Leaders in the mental health community joined forces at the Children's Cabinet's 2nd Annual Washoe County Youth Mental Health Summit.
The Children's Cabinet, through a partnership with Connect Washoe County, hosted the summit with the intention of helping young people in northern Nevada.
The summit included current data and trends regarding mental health, as well as panel discussions involving teenagers and a regional crisis response team.
The goal for the event is to listen and build connections with the youth in the community about their takes on mental health.
Attendees also got the chance to speak with a senior in high school who has been a voice for mental health for three years now.
A speaker on the Youth Mental Health panel Sydney Menante said her goal is to connect teens with information, to be more involved in youth mental health, and connect them with resources while also preventing teen suicide.
She told us her passion originates from her own experience of losing her childhood best friend .
"I thought I didn't have a right to feel that way because I hadn't talked to him in 2 years, he was the kid who brought me chocolate and put a smile on everyone's face, and I don't want anyone to feel how he did," Menante said.
According to Menante, they're seeing a big disconnect in having conversations between the school district and parents, and parents to students.
"I had this one teacher he would always send out a Google form and ask how we were doing and ask if there was anything we could do to change and to help, and another thing is outreach from schools to the students to give students advice," she said.
Children's Cabinet CEO Kim Young said it's important to have the district involved since they care for 61,000 kids in the community.
"We've got to partner with them and support them as much as we can because the district can be expected to address all mental health crisis on their own," Young said.
"A big issue I see in the school district is we're reactive instead of proactive, a girl took her own life but there was no provisions and no resources on the front end, yes they had a mental health professional, but did anybody know about her, no not really," Menante added.
Young told us that mental health stems from the whole family, and it's focusing on what those stressors are, and finding out where people are struggling.
"Even if maybe mom or dad is struggling, the feelings the young person is feeling in that home is a result of struggles that are happening," Young said. "That's where some of those mental health issues start to bubble up."
"If we want to lower that number, we need to have those conversations we need the resources out we need to be more proactive on the situation," Menante said.
The Children's Cabinet also has the opportunity to interact with and screen thousands of 7th graders every school year. They found a third of them are showing signs of depression and signs of suicide.
If you or someone you know needs any mental health help, you can call the emergency line at 988.
Some statements have been edited for clarity and brevity.
