In advance of P.S. I Love You Day, an initiative to eradicate the stigma around mental health, social worker Kim Hession educated students about suicide awareness at Massapequa High School’s Ames Campus.
During their math classes, ninth graders attended presentations in the library during the week of Feb. 10. Ms. Hession introduced Signs of Suicide, an evidence-based prevention program by MindWise Innovations designed for middle school and high school students. They watched three videos featuring different scenarios, then discussed the effectiveness of the strategies that were used to support the person dealing with depression or suicidal thoughts.
Ms. Hession taught students about the ACT technique – acknowledge, care, tell – to assist anyone who might be showing risk factors. The goal of the presentations, she explained, was to give them the skills and tools to intervene on behalf of a peer who is struggling. She noted that friends often see the warning signs before adults do, and that early intervention can make a big difference.
“We want our students to be in a position to know how to act,” Ms. Hession said. “They’re often the first to notice the signs and symptoms of distress in a peer. They’re very intuitive but they don’t always know what to do.”
Ms. Hession, who has been leading the SOS workshop for a few years, provided students with crisis hotline information and also asked them to fill out short surveys about if they needed a professional to talk to at school.