Mental Health Summit opens dialogue

by Christine Beauchaine

Recently the Uxbridge Public School exhibit and vote for their favorites comments on how hard it is to pick favorites. They are all ribbon worthy!”

Commented Cristi Collari, curator for the exhibit and Director of Community Outreach for Open Sky. “I keep thinking after 10 years people might run out of ideas, but the ingenuity and creativity in this community seems limitless!”

For more information about the contest visit openskycs.org/ news-events or to see photos of the winning art palettes, visit Facebook.com/ ValleyCAST. This event is sponsored by ValleyCAST, Jerry’s Artarama, and Open Sky Community Services.

To learn more about Valley CAST and / or Open Sky Community Services, visit openskycs.org.

Winning Palettes pictured at left:

3. Ava Pelletier ValleyCAST’s mission is to foster a creative and engaged community in the Historic Blackstone Valley that is inclusive and supportive of all people with and without disabilities. ValleyCAST is the arts and culture arm of Open Sky Community Services.

District hosted a mental health summit at Blissful Meadows Golf Club. Teachers, parents, public safety personnel, librarians, adjustment counselors, local clergy and many others gathered to discuss mental health issues.

Uxbridge Superintendent of Schools, Michael Baldassarre, Ed.D, shared some sobering statistics. 44% of teens reported feeling persistently sad nationally. The average wait time for a therapy appointment in Massachusetts is six months. Last year only 30% of patients seen at Boston Children’s Hospital were there for issues which did not involve mental health. On any given day, 250 kids are in the ER because of mental health issues.

Baldassarre said schools know how to help kids with physical challenges but struggled when finding mental health solutions. “If kids come up on crutches, we open the door,” he said. “We don’t know what to do about mental health issues.”

Student leaders at UHS just began a mental health club in November of 2022. The club is called Mending Spartan Minds. The students spoke briefly at the beginning of the summit and said their number one goal was that students would feel comfortable in reaching out for help. They hope to create a “kind, supportive, non-judgemental environment” at the high school.

It should be noted that mental health issues are not limited to high school students. Ambulances have been called to the Taft Elementary School three times this school year for mental health issues involving students. Taft houses students from pre-k through third grade.

State Representative Michael Soter spoke about people struggling with mental health issues saying they were often “in a dark and dangerous place with no resources.” He added that it was “time for leaders to make bold action.”

The bulk of the summit consisted of a panel discussion. The panel was composed of key mental health stakeholders including the Uxbridge Chief of Police, Marc Montminy and Dr. Sadfar Medina, a pediatrician at Tri-River Family Health Center. Other panelists included the local director of the Department of Children and Families, representatives of the Family Continuity program in Whitinsville, a representative from the newly launched Mass Behavioral Helpline, a clinical consultant and Licensed Mental Health Counselor, a representative from Riverside Community Care and the Executive Director of the Whitin Community Center in Whitinsville. There was a lot of discussion between panelists and audience members, all of whom had a vested interest in children’s mental health issues. Topics ranged from pressure and perfectionism, nutrition and sleep, how to support parents and families, behavior as language, the challenges posed by our electronic devices, substance abuse, suicide and how best to meet people

where they are.

Access to mental health care is challenging for a variety of reasons including a shortage of counselors and other resources as well as overwhelming schedules for the kids themselves. But, Baldassarre said, “counseling should be as easy as accessing a drinking fountain.”

The summit highlighted how prevalent mental health issues are for children and teens. Chief of Police Montminy estimates that the police spend 1/3 of their time on mental health issues and Dr. Medina noted that he spends up to 70% of his day dealing with mental health.

The goal of the summit was to bring school and community leaders together to discuss mental health issues, to form new connections and to brainstorm solutions to what Representative Soter called “the true pandemic”.

Baldassarre noted that this summit was a way to “communicate, collaborate and coordinate” and stated that it was time to “do something new, different and connected.”