Teens, parents and mental-health professionals from across Mississippi gathered at the Teen Suicide Summit to discuss topics like suicide prevention, signs of mental illness, safe spaces for youth and the potential harms of teens using social media.
Now a high-school junior, Alex Jones struggled with her mental health during COVID lockdowns, as she missed spending time with friends face-to-face. She shared her story with The Jed Foundation when applying for the student-ambassador program.
Blake Case, an advisory board member of the LGBTQ Fund of Mississippi, writes that during this session, Mississippi legislators should focus on supporting transgender and nonbinary youth with needed resources instead of “targeting these young people with harmful legislation that will threaten their mental health.”
Ridgeland-based life coach and counselor Karen Bonner said the pandemic negatively affected many people’s mental health in part because it exposed that modern society has at least a degree of fragility.
Y’all Means All Natchez received its 501(c) status in late 2018 and began its work in earnest in 2019. The coalition’s reach soon broadened beyond its original scope of suicidal LGBTQ+ youth and expanded its outreach work to include the entire Natchez community.
I believe that I am on this earth to do all the work I can to help people. No matter how flawed I am and no matter how many times I mess up, I know that I can make a difference for those around me. This pandemic helped me to realize more of who I am as a person mentally, spiritually and physically. I can’t continue to live life being a timid little girl who doesn’t know how to speak up for herself.
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