In this day and age, more students report bouts of depression, anxiety, and stress. What does Herron do to help?

In 2023, (the) CDC found that:

• 4 in 10 (40%) students had persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.
• 2 in 10 (20%) students seriously considered attempting suicide and nearly 1 in 10 (9%) attempted suicide.

I recently interviewed a student, Milo (9th), to hear about her opinion on if Herron’s mental health support is helpful for a regular, everyday student.

Do you feel like your mental health is acknowledged by Herron?

I want to say yes and no, I get mixed feelings. Yes, because of the numbers that we have on the back of our ID’s to help with such things.

Herron provides every student with an identification card, used to purchase school lunch and recognize students. They also include phone numbers and hotlines for any student who may be struggling with their mental well-being.

I also want to say ‘no’ because, other than the ID’s, there isn’t really much mention of mental health support around school.

Students frequently lose their ID’s, without which, hotlines may not be readily available to the student.

In what ways would you like (Mental Health Support) to be acknowledged?

I would suggest at least once or twice a month, there’s some type of “support” slide during advisory during the announcements with lists of said mental health support hotlines to make it more accessible…

Since every student has an advisory period every day excluding Friday, this would allow most students to have the resources expressly told to them.

…because, for me, I didn’t really recognize the hotlines on our ID’s until about the 2nd semester.

I’ve asked multiple freshman if they knew about the hotlines on their ID’s. Most said they did not, or that they recently did. This supports the idea of a mandatory support slide during advisory. Students may not be aware of the resources available until told.

Herron’s commitment to student health and support may be obvious to some, but it is helpful to notify students about the resources available to them.

Citations: CDC.2023.Adolescent and Young Health.CDC.gov.https://www.cdc.gov/healthy-youth/mental-health/index.html#:~:text=Adolescent%20mental%20health%20continues%20to%20worsen&text=In%202023%2C%20CDC%20found%20that,10%20(9%25)%20attempted%20suicide.