Panel to address teen mental health, suicide
Goshen NewsMay 05, 2022
May 5—GOSHEN —
The panel will take place at the Life Center, Life Center
Weirich, a suicide prevention specialist with
Every eight hours, someone in the state of
"I'm not a perfect mom and I'm not a perfect parent," Weirich said. "I'm just trying to help so that my story doesn't become someone else's story."
On
The tragedy catapulted Weirich's family trauma onto a national audience and soon after, she began getting requests to speak and launched Leslie's Hope, partnering with community leaders to set up school suicide prevention programs, providing keynotes, and speaking to schools around the country on suicide awareness and prevention.
"As we've been working with these students in these schools, we realize there's such a need to work with the parents, too," she explained. "Kids are more stressed-out than ever with higher rates of anxiety, higher rates of depression. Parents are always asking me, 'How do I talk to my teen? How do I talk to them about suicide?'
During the Monday night panel discussion, Weirich will host a question-and-answer session for parents, grandparents, teachers, coaches, guidance counselors, youth pastors, and anyone interested in learning more about the mental health of adolescents and teens, discussing practical tips and tools that adults can use to help the youth in their lives.
By her side at the Monday night panel will be three regional experts on suicide prevention:
They'll talk about myths and fallacies related to suicide and mental health, provide resources and practical tools for adults to better understand the teenage brain, and introduce parents and adult mentors to the work that's being done in schools in the area, specially
"We don't want to wait until these people are ready to jump off the bridge," she said. "We want to start early, teaching them healthy ways to cope with stress. We believe, when you teach wellness, you prevent bullying, you prevent school violence and you prevent suicide."
The program does this, in part, using a method of eight protective factors, which are: family support, positive friends, mentors, healthy activities, generosity, spirituality, physical health and mental health.
"I really want parents to come out on Monday and bring their questions," Weirich urged. "If you have kids, you're going to have struggles, so let's all share resources and share information and get the right information to help."
For more information on Weirich's program, visit www.leslieshope.org.
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