Here & Now

'Our Students Are Hurting': Youth Mental Health in Wisconsin

Frederica Freyberg:

Tonight, we discuss mental health and suicide. We wanted to let you know as we begin our program. First up, students today are coping with myriad different challenges than their parents and rates of depression and anxiety are on the rise. As part of our 2023 budget coverage, Steven Potter reports mental health support systems cannot keep pace with the growing needs that burden young people in this state.

Jocelyn Lepinski:

Our students are hurting right now in a way that I’ve never seen in my 15 years of education.

Reggie Lahti:

It’s prevalent everywhere. You can’t walk through a classroom without seeing someone who might be struggling.

Steven Potter:

Students today have many of the same challenges they’ve had for generations, keeping up with classwork, juggling things like sports, part-time jobs and friendships. But students today are also dealing with a new challenge, an increase in problems with their mental health. Experts say these problems are widespread and if left untreated, mental health problems can, and in many cases already do, have severe consequences.

Jess Frain:

We’re seeing a lot more struggles and this trend has been going on for a while now. We see a lot of increases in suicidal ideation as well as suicide attempts. So some really alarming stuff. And again, it’s been trending for a while, but seems to really be on an uptick lately.

Steven Potter:

While every student is unique and each faces their own challenges, many young people across the state said they struggle with similar mental health issues such as anxiety, isolation, and depression. A survey released last year by the State Department of Public Instruction, found that 52% of students reported having anxiety. 34% said they were sad or hopeless every day, 22% of students reported harming themselves and 25% of female students have seriously considered suicide.

Jess Frain:

There’s a lot of different research and studies looking into the root cause of what we’re seeing now in our youth mental health. Youth are dealing with a lot of things that us adults didn’t deal with when we were younger. Today’s youth have a lot more information coming at them at all the time, but it is still a lot, I think, for these young people who are still trying to kind of figure out how to manage their own emotions, how to process big information, with the pandemic in the middle of all this. That’s something that was pretty jarring. Being a youth during something like that, during a national trauma is going to really disrupt some of their own growth, their emotional growth, their brain development. And now we’re kind of seeing the aftereffects of that.

Steven Potter:

In addition to the pandemic, young people today are also navigating extreme political division and heavy use of social media as well as a fear of gun violence and economic uncertainty.

Jocelyn Lepinski:

A lot of what we see with our students is trying to find their place in the world, and I think that that’s hopelessness piece, it’s not the best place out there in the world, right? Between climate change and any of the fractious behavior we have between humans. It’s hard for them to look out at that and think like, yeah, I have a future.

Steven Potter:

17-year-old Ava in Winnebago County has dealt with mental health challenges for years.

Ava:

I always had a really bad anxiety and it started when I was really little with my mom and separation anxiety. And then it’s kind of spiraled in just a little bit of depression because when I feel like depression and anxiety you go hand in hand a lot. But I realized as I got older that it’s building up and it needs to be talked about. And I needed someone to help guide me.

Steven Potter:

Ava’s mental health struggles have also impacted her physical health.

Ava:

I have psychological non-epileptic seizures due to the traumatic event in my life and built-up anxiety and always being in fight, flight or freeze mode. So my body physically will freeze when I get super anxious.

Steven Potter:

Eva found counseling and help in an alternative high school program, but not all students in Wisconsin are able to get the therapy and support they need. According to data from the UW-Madison Population Health Institute, there’s an extreme lack of mental health providers in Wisconsin’s rural counties. Some of the worst areas in the state include Florence County, which has just one counselor for every 4,300 residents, Pepin County, which has just one mental health provider for every 7,300 residents. And at the bottom of the list is Buffalo County, which has just one mental health provider for every 13,000 residents. The American School Counselor Association recommends that there be one in-school counselor for every 250 students, but Wisconsin averages one counselor for every 378 students. As a school psychologist for more than 30 years, UW-La Crosse Professor Rob Dixon has seen this staffing shortage problem firsthand.

Rob Dixon:

When you’re dealing with a shortage of some of those important staff members and an increase in the number of mental health concerns, it kind of hits it both ways and that’s something that we’re trying to deal with.

Steven Potter:

UW-La Crosse has created an online program for teachers who want to become school psychologists. The program goal, Dixon says, is to attract educators in rural areas.

Rob Dixon:

So can we deliver something in a way that they can keep their jobs and keep their family and keep their roots in their community, but just add the skills. In some ways, give that school psychology away so that they can, they can use those tools and move forward and help the kids that they know in their community.

Steven Potter:

But mental health experts say students need a lot more help right now, and that means more state funding.

Tony Evers:

I’m declaring 2023 the year of mental health.

Steven Potter:

That was Governor Tony Evers back in January during his state of the state address. Since then, he’s laid out a plan that includes more than $250 million specifically set aside for student mental health initiatives. Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee, however, stripped all of it from the state budget.

Rachael Cabral-Guevara:

I’m very saddened that kids are struggling. When I think back to my time these are not things that I personally struggled with to the extent that I’m seeing that kids are struggling with today.

Steven Potter:

Republican Senator Rachael Cabral-Guevara is the vice chair of a Senate committee that addresses mental health and other issues facing children and families. She says she wants more financial support for student mental health issues.

Rachael Cabral-Guevara:

Funding for resources that are already established as well as resources that are available in the future, may that be in grant form, may that be in nonprofits, may that be for profits.

Steven Potter:

But the senator, who’s also a nurse practitioner, stopped short of saying how much funding.

Rachael Cabral-Guevara:

I don’t know if there’s an exact number, but I do believe and I do support the funding to adequately support these programs, so that people can get the help that they need.

Steven Potter:

Young people are turning to another place to get help with their mental health. Each other. At Merrill High School in northern Wisconsin there’s the Raise Your Voice Student Club.

Reggie Lahti:

The mission statement that goes behind Raise Your Voice is we are dedicated to breaking the stigma around mental health. So we do that through monthly meetings with our club members and a lot of activities out in the community.

Steven Potter:

This spring, the club members held a community walk to raise awareness and show support for those with mental health issues. Students like Reggie say they’re becoming more open with each other about their day-to-day mental health challenges.

Reggie Lahti:

I don’t have an issue sitting down and saying like, “I’m very anxious today and I’m having a hard time functioning.” And they will sit there and be like, “That’s okay.” And you know, not every day can be perfect and I can have these really insightful and mature conversations with my friends over how I’m feeling and vice versa, because we all have a general understanding that it’s something that happens and it’s not something that can just, puff, go away.

Steven Potter:

Students say supporting each other and breaking down the stigma around mental health struggles can make a big difference.

Reggie Lahti:

I think that it’s really important to also make our peers understand that this is occurring around you and here’s what you can do to help people. Because that is going to — what goes around comes around. It’s going to come back to you. People are going to help you if you’re down if you help others.

Steven Potter:

For “Here & Now,” I’m Steven Potter.