On Saturday, about 40 students from schools across Long Island, along with their families and mentors, gathered at the Education Center at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens for an art competition awards ceremony and graduation for participants in the mental health support program.
The program celebrated students’ efforts to start conversations about mental health and spread awareness of mental health resources available to students through two separate programs. Elementary, middle, and high school students received awards for artwork they submitted to the “Erase the Stigma” art contest held in May. High school students presented projects they completed as part of Northwell Health’s Cohen Children’s Hospital Cohen Strong Mental Health Advocacy Program.
“We all have mental health, and we want to promote it and normalize it,” says Bianca Del Gatto, a licensed mental health counselor at Northwell. “It’s the same as taking care of your body.”
This year’s edition of the annual art contest saw artists submit work centered around the theme of hope, and the winning original artwork will be exhibited at Commack’s Behavioral Health Center.
“These pieces are beautiful expressions of what kids have to say about these topics, and we use them to inspire others,” said Dr. Vera Feuer, Northwell’s vice chancellor for school mental health.
The year-long Cohen Strong Mental Health Advocacy Program provides training for students in grades 10-12 and their school advisors in teen mental health first aid, advocacy, research and leadership skills.
Talia Eliajo, 15, a senior at Great Neck North High School, and her group described their experience visiting a psychology class at her school to discuss body image and eating disorders.
“We talked to them about different and better ways to communicate with their peers and about certain jokes that they think are funny but actually aren’t,” Eliajo said.
Hauppauge High School sophomore Jacob Walmetz, 16, and his group chose to conduct “wellness workshops” for fifth-graders at three elementary schools in the district.
“It’s been a lot of fun interacting with them and working with them, and I felt like they weren’t hearing much about mental health,” Walmetz said. “We wanted to really reach out to elementary school kids and make sure they had resources.”
Students from the program also traveled to Washington, D.C., and Albany to meet with lawmakers about mental health bills.
“They’ll sit in a congressional office and say, ‘I have anxiety, and this is what’s helped me, and here’s why it’s important,'” said Feuer, who worked as a child psychiatrist for 15 years. “That openness is really surprising in a way, and you don’t see that with adults.”
Hannah Ott, 18, a senior at Oceanside High School, went to Washington last year and to Albany this year.
“It really opened my eyes to how big an impact mental health can have on adolescents,” Ott said. “I see it in myself, but I don’t necessarily see it in other people, but being part of this program has made me see it in a whole different light.”
