Number of suicides in HSD prompt letter to minister

A number of suicides in the Hanover School Division by current and former students prompted the division to send a letter to the minister of education asking for additional supports.

“Unfortunately, we’ve had seven suicides over the past three years in students that have been connected one way or another to the SRSS. They haven’t all been attending. When they passed they may have been former students of ours or siblings of students of ours and that’s a very high number for our area so that’s very concerning for us,” said superintendent Shelley Amos.

“We want to work in partnership. We know the line, ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’ We want to support students. We want to support families. We want to work in partnerships with other government organizations to provide the right types of resources for students and so this is us doing our part and advocating.”

According to a Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth (MACY) report released in December, there were 37 youth deaths by suicide between April 1, 2022, and March 31, 2023 in the province. Each time a person under 21 dies in Manitoba the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner notifies MACY. There were 265 death notifications in 2023 and of those 14 percent were from suicide.

Amos said the school division has been concerned for quite some time about the increase in mental health issues among students regarding anxiety and family dynamics. She noted the student services department does a good job of supporting students as do school counsellors, but that they don’t have the same level of training that mental health workers would have for those students suffering with mental health issues.

“I think we’d like to see wait times reduced for students who access supports. We’d like to see supports locally. We know that sometimes there are supports available in Winnipeg, but we have many families who don’t have the capacity to travel to Winnipeg. They may not have a car, so we need to have local supports. We need to have less wait times,” said Amos.

The Carillon reported in November that children and youth in the Southeast had to wait 383 days to get an appointment with a community mental health worker and 458 days to get psychology services, the longest wait times in the province.

Service planning and change lead for the mental health addictions program for Southern Health Cathy Aab said the health authority is aware of the wait times and the growth in clients is due to the 20 percent growth in the population since 2010. Aab said Southern Health has implemented virtual appointments and classes which would reduce the wait times for youth needing mental health supports. She also cited a doctor and mental health nurse in the school district who provide information and support for youth needing that type of care.

“Some of (the mental health workers in the schools) are social workers and some of them are mental health counsellors,” said Dr. Jay Greenfeld, a psychiatrist specializing in children, adolescents, and college students suffering from anxiety and depression, who routinely works with parents and families on issues inside and outside the home.

“And then, there are school psychologists at the school and a lot of time those school psychologists they’re primarily there to do assessments. Then they get pushed into roles that sometimes they weren’t really trained for, but they have to do it because somebody has to help these kids.”

Greenfeld said one of the mental health issues affecting teens are high levels of anxiety which largely stems from their “lack of navigation when it come to appropriate social patterns online.”

“Because of this need to feel connected, to feel accepted, to feel acknowledged, to feel justified, or some sort of type of acknowledgement that leads a lot of these high school students to believe that that kind of stuff is what will make them feel relevant. And then when they don’t get that verification or that validation they struggle,” he said.

Greenfeld said because teens live in a world where everything is instant and the expectation for a response is always anticipated and when the response doesn’t come instantly, it leads youth into “rabbit holes” of overthinking which leads to irrational thoughts that promote higher levels of anxiety and depression.

In his practice over the past 10 years, Greenfeld has seen a shift in the way people think. He said people have become more impulsive and base their thoughts on the reviews or responses from other people instead of their own opinions. This has caused people to feel overwhelmed faster and because they’re not coping with issues, it leads to a struggle in managing stress.

“I don’t think social media is to blame for it, but it’s one of the most significant contributing factors. Social media, technology, online use, screen time use all that kind of stuff, you can put it all into one category and none of them have limits. And without limits, anything in excess can create problems,” he said.

“But when you’re dealing with something that is intended to make you want to use it more now you’re slipping into a very addictive pattern here. And then it just becomes reinforcing because there is always something you can look at, but if it wasn’t available it would be much easier.”

For youth to protect their mental health, Greenfeld recommends they get off their phones and focus on school work, social interactions outside of online portals, engage in activities, and only use the phone to make calls.

“If they don’t set limits on that, it gets pretty dangerous.”

For parents and teachers he said it’s important not to ignore small indicators. When a teen says they’re struggling you need to validate that feeling and see what kind of help can be provided.

“Cause the bigger challenges start with the small things and if we ignore those small things, or if we try and cope with them in unhealthy ways, you’re just fanning the flames.”