Even children are learning to speak up about their struggles but sometimes grown-ups don't know how to help.
Morning Insider Lauren Victory takes a look at a"Mental Health First Aid" solution that's catching fire. Adults tell children to never give up. That practice makes perfect. But sometimes kids need more than mantras.
"We're seeing a lot more kids that are experiencing anxiety, depression, sadness," said Judith Allen, COO of Communities in Schools."We are in the business of keeping students from dropping out of school.It also plays host to a very special and very popular course called"Mental Health First Aid." "We saw almost triple in the requests that we received," said Allen,"a trend that echoes across our state."" certifications in Illinois jumped 83 percent between 2020 and 2021. Right now, more than 98,000 Illinois residents are trained. Allen, the lead trainer for CIS, tells us the main thing adults should look out for is isolation. For example, your child suddenly doesn't enjoy the people or places they usually do. The class teaches adults to further identify anxiety, depression, substance abuse, trauma, and psychosis. "This training provides really concrete steps of, 'Ok I noticed something is going on, these are the things I can actually do about it," explains instructor Shipra Panicker."We're not going to tell this young person to just eat some ice cream and get over it. We're actually going to process with them what's going on," Panicker said. Popstar Lady Gaga publicly supports teaching teens mental health first aid so students can learn to help each other. "It's not easy to face our mental health and it's something that has a heavy stigma around it," Gaga said in aand initiatives"aimed at demonstrating the power of kindness to impact well-being, validating the emotions of young people everywhere, and eliminating the stigma surrounding mental health." "For me quite frankly, my dream is this happens in every school," said Gaga of mental health first aid training. "We feel that the physical health of a child is just as important as their mental health," she said. Of course, with everything, there is a cost. Currently, Communities in Schools"Youth Mental Health First Aid" course is free to participants by way of sponsorship from theCIS has used the funds to give over 1,000 adults in the Chicago area and counting a more watchful eye and better words of wisdom. The National Council For Mental Wellbeing tells CBS 2 that there are more than 2.6 million"First Aiders" and 27,000 certified instructors across the Country. Mental Health First Aid training in some form is mandated for school personnel in Arkansas, Maine, North Dakota, and Virginia. CBS 2 asked the Illinois State Board of Education if our state might make this training a requirement someday, but we didn't hear back though the National Council For Mental Wellbeing tells us"in existing Illinois law, teachers are required to take a course every two years so that they can identify the warning signs of mental health and substance use challenges in youth."
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