Teen’s family aims to change perceptions about mental illness
The Winchester StarJul 21, 2017
Like most parents of teenagers,
Ballard knew a statement like “I want to die” could mean that her son was terribly embarrassed about something, or he really wanted to die.
“It’s just so hard to tell the difference,” she said. “You just don’t know.”
Ballard’s answer came on
Ballard and her husband,
An immediate task, she said, is changing perceptions about mental illness.
“My brother-in-law spoke at the funeral and said, ‘You break your leg and people understand it. You have depression and they tell you to get over it,’”
Ballard’s 90-year-old mother,
“I don’t think anyone thinks my mom is crazy. They realize her brain is not functioning properly anymore,” Ballard said. “She has this terrible disease and it makes her act in ways that are strange and not normal.
“We need to take what we’ve learned about understanding Alzheimer’s and apply it to other mental illnesses, like depression, so that people understand the brain is an organ and, sometimes, things don’t go right.”
Connolly said she and Ballard “kind of led the charge” for this year’s Chain of Checks to benefit youth mental health services.
As a result, Chain of Checks founder and
Money raised in this year’s campaign will fund training for employees of
Lee said the extra training will help school employees spot the difference between typical teen behaviors and more serious problems.
“I’ve been to funerals where there was a suicide and people said, ‘Gosh, I wish I knew,’” Lee said on Thursday. “To know there are kids suffering in silence because they don’t know how to ask for help, it breaks your heart.”
“We would like Chain of Checks to be an educational opportunity for the community,” Connolly said. “Mental illness is a biological issue. It’s not something that’s taboo, it’s not something we shouldn’t be talking about. It’s a disease, and we need to be talking about that.”
Connolly and Ballard said they also want the community to understand the need for a local facility to treat young people who have mental illnesses.
“When someone like John David needs mental health treatment, they have to leave the community,” Connolly said.
In early December, Ballard said, J.D. was hospitalized after trying to kill himself. The closest inpatient facility was in
“He would talk to me about how difficult it was, and all he wanted was his friends to come see him,” Ballard said.
The 2016 Community Health Needs Assessment published by
According to the assessment, “the community’s mental health needs have grown, while the mental health service capacity has not. The major concern mentioned by key informants [surveyed for the assessment] was the need for more providers to care for children with mental and behavioral health issues. The
In
When J.D. came home from the hospital, Ballard said she thought he was doing better. It turned out he was just putting on a brave face while desperately trying to cope with an illness that, a few short weeks later, claimed his life.
“Depression is a black, black tunnel, and you see no light at the end and no way out of it,” Ballard said. “What’s irrational becomes rational, and that’s what leads to a not-good result.
“That’s what happened to John David. The irrational, which was the only way out was to die, became rational.”
One of the goals of the
“This fund, in and of itself, is not going to be able to do that, but hopefully we can provide some impetus for some other community partners to start helping,” Connolly said.
The need is more urgent than people may realize.
According to the
Locally, 13.2 percent of middle-schoolers and 12.3 percent of high-schoolers made a suicide plan. The national average for students is 11.9 percent.
The most alarming statistics are tied to the number of young people who actually attempted suicide. In the district, 6.8 percent of middle-schoolers and 5.3 percent of high-schoolers tried to kill themselves, which far exceeds the national student average of 1.9 percent.
Ballard said parents of children with mental health issues need support just as desperately as their kids.
“The study of mental illness is like rocket science, and none of us are rocket scientists,” Ballard said. “Teenagers don’t want to tell you anything. It’s a nightmare.”
Ballard said she believes she could have done more to help J.D. if she had better access to local mental health services.
She has committed herself to making sure no other family has to suffer the loss of a child to depression.
“I never thought this would be my life’s work, but it’s God’s plan,” Ballard said. “I hate it, it’s a bad plan, but here I am.”
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A planned fundraiser to support the
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