On Tuesday, April 23, more than 1,700 Cullman County high school students gathered for a district-wide rally to kick off Mental Health Awareness Month.
The meeting, hosted by Temple Baptist Church, was attended by several speakers, including church officials, a former school resource officer and Cullman County Sheriff’s Office investigator Jeff Lawson. But the event primarily focused on Mark and Kim Hilinski, founders of the Hilinski Hope Foundation, who lost their 21-year-old son Tyler to suicide in 2018.
In a video announcing the event, Superintendent Shane Barnett said mental health awareness has become much more widespread among district education officials in recent years.
“Mental health issues among students and adults continue to increase,” Barnett said. “If we don’t intervene with adults and students who are struggling with mental health issues, it affects so many things. It not only affects children’s learning, but also how they make friends, how their parents It affects how they interact with each other, how they interact with each other, and many other aspects of their lives.”
CCBOE Mental Health Services Coordinator Karen Pinion said she sees issues like anxiety and depression impacting the lives of more children each year, some as young as elementary school. Ta.
“Within our schools, students seem to be increasingly struggling with mental health issues. Anxiety is one of the biggest indicators we see. These issues are affecting both men and women. It affects students the same way, and it starts as early as elementary school,” Pinion said.
In 2022, 433 children with severe emotional disorders in Cullman County were receiving some form of mental health services, according to the latest child population data book published by the nonprofit organization VOICES for Alabama’s Children. has been done. One of the criteria for serious emotional disturbance is suicidal thoughts or acts as a result of a mental health diagnosis.
The report also found that from 2011 to 2021, Cullman County’s preventable teen death rate (defined as suicides, homicides, accidents, etc.) more than doubled from 39.1 deaths per 100,000 to 94.2 deaths per 100,000 people. It also shows that this number is significantly higher than the state average of 72.3 people.
Professor Barnett said CCBOE has contracted with an external mental health agency to deal with the growing number of students struggling with mental health issues, has three full-time social workers on staff, and has organized events such as mental health assemblies held on Tuesdays. He said he has put in place a variety of resources, including hosting mental health gatherings. Mr. Hilinski.
Mark Hilinski opened his speech by admitting that public speaking is not his forte. He also stated that he never considers himself to be a mental health professional. He said he considers himself and Kim, who founded Hilinski’s Hope after his son’s death to raise awareness of mental health and reduce the stigma associated with it, to be, above all, “grieving parents.” Stated.
Mark said none of his family knew anything about Tyler’s mental health issues before his death, so they had to follow a “breadcrumb trail” of information to make sense of the tragedy after the fact. Told. One of the main purposes of these “Tyler Talks” is to encourage students to seek help and discuss problems before they become a crisis.
“The only thing we know about it is that he suffered, he got sick, he didn’t seek help, and in his case he died,” Mark said. “There’s one reason we’re having these talks, and that’s because we think these are things that Tyler would have responded to and that we could have tipped the scales in Tyler’s favor a little bit more.
In December 2023, the Hilinski family partnered with Talladega City Schools to launch a pilot program offering a modified mental health curriculum developed by Prevention Strategies for high school students.
The program consists of six modules that focus on how to identify mental health problems in yourself and others.
Pinion said the Hilinskis met with CCBOE principals before implementing the program in February before implementing it last month. He said the district administration had already made plans for a spring meeting, but after meeting with the couple, those plans were changed to feature two speakers.
She said she believed the event was a success based on the overwhelming amount of feedback she had received by Wednesday morning.
“I think we’ve had a lot of worthwhile events and gatherings, and we’ve had great speakers. All of our previous events have been phenomenal and have provided great information. That being said, I The amount of calls, emails, and text messages we received were saying it was far better than any other event we’ve ever done,” Pinion said.
Pinion said representatives from Cullman City Schools as well as several school systems in surrounding counties attended the event, including the Alabama Department of Education, and plans to have the Hilinski family speak to students in the future. He said he had expressed interest.
