen, who backed the bill.
The New Hampshire School Boards Association opposed it, however, warning this "comprehensive" language would translate into a new mandate that state taxpayers would have to support.
"However, as with other curriculum-related bills, we would assert that curriculum decisions should remain at the local level," wrote Becky Wilson representing the NHSBA.
Ann Marie Banfield of Bedford said this discussion to adjust the curriculum belongs before the state Board of Education, not the Legislature.
"We have absolutely no idea what this means and what it looks like in the classroom," Banfield said.
Later, she said, "Teachers are not mental health experts, yet here we are again putting this on their shoulders."
Mental health education
State Rep. Karen Reid, R-Deering, was a registered nurse for 30 years and said teaching mental health in school is fraught with risk.
"The mental health issues students are bringing in today are very serious, complicated and can't be addressed in a school setting," Reid said.
Therapist Betsy Harrington, of Deering, said school districts could open themselves up to "huge liabilities" by teaching students how to cope with mental health only to have a tragic incident affecting one or more of them.
"I feel like you leave the parents out when you have all these programs in the schools," she added.
No one opposed the idea of letting students have a mental health day with both House Republicans and Democrats co-sponsoring it.
Last year, the Legislature passed the Jason Dickey Suicide Prevention Act that required the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline be put on the back of every student ID card.
Dickey also worked on a 2019 law to require schools to develop policies and offer staff training on suicide prevention.
"This is an awareness tool for educators, parents so that students can help deal with mental health crisis," said Rep. Joe Alexander, R-Goffstown, the bill's prime sponsor.
Dickey said this could help students get the additional counseling or intervention they need.
"Maybe if there was a crisis or a potential crisis, (a parent could) actually be up front to say it was a mental health day and perhaps open the door to communication," Dickey added.