Texas program shows how to care for teens' mental health

Brooks County, Texas (Wikipedia)

Rural teens are dealing with mental-health issues, a trend worsened by pandemic isolation, lack of access to mental-health services and the stigma still attached to the subject. A program in South Texas shows how organizations can make counseling more palatable to teens who need help.

"According to the U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory, recent research into 80,000 youth has found that anxiety and depression has increased in teens during the pandemic," Liz Carey reports for The Daily Yonder. "As much as 25% of youth reported experiencing depressive symptoms and 20% reported experiencing symptoms of anxiety. Other negative emotions or behaviors, like impulsivity and irritability, also appear to have increased, the research found. Data also shows that in early 2021 emergency department visits in the United States for suspected suicide attempts were 51% higher for adolescent girls and 4% higher in adolescent boys."

After hearing about another teen suicide in recent months, the Community Action Corp. of South Texas created a program called the Behavioral Health Outreach and Leadership Development Project, or BHold, in Brooks County. The three-year project is funded by the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health's Collaborative Approaches to Well-Being in Rural Communities. "The project started by creating a coalition to address teen mental health that included teens. After creating a strategic plan around mental health and wellness, the group entered into a partnership with Texas A&M-College Station and Brooks County, where the county provided the group with a building, rent-free."

BHold's counselor, Jose Palacios, told Carey the stigma around seeking help for mental health issues is still a problem for many local teens, but his schedule is full both days of the week he works for the program. Palacios said teens are more willing to talk to him because he's not from Brooks County. They would hesitate to talk about mental health issues with someone they've known their whole lives, fearing a local counselor might carry tales out into the community, he said.

April Anzaldua, CAC's director of community services and development, told Carey the program "seeks to make counseling more accessible to teens in other ways – like making counseling more affordable, decorating the waiting room in a way that makes teens feel comfortable, and providing patients with transportation to counseling during school hours, if necessary and applicable."

The program appears to be making a difference in the community. "It’s slowly becoming normalized here," Anzaldua said. "Before, in this huge Hispanic culture that we have, you know, you don’t show your feelings, you don’t talk about your feelings. You kind of suck it up. And when kids were reaching out, to family members saying, 'hey, I need help.' they would wash them off. So, I think… that this little community is starting to embrace mental health, and that it’s okay to not be okay."