JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) -Canopy Children’s Solutions knows a children’s mental health crisis exists. Their staff reports that there’s been a 30 percent increase in anxiety and depression among children in the last several years. And one in three high school girls have reported having serious thoughts of suicide. They say those types of statistics highlight the needs the need for collaboration.
Their 10th annual summit is focused on the “ecology of a child” and going beyond the most obvious factors.
“It’s designed to go deeper and understand it’s all about understanding that child or that family,” explained Yolanda Wooten, LINK Statewide Coordinator for Canopy Children’s Solutions. “Understanding what is needed, paying attention to different signs when a child is withdrawn, when they’re normally a popular butterfly, or when a child is extra needy, what’s going on, what are those changes?”
The summit comes just a week after lawmakers held the first two hearings focused on the mental health of K-12 and college students. We asked Canopy about having the legislature spend time on ways to connect kids to resources better.
“We get in a trap of working in silos,” said Chief Solutions Officer Shea Hutchins. “So, to have the policymakers really lean into what are the issues and how can we help and what do we need to do to set the stage so you guys from a private sector and the public sector can really work together and not really not feel like you’re in competition because the goal at the end of the day is to support the needs of the child and their family. That’s what we’re all here.”
They are among the groups already working on collaboration but want more people to realize the resources available, often free of charge.
“It’s so important that the schools have partnerships with entities like ours and others who can bring expertise to the table in a way that supports a student does it in the right way for the right reasons,” noted Sean Brewer, Canopy Director of Education Solutions.
The legislative task force will continue to meet leading up to next year’s session and make recommendations that they believe will help address some of these issues.
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