Mississippi schools now have new suicide-prevention resources, thanks to a collaboration between the state’s Department of Mental Health and Department of Education. The two departments created a 988 and Suicide Prevention Guide that should serve as a toolkit so that schools can provide assistance and resources to students across Mississippi.
“We wanted to make sure that we had a targeted effort to educate children and youth in this state,” MDMH Executive Director Wendy Bailey told the Mississippi Free Press on Dec. 17. “And we know that students spend the majority of their day at school, so making sure that our educators are educated about warning signs of suicide, risk factors and protective factors, is so key.”
The Mississippi Department of Mental Health reports that suicide is the third leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults between the ages of 10 and 24, and it is the state’s 14th leading cause of death for all ages.
“Most mental-health conditions begin at a young age … so many people do not get the help that they need when their mental-health condition begins,” Bailey said. “It’s so very important that we focus on that education and dispelling that stigma, and having these open conversations where people will come forward when they need that help so that the community and everyone know how to then connect them to resources so (that) we can get them on the path to recovery as quickly as possible.”
For many students, the individual that they can or will turn to is inside their school building. Those confidants do not only include classroom teachers, Bailey said. Often, school support staff and others can be resources for students as well.
“You have school resource officers and coaches and janitors and cafeteria workers,” Bailey said. “All of those people may be a trusted person for youth to go to, and if they haven’t received that education about how to respond and what to do, that child may not get connected to the care that they need.”
The guide contains information about the national 988 hotline; resources for assisting a student or colleague in crisis; and information on assisting students, families and school staff after someone they know has attempted or committed suicide. Clemons said for smaller districts that may not have as many available human resources, the guide expands the staff’s capacity to meet the needs of its student population.
“We do have some lower elementary schools that may not have school counselors,” Bailey said. “They have nurses or other types of mental-health personnel, and they, too, were included.”
Mississippi law requires school employees to complete mental-health training every two years. It also calls for local schools to provide students with expanded access to local mental-health resources and for school districts to adopt policies on suicide prevention among students. The Mississippi Department of Education partnered with the Department of Mental Health to design that professional development. However, MDE Associate State Superintendent Wendy Clemons said that training is sometimes not enough to make educators comfortable with broaching the topic.
“I’m not a health-care professional; I’m an educator by trade. I think sometimes we as as non-mental-health professionals think that discussions about suicide are taboo, and as a result of that, we don’t have them,” Clemons told the Mississippi Free Press on Dec. 17. “We’ll go in and do an hour-long training and say, ‘Wow’ and then we go back to our classrooms, or go back to our school buses, or go back to our whatever we do, and we forget.”
State legislators also passed a bill in March to create a Mental Health Task Force for students starting at pre-K and going through 12th grade and beyond as students pursue postsecondary education. The committee’s report released in October included a recommendation to create an “internet-based mental-health resource guide at the state level and school district level and designate personnel to maintain the resource guide.”
“We were already working on this toolkit long before they even started meeting, but it was perfect timing because there are some recommendations that fit perfectly with what is in this resource guide,” Bailey said.
The Mississippi Department of Health has increased efforts to make the public aware of the 988 number. The three-digit behavioral line went into effect on July 16, 2022, replacing the previous National Suicide Prevention Lifeline to a number that is easier to remember. 988 is a direct line to mental-health professionals and can be used by anyone experiencing a crisis or who is concerned about a friend or loved one.
