Letter to the editor: Ohio must do more to help teens' mental health

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for people ages 10 to 34 in Ohio. Sixty percent of communities did not have enough mental health-related services to help residents.

Why are so many teenagers hurting themselves? What is so hard about middle and high school? Teenagers have to adjust to a new workload and amount of stress. Jackson High School, for example, pushes students to take rigorous courses like Advanced Placement and College Credit Plus. Teenagers all over Ohio and the United States are stressed and have nowhere to go for help.

Schools in Stark County do not have the resources or funds to help their students with mental health problems. Gov. Mike DeWine has created a budget proposal to create a faster crisis response and more research on mental health.

The mental health profession is losing workers, especially for youth. DeWine wants to invest in expanding pediatric professionals to break stigmas around mental health for young Ohio people. DeWine has started to find solutions to help Ohioans with mental health issues.

Students in Ohio are hurting themselves because schools do not take our problems seriously – and yet it is often the schools themselves that cause these problems. Recently, a student at Jackson tried to hurt themselves before the school day. Nothing was done to help the student to prevent it and nothing was done to help the rest of the student body. The school day went on like everything was normal.

There are teenagers who are stressed and depressed and schools do not have the resources to help their students. The first step is to open up the conversation about bullying, stress and mental health.

Sarah Sisson, Jackson Township

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Letter to the editor: Ohio must do more to help teens' mental health