posted by Mike Madison at 3:17 PM /
Once in a while, I compare Mt. Lebanon to Palo Alto, California, which is one town over from my own hometown of Menlo Park. Palo Alto is wealthier than Mt. Lebanon in absolute terms, and it's larger, but Palo Alto occupies a place in the San Francisco Bay Area (and especially South Bay/Silicon Valley) geography that is comparable to Mt. Lebanon's place in Pittsburgh. It is the somewhat smug upscale town where top talent lives and where everyone is supremely proud of the public school system. Palo Alto has two public high schools, each of which is very high quality and each of which expects to and does send many of its graduates to the best colleges and universities in the country. Palo Alto is a pressure-cooker for many of its kids.
So, it was pretty striking to learn today that over the last six months, four students at one of those schools -- Gunn High School -- have committed suicide by throwing themselves in front of the local commuter train. See the most recent news here.
The train tracks on the San Francisco Peninsula have been a suicide risk for many years. About a decade ago, someone I had mentored in my law firm killed himself in the same way, long after I had left the firm and the area.
No, the discussion in Palo Alto is over depression among adolescents, its causes, and identifying and treating it before it leads to tragedy.
It is a topic that often doesn't get the kind of public airing that can help both individuals and the community, because of the stigma that often attaches to mental illness. That's why I'm posting this short note: Because the pressure to succeed in Mt. Lebanon is quite strong, I want to flag the possibility that our kids are at risk for depression. I hope that parents, school administrators, teachers, and public health authorities are aware of the issues locally and are able to engage in dialogue about them and take steps to deal with them.
So, it was pretty striking to learn today that over the last six months, four students at one of those schools -- Gunn High School -- have committed suicide by throwing themselves in front of the local commuter train. See the most recent news here.
The train tracks on the San Francisco Peninsula have been a suicide risk for many years. About a decade ago, someone I had mentored in my law firm killed himself in the same way, long after I had left the firm and the area.
No, the discussion in Palo Alto is over depression among adolescents, its causes, and identifying and treating it before it leads to tragedy.
It is a topic that often doesn't get the kind of public airing that can help both individuals and the community, because of the stigma that often attaches to mental illness. That's why I'm posting this short note: Because the pressure to succeed in Mt. Lebanon is quite strong, I want to flag the possibility that our kids are at risk for depression. I hope that parents, school administrators, teachers, and public health authorities are aware of the issues locally and are able to engage in dialogue about them and take steps to deal with them.
4 Comments:
I am a 1990 graduate of Mt. Lebanon High School and am the Executive Director of CONTACT Pittsburgh, a crisis and suicide hotline. I wanted to make two comments to this post. First, suicide is a possibility for all adolescents regardless of where they live. It's imperative that all of us who worry about adolescents pay attention and be available to teenagers who may need to turn to us when feeling overwhelmed or distressed. Also, I wanted to let you know that WQED is airing a special on Thursday, October 22 at 7:30pm about Teen Suicide. More information can be found at their website: http://www.wqed.org/tv/onq/specials/teen_suicide.php
I am the Director of Professional Services at Outreach Teen & Family Services, and I agree with the above comment that depression and suicide are possible for all teens, regardless of where they live. All kids today are faced with so much more regarding expectations, pressures to grow up too fast, and technology that hits them at ever turn. It is important that we all work at reducing the stigma of mental health so that our kids feel more comfortable reaching out and asking for help. We at Outreach, with help from Mt. Lebanon PTA, school members, the local police, and volunteers from the community, are trying to let people know about the 40 Developmental Assets from the Search Institute in Minneapolis, MN. The assets are all about relationships and being connected within the community. I encourage everyone to check out the assets to see what you can do to strengthen the kids of Mt. Lebanon as well kids from other communities: http://www.search-institute.org/assets/
Mike-
Thanks for posting this. I work assisting children and teens with mental health issues in school districts that are in the western part of Allegheny County. Some of the districts are less socio-economically diverse than Mt. Lebanon (i.e some on the poorer end and some more affluent). Some of the districts in the western part of the county are very similar across the board. There are many factors which contribute to childhood (yes- childhood) and teen depression. Factors include but are in no way limited to genetics, racial and ethnic differences, gender identity, familial stress (abuse-death-divorce), relationship issues and economic factors in addition to academic stress... Add to all of this that children and teens do not have the benefit of life experience to put some of their distress into perspective and it's a perfect storm for depression and suicide as well as substance abuse.
Finally, it is worthy to note that a lot of teen depression goes unnoticed or written off. I have often heard many parents and teachers of depressed teens suggest that a student simply has a bad attitude or isn't walking around crying so how could there be depression? The challenging aspect to working with children and adolescents (aside from also having to work with their adult caretakers) is that depressive symptoms are different than you might see with adults. Whether by stigma, lack of information or denial, it is an area of healthcare that is often overlooked. Given the fact that children are our future, we should all hope and work for this to change.
~Gina Niewodowski, LPC
Check out the service called Teen Screen thru Outreach..it addresses just this issue and is available to students in the District.
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