COMMUNITY CONVERSATION Deer. Valley USD

1. Community Conversation
Deer Valley Unified School District
January 28, 2019
From Distress to Success:
Supporting Student Mental
Health and Well-Being

2. You and your community have our
undivided, unconditional love and support
Our goals tonight:
•Decrease suicide and attempts by increasing knowledge
and understanding
•Encourage help-seeking
•Reduce stigma of mental illness
•Engage parents, students, and staff as partners in
prevention
•Answer any and all of your questions 1

3. Death by suicide is
no one person’s
fault and
prevention is
everyone’s
responsibility
2

4. • However, there is hope. This presentation will share
some successful practices driven by courageous,
innovative, compassionate, and impassioned leaders,
teachers, parents, and students. These practices have
made the schools more humane, healthy, and engaging.
Strong academics have been sustained and definitions of
success have expanded.
3
FROM …
TO …

5. 4
… these kids, and what can WE
do about it in OUR schools?

6. 5
https://afsp.org/about-suicide/state-fact-sheets/#Arizona

7. 6
“Experts agree that anxiety is reaching
near-epidemic levels among young people,
with as many as one in eight children —
and 25 percent of teens — contending with
diagnosable anxiety disorders.”
<https://t.co/irGmPMjDOC>

9. “Outcomes” of anxiety, depression,
mental health struggles. …
• Disengagement
• Truancy
• “School Refusal”
• Substance abuse
• Cutting
• Hospitalization
• Credible Threats
• and worse …
https://www.americashealthrankings.org/explore/health-of-women-and-
children/measure/teen_suicide/state/AZ
Arizona
Trend
U.S. Trend
2016-18

10. Nearly half of suicides
in AZ occur in Maricopa County
• In 2016, there were 1310 deaths. Maricopa County
had the highest rate of suicide with 683 deaths. The
youngest suicide was age 9; the oldest was age 96.
• The majority of suicides were completed with a gun.
• Suicide is not just a behavioral health concern…
Suicide touches every family and community in
Arizona, regardless of diagnoses, zip codes,
ethnicities, or faith.
9http://www.sprc.org/sites/default/files/2018AZSuicidePreventionPlan.pdf

11. PREVENTION: Understanding Myths
• MYTH: All adolescents think of suicide.
• FACT: Only about 12-15% of the student population (depending on location) seriously
think about it.
• MYTH: If I ask someone about suicide, I’ll put the thought in their
head.
• FACT: There is a large body of research disputing this myth (Madeline Gould et al)
• MYTH: If someone wants to die by suicide there is nothing I can do
about it.
• FACT: Suicide is preventable and most who survived a suicide attempt do not try again.
• MYTH: Suicide is selfish.
• FACT: People who are suicidal often feel they are a burden to others
10

12. PREVENTION: Understanding Causes
• PRIOR DEATH: The number one risk factor for death by suicide is
a prior one in your community or a neighboring one.
• MENTAL HEALTH/DEPRESSION: Withdrawal, sleep habits,
anxiety.
• COPING WITH SETBACKS, TRANSITIONS, AND ISOLATION:
“What am I good for? What am I good at?”
11

13. PREVENTION: Understanding Causes
• EASY ACCESS TO MEANS: “Hot Spots” (railroad tracks, bridges),
firearms, poisons. “Reducing access to means saves lives.”
• IMPULSIVITY: suicide may occur within 10 minutes of having
ideation and frequently occurs within 2 weeks of a major
conflict.
• INTIMATE PARTNER: Half of youth suicides are due to intimate
partner problems.
12

14. PREVENTION: WHAT can we do?
•Manage social media
•Be hyper vigilant of social-emotional health
•Demonstrate caring and create connections
•Obtain access to wellness supports
•Scale back performance arms race
13

15. PREVENTION: VIGILANCE
• WATCH FOR
• Frequent sleeping in class can be a sign of sleep
deprivation
• Observable change in work habits, routines
• Obsession with social media
• Mood swings and impulsive outbursts
• LISTEN to students’ peers
• BE ALERT at especially difficult times such as
• Media coverage of a celebrity (or age peer) suicide
• College admissions (and rejections)
• Anniversary dates of trauma
14

16. CDC Suicide Warning Signs
15
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention
warning commons signs of suicide are:
• Feeling like a burden and expressing hopelessness
• Being isolated
• Increased anxiety (extended or in cycles)
• Feeling trapped or in unbearable pain
• Increased substance use
• Increased anger or rage
• Sleeping too little
• Talking or posting about wanting to die
• Saying goodbye and/or abandoning prized possessions

17. “While the vast majority of
people (90 percent) who attempt
suicide by another method
survive, gun suicide attempts are
almost always fatal.
People who attempt suicide
overwhelmingly report
immediate regret, and most
never attempt suicide again.
Yet suicide attempts by shooting
are almost always fatal, meaning
the vast majority who attempt
suicide with a gun never get a
second chance to get the help
they need.”
16https://www.sprc.org/comprehensive-approach/reduce-means
MEANS
RESTRICTION
AND SAFE
STORAGE SAVES
LIVES

18. SCALE BACK PERFORMANCE ARMS RACE
• Discourage students from overloading with
APs and Honors classes and from packing
resumes with too many activities
• Understand the realities of college
admissions practices
• Keep the quantity of homework reasonable
and quality of homework high
• Provide flexibility for due dates of major
projects and tests
• Eliminate (or at least reduce) stigma and
barriers to help seeking 17

19. EA Accelerates the Performance Arms Race
Alliteratively, Bates, Bowdoin, Brown, and Bucknell have early acceptance rates more
than double their regular admissions rates as do “Wash U” and Williams. Holy Cross,
Conn, and George Washington University have early admissions rates in the 70%
range. Here are some other comparables from College Transitions for 2015-16:
Early % Regular %
Columbia 19 >5
Northwestern 38 11
Princeton 19.9 5
Stanford 10.2 >5
Amherst 36 12
Notre Dame 38.9 15.1
Oberlin 54 27
UNC/Chapel Hill 39.1 18.9
Wesleyan 42 22.2
18https://www.collegetransitions.com/early-actiondecision-vs-regular-decision-admission-rates/

20. Institution % Accepted Brigade Numbers
Left on the
Battlefield
Stanford 4.69 43,997 41,934
Harvard 5.2 39,044 37,014
Princeton 6.46 29,313 27,429
Brown 9 32,390 29,475
Columbia 6.04 36,292 33,970
Yale 6.27 31,455 29,483
MIT 7.81 19,020 17,535
Penn 9.4 38,918 35,260
19
Put another way, for the schools cited about, at least 3 out of 4 applicants are rejected. Yes,
rejected. Willard Dix provides a body count of what he calls “cannon fodder,” the unsuccessful
applicants: “Let's look at a few numbers from the current admission season (College class of
2020) to see how many students fell during "The Charge of the Bright Brigade":
https://www.forbes.com/sites/willarddix/2016/05/24/rethinking-the-meaning-of-colleges-low-
acceptance-rates/#13d9f4801dd0

21. “Our school is comprised largely of perfectionist students who are terrified
by the idea of failure. The race for a higher Grade Point Average (GPA)
dominates in our community. Our worth and value in the eyes of our
friends, family, and, worst of all, ourselves, is dictated by this number. Being
ranked by GPA only worsens the crisis through constant comparison to each
other. Mistakes, whether during lectures or on tests, become viewed by
students, and even many teachers, as signs of weakness and stupidity.”
20
http://www.challengesuccess.org/blog/overriding-gamea-students-
perspective-creating-school-policy-change-improve-engagement-well/
From a student …

22. The student who took his own life had a full schedule of
Advanced Placement classes—as a high school freshman.
Why? Because he knew the reality of his high school's
antiquated ranking and weighting system. The school only
gives special weight (added points onto the GPA thus
improving the class rank) if a student takes APs.
21
http://community.today.com/parentingteam/post/perfect-kids-need-not-apply
From a parent …

23. “Our teachers and District have simply created and maintained a system that our
community/country has demanded from us over the past 20 years since college
admissions mania went into hyper drive, since vocational training programs were
dismantled, and since earning “A’s” in AP classes became the norm.
Our teachers feel the pressure, administration and counseling feel the pressure, and
now parents/students are really feeling the pressures. When we grew up nobody
asked us what our GPA was, and it was “cool” to work on the roof of a house.
This competitive culture has significantly impacted our young adults. We endlessly
discuss test scores, National Merit Scholarships, reading scores, AP scholars,
comparisons to other school Districts and this is when we start losing our
collective souls--and our children.”
22https://theswordmovie.com/2018/02/01/a-letter-from-our-community/
From a principal …

24. Barriers to help-seeking
• Stigma of counseling
• Not recognizing needed emotional support or
professional help
• Not knowing how to find help
• Cultural/family traditions that value individual
independence or frown upon seeking help outside
of the family
• The mistaken belief that your problems cannot be
resolved, even with assistance
• Lack of access to care, due to lack of providers
and/or financial issues
23

25. INTERVENTION: A … C … T
ACT
• ACKNOWLEDGE that you are seeing signs of depression or
suicide and that it is serious.
• CARE: let your child/friend know that you care about them
and you are concerned that he or she needs help you can’t
provide. (Do not leave the individual alone if at all possible);
• TELL a teacher, counselor, or other trusted adult that you are
worried about your child/friend.
24

26. AVOID
• Conducting memorial assemblies
• Sensationalizing or glorifying
• Allowing lasting memorials at
school
• Speculating on causes and analyzing
motives
• Spreading erroneous statements,
rumors, etc. on social media
25
POSTVENTION: Memorials
SUPPORT
• Involvement in off campus
memorial services
• Living memorials (projects,
memory book)
• Opportunities for students AND
staff to express full range of
emotions and support for
managing their grief
• Truth and honesty along with
family privacy requests
• Return to healthy routines

27. “Risk of additional
suicides increases when
the story explicitly
describes the suicide
method, uses
dramatic/graphic
headlines or photos, and
repeated or extensive
coverage sensationalizes
or glamorizes a death.”
26
POSTVENTION: Media Control

28. 27
Terminology!
A Beautiful
Front Page
Photo!
Means!
RX: Call and write the
editor and reporter.
Cancel subscriptions.

29. To close on a positive note: Attending to Social
Emotional Health makes a big difference
Students who are mentally healthy and social-emotionally sound are:
1. More likely to succeed academically
2. Have the self-confidence, resilience, grit, and coping skills to
persist in the face of difficult challenges
3. More friendly and skilled in managing positive relationships
4. More engaged in and be connected to school
5. More likely to make wise decisions and thus less likely to have
discipline problems
28

30. Research shows the positive impact of
social emotional interventions on learning
29
The ability to recognize and manage emotions and establish and maintain
positive relationships impacts both readiness to learn and the ability to
benefit from learning opportunities. In 2011, a team of researchers conducted a
comprehensive meta analysis of school based universal social emotional
interventions which included 213 schools and 270,034 students ranging from
kindergarten through high school.
On average, the researchers found that students receiving social emotional
interventions improved significantly compared to those not receiving an
intervention. Social emotional skills, social behaviors, and academic performance
increased, attitudes towards self and others were more positive, conduct problems
were reduced, and emotional distress lessened.
Farrington, Roderick, Allensworth, Nagaoka, Keyes, Johnson, & Beechum. (2012). Teaching adolescents to become learners: The role of
noncognitive factors in shaping school performance. A critical literature review. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago
School Research.
Durlak et al. (2011). The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A metaanalysis of school based universal interventions.
Child Development, 872 (1).

31. FREE Resources
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• Regarding this presentation, contact Max McGee
• maxmcgee@hyasearch.com
• 224.234.6129
• www.glennmaxmcgee.com
• SOS Signs of Suicide Prevention:
• jodiesegal@elyssasmission.org
• 847.697.9181
• Suicide Prevention Resource Center:
http://www.sprc.org
• American Foundation for Suicide Prevention:
https://afsp.org/wp-
content/uploads/2016/01/recommendations.pdf
• PAUSD Toolkit for Mental Health Promotion and Suicide
Prevention
http://www.heardalliance.org/help-toolkit/
• Sources of Strength: https://sourcesofstrength.org/

32. References
• Anglemyer, A., Horvath, T., & Rutherford, G. (2014). The accessibility of firearms and risk for
suicide and homicide victimization among household members: A systematic review and meta-
analysis. Annals of Internal Medicine, 160(2), 101-110.
• Gould, Madelyn S. et al. (2005) Evaluating Iatrogenic Risk of Youth SuicideScreening Programs: A
Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of the American Medical Association, 293 (13).
• Miller, M., Azrael, D., & Barber, C. (2012). Suicide mortality in the United States: The importance
of attending to method in understanding population-level disparities in the burden of suicide. The
Annual Review of Public Health, 33(1), 393-408
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2017. National Centers for Injury Prevention and
Control, Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS). Retrieved from
http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisquars/index.html
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33. For further conversation,
please join me for a
“Second Cup of Coffee”
maxmcgee@hyasearch.com
www.glennmaxmcgee.com
@glennmaxmcgee 224.234.6129
February 5
Noon to 1:00
Sandra Day
O’Connor H.S.
February 7
Noon to 1:00
Barry Goldwater
High School