Hamburg, N.Y. (WBEN) - The Hamburg Central School District is taking a proactive approach when it comes to talking to students about their mental health.
Throughout September and October of last year, Hamburg High School social workers Tina LaMendola and Paul Thompson met with student-athletes at the Varsity and Junior Varsity levels before and after practices for education on coping, speaking out, and learning from anxiety, depression and other aspects of their mental health.
"There are three reasons why we do this: One, it breaks down the stigma. Two, it normalizes that our athletes and our students are not alone. Three, it gives hope," said LaMendola.
LaMendola stresses that mental health is a serious, and often overlooked aspect of your health and wellness. Somebody you know likely has struggles with their mental health, even if you're not aware of it.
"When we look out in the audience and see the teams that we have that we're teaching, there's probably about 30-40% of those kids that we know that are struggling. And I don't know if they're talking to each other about their struggles," she said. "Sometimes when you're going through these things, you feel like you're on an island and you're isolated. What these talks have done, has brought down those walls."
The ideas for these class sessions all began when LaMendola was working with a senior student-athlete last spring, who opened up to her about his struggles with depression. After his rough patch with active suicidal thoughts, LaMendola asked him what he thinks would help other members of his team with their mental health struggles.
"I said, 'We know this doesn't discriminate. There are probably other guys on your team that are struggling as well, what do you think would help them?' He thought about it, just looked at me, and said, 'Well, you know how they have trainers that come in and talk to us about injury prevention, rest and recovery? We have to do that for mental health.' It was at that moment that this idea was born," said LaMendola.
Hamburg Superintendent Michael Cornell says while this mental health initiative derived from these conversations, emphasis and focus on mental health is not something new for their school district.
"In 2018, we began training all of our adults in Youth Mental Health First Aid," said Cornell. "I don't think there's another school in Western New York that has trained everybody. Bus drivers, teachers, teacher aides, administrators, everybody who works with children got that Youth Mental Health First Aid training.
"It's a full day of training. It's a significant investment of time and money to make sure it happens. What that does is, it makes it explicit, that it's everyone's job in the school community, every adult in our school community. It's your job to look out for the mental and emotional health and well-being of the children in our care every single day."
In addition, the district completed the re-certification of that training in 2021.
This current initiative, which was originally 30-minute sessions with each school sports team, is now being taught as part of their health classes, as well as yearly meetings with all sports teams. That's where both LaMendola and Thompson come into the class to teach all the Hamburg students about their personal experiences and stories.
"All students will see this at some point in their high school career," LaMendola assures. "What we've started to see after the talks is that it's just normalized. You know, Paul talks about his time serving in the war and being diagnosed with PTSD. I talked about a suicide attempt I had at age 13. So when you have two adult professionals getting up and telling students our stories, in a way, that gives hope that recovery is possible."
LaMendola and Thompson created their course by doing the work themselves, with tools of the trainings from a national speaker, Ross Szabo.
"I think most people do feel that there is somebody here at school, who they trust to listen, not judge, and then help put them in touch with a person who can take that conversation further," Cornell said.
While there are no obvious indicators of measuring the success of this initiative, both Cornell and LaMendola agree there have been an increased number of students who have reached out to the guidance counselors and social workers since the inception of this project. They also encourage other school districts in the area to implement programs like this to help students progress, living healthy and happy lives.
"You wouldn't think twice about going to the doctor if you had chest pain and it wasn't going away. This shouldn't be any different if you're looking at a mental health challenge," LaMendola said.