High school students in particular face unprecedented challenges these days.
The desire to get into a top-flight college and generally trying to fit in have always been there, of course, but now internal pressures have been exacerbated by technology, particularly social media.
Though we’re years since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, all of today’s high schoolers were in middle or grammar school back then and the isolation at that time was considerable, which has led to anxiety and depression today, among other issues.
Local high schools have worked to build up systems and resources to help students lessen the strain, be it externally or internally motivated. That includes individualized support, small-group intervention, therapy dogs and sometimes, just a quiet place to go when life is a bit much.
Perhaps the best news is that while mental health challenges and resources were once stigmatized, that’s starting to diminish.
“We’re moving in a positive direction in the country as far as mental health support,” said Ginger Bencola, a social worker at Oak Park and River Forest High School, who serves as a prevention and wellness coordinator.
Today’s digital challenges
While digital platforms, especially social media, may not be at the top of the list when it comes to high school-age stressors, it’s right up there.
“There is a lot of stress students place on themselves, digital pressures to look a certain way and perform,” said Bencola’s colleague, Nabiha Calcuttawala, a general education social worker on the pupil support services team at OPRF.
“I think in my experience, kids may not explicitly name that, pressures from social media, but we see how it impacts their own perception of themselves,” she said. “There are truths from social media that aren’t always true.”
Further south from OPRF at Riverside-Brookfield High School, social worker Chrissy Tappert sees the same things.
“It’s constantly in your face,” Tappert said, “not only do they see what they are missing out on, (but how) influencers dress, the filters they use, how many followers they have.
“I think it’s moreso, too, seeing what your friends are doing and you’re left behind and not be part of that.”
And that doesn’t even count normal teenage angst, like a breakup, which can spread like wildfire on social media. Or bullying, which doesn’t need digital means to be real.
But there’s more.
Tappert’s colleague, RB social worker Janira Marquez, said a lot of stress comes from within. And it’s often too much.
“From the academic standpoint, a lot of kids are striving for perfectionism and that drives an insane amount of stress,” Marquez said. “Not only for themselves, but to impress their parents. They don’t want to let their parents down or disappoint them.”
‘How long have you been dealing with this?’
Bencola said OPRF offers mental health support both proactively and through its support services, in a tiered format. Tier 1 is universal support for all students, while Tier 2 is small-group intervention and Tier 3 is individualized support.
The key for any student, whether they are referred to Bencola and Calcuttawala or are noticed by them in the hallway as clearly struggling, is understanding.
“If a student is referred to me and we’re noticing these symptoms, (I ask) ‘How long have you been dealing with this?’” Calcuttawala said. “I’m trying to get a sense of how those symptoms are affecting their daily life.”
Distress tolerance is key in that situation, she said. It’s the notion that acknowledging that stress or intense feelings are a part of life, but there are always ways to minimize their impact so students can get on with their daily lives.
Like OPRF, RB’s social workers go deep to work with students to identify the feelings they are having: Do they have to do with school, or are they external where an outside referral is appropriate, sometimes requiring therapy?
“It’s moreso like family related and family dynamics where we’d make an outside referral,” Marquez said.
Mitch Zilinger is a social worker colleague of Tappert and Marquez. In addition to them, RB has a school psychologist and academic counselors, along with different groups for students, like a grief group for those that have lost a parent and a group for students who struggle with social skills, for example.
Without doubt, the stakes can rise fast. Tappert said parents get involved ASAP when mental health issues become a regular occurrence. Suicidal ideation is another example, and Zilinger said while conversations with students are confidential, there are four instances where confidentiality can be broken: The threat of self-harm or harming others, someone harming them, or explicit approval to break confidentiality.
OPRF’s Wellness Workshops
While both schools incorporate mental health study into coursework – OPRF in its freshman health classes and Riverside-Brookfield in its freshman English classes – OPRF does something unique called wellness workshops. The program is now finishing its fourth year.
These are roughly monthly sessions that occur at exactly the same time for all 3,400 students in school. In other words, everyone, including teachers and staff, are focused on the topic of the month. This year, that included The Art of Feeling Calm; Build Your Own Dopamine Menu; and Unfollow the Stress, which focused on the positive and negative aspects of social media and developing boundaries.
Wellness workshops are developed by the school’s wellness committee, comprised of teachers, counselors and social workers.
“We have made a conscious decision to help students with their mental health,” Bencola said. “It an intentional pause in the day. It’s giving teachers the opportunity to engage with students in a non-academic format. We get great feedback from students as well. They like the break from their schedule. It’s a stress relief for them.”
Then there is Griff, the school facility dog, a golden retriever Bencola said “is hands down the most popular husky in our community.”
“Therapy dogs reduce stress and anxiety, bring a sense of calm in the building,” she said. “Griff has been instrumental to increase sense of belonging in school and increasing students’ daily experiences of connecting in the building.”
RB has its own golden retriever facility dog, Harley, who is just as popular as Griff.
Creating awareness about mental health
One thing is for sure. Mental health challenges aren’t going to subside. In fact, Zilinger said that while the number of students being helped at Riverside-Brookfield hasn’t jumped dramatically, it continues to rise steadily.
“It relates to how much we do talk about mental health,” Tappert added. “It’s a good thing.”
OPRF’s Bencola said while there were few things that were deemed positive about the pandemic, one of them was highlighting and creating awareness about mental health.
“It helped us to get more buy-in in the mental health area,” she said.