PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Delaware County officials are unveiling a plan to improve mental and behavioral health services to students.
District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said, through his office’s annual Safe Schools Summit, they heard a growing cry from educators that behavioral and mental health issues spawn many issues in schools.
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“Oftentimes, the behavioral issue is driven by something that is disrupting this child's life, and they need to get to the bottom of it,” said Stollsteimer. “There are professionals that need to be brought in.”
He said that along with the Delaware County Department of Human Services, they’re working to connect those who need help with available resources, while also calling on state government to expand those resources.
“There's a lot of money right now in Harrisburg sitting there that could be spent on our children,” Stollsteimer said.
“We need to make sure as citizens and as parents, that we are talking to legislators saying, ‘Hey, we need more of these services.’”
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Stollsteimer said parents should understand that asking for help for their children is in no way a reflection on them.
“By saying it out loud, you are not a failure as a parent if your child has a behavioral or mental health issue,” he said.
“If we have to raise our hands and say, ‘Hey, my kid has an issue and I need help with it,’ do not feel stigmatized. Just do it. It's the right thing to do.”
Stollsteimer pointed to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s report on the Safe2Say app. You can read the report below.
More than 80% of the anonymous safety concerns sent through the app have dealt with behavioral or mental health issues, and about 73% have involved bullying, suicide, self-harm, mental illness, or discrimination and harassment.
“Either they're suffering and are seeking help, or they have a friend who is suffering and they want to get them help,” he said.
Stollsteimer said there is still a place for discipline, and children need to learn how to deal with trauma in their lives, but he believes they also need resources to deal with what he calls roadblocks in the mental health sphere.
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He added that counselors play a key role, especially in the modern world. He added that this generation is much more aware of being free to live as who we are.
“We also then have to give them the resilience to understand that not everybody is going to be accepting of those differences about them, and they have to find a way to overcome the hurdles,” he said.
Additionally, Stollsteimer said that the pressures of social media bring a much deeper level of potential mental health concerns.
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“All of these new-fangled problems, social media, my God, social media alone is enough to drive anyone into a behavioral mental health episode,” Stollsteimer, a father of two 16-year-olds, added.
“The shaming and the bullying that goes on online now can be just as dramatic as it did in-person back in our day, so I think the challenges are different. I think we as people are different,” he recognized.
“They live in a different world, a much different world than you and I grew up, and we have to meet them where they are.”
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