High schools tackle mental health stigma, search for solutions
MINERSVILLE — I’ve got your back.
The message was not only on the back of T-shirts worn by Minersville Area High School students, faculty and administrators Friday morning, it was also one given to participants in a training session on mental health.
Students and their faculty advisers from five Schuylkill County high schools — Pottsville Area, Blue Mountain, Pine Grove Area, Marian Catholic and Mahanoy Area — came to the high school Friday to learn about breaking the stigma around mental health and to create supportive school communities.
It was done through Aevidum, a nonprofit organization that aims for youths to shatter the stigma around mental health, suicide and other problems. The organization, whose name translates to “I’ve got your back,” has student-led chapters throughout the country, including at Minersville Area.
Mary Pritchard, director of outreach for Aevidum, led an introduction including videos, welcoming chants and cheers by students, and a team-building activity with Legos. She told stories of two students at Nazareth Area High School who died by suicide, to bring home the message about the importance of mental health.
Nazareth adopted the Aevidum program in 2015 after one of the students’ deaths.
Minersville Area administrators; Cara Sanfilippo, a co-adviser of the high school’s club; Lehigh Valley Hospital-Schuylkill President William Reppy; and Angela Morgan, school and community coordinator in community health and preventative medicine at Geisinger St. Luke’s, which sponsored the training, also offered remarks.
Superintendent Carl McBreen told the crowd of more than 60 students and 11 advisers that the county is “in good hands” because of people like them.
Following the introduction, students broke off into smaller groups led by 18 members of Minersville Area’s Aevidum club, who got the same training Thursday night. There, they discussed the importance of ending the stigma around talking about mental health and the characteristics of healthy schools, and played games.
For some students who attended, the training’s focus on the importance of discussing one’s mental health came after they lost classmates to suicide. Pine Grove Area High School senior Savannah Collazo said her school lost two students to suicide in the past year. She hopes to change the trend.
“I hope we can change that and make sure people know there are supportive people around,” the 17-year-old from Tremont said. “I want everyone to be happy around me and be a positive influence.”
Minersville Area junior Braeden Jones said the school has “suffered a fair bit” with people who have taken their own lives, and feels it is important to let others know there is help.
Pritchard led students and their advisers in a moment of silence remembering three Minersville Area students and the two from Pine Grove Area who took their own lives in the past year.
Sanfilippo, who is also the district’s social worker and homeless liaison, said Aevidum was started in 2003 as a small group called “A Helping Hand” at Cocalico High School in Lancaster County after a student there committed suicide, and got its current name in 2007. She said Minersville Area’s chapter was formed last spring after she heard about the organization at a virtual state school homeless liaisons and foster care point of contact conference in October 2020. Between 40 and 50 students attend meetings, which are typically held twice a month.
The training, she said, is designed to build a supportive culture and community, not only for students, but also staff.
“If we hit mental health [problems] together, it can be addressed,” Sanfilippo said.
She said other districts expressed interest in the club after McBreen brought it to the attention of other county superintendents this month at a meeting at Schuylkill Intermediate Unit 29. Word about it also got around to the county’s Catholic high schools.
The Pine Grove Area School Board approved the formation of an Aevidum club at Pine Grove Area High School at its meeting Thursday.
Collin Adams, 15, a sophomore at the school, said he believes Aevidum will provide the “next steps” as far as helping students at the school with their mental health.
“My particular generation is facing a steep incline with these problems, particularly with the pandemic,” the Pine Grove resident said, adding that the pandemic was the first time many were away from friends for an extended time period.
Sanfilippo said there has been so much interest from other schools that she may have another training session in the spring.
Minersville Area sophomore Brady Eisenhart, 15, said he hopes everyone who attended came away with a positive attitude about mental health and that it is “not something to be scared of.”
“Mental health is the backbone of your life,” he said.