It’s time we talk about it

In the past, The Community Photobooth raised $800 to buy lunches for first responders and support victims of COVID-19 and wildfires and $1,700 to address the climate crisis. This year, it aims to fundraise $10,000 to help relaunch the Ending the Silence program of the National Alliance for Mental Illness in San Mateo County to honor Suicide Prevention Awareness Month this September.

NAMI’s Ending the Silence program works to end the stigma around mental health and educate students about warning signs and how to respond when they struggle or know someone struggling with mental health.

“What’s really important in mental health and working with youth groups in schools is to ensure that resources are not just there once a year and to make sure that we spark conversations around mental health within every school environment,” Rosario said.

According to NAMI, suicide is the second leading cause of death among people between the ages of 10 and 14 and the third leading cause of death among people between the ages of 15 and 24 in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists suicide as responsible for nearly 46,000 deaths in 2020, which is 30% higher than in 2000. Locally, San Mateo County Health found that the county has the highest rate per 100,000 youth for self-injury hospitalizations compared to neighboring counties and a higher rate than the state average.

As society begins moving out of the pandemic and students return to in-person school, self-harm and suicide rates have steadily increased. To raise awareness about this issue, The Community Photobooth expanded its use of cameras and filmed a documentary as part of its fundraiser. The video features interviews with two individuals — Andrea Kitahata and Terry Delaney — who have experienced and witnessed the toll mental health can have on themselves and those close to them.

Kitahata provided an athlete’s perspective as a soccer player at Stanford University. Constantly being in a competitive environment and how the media promotes sports have placed mental pressure on athletes always to smile and love what they do.

“College soccer and professional sports have put a lot of pressure on these kids to perform and crank out results,” Kitahata said in the documentary. “It’s sad to see these players go from loving the sport from such a young age to putting so much pressure on themselves that they feel like they need to quit or that they can’t do the sport anymore.”

The other major focus of the documentary was on mental health struggles in the LGBTQ community. Delaney, a student at Nueva School, battled mental health that emerged during the pandemic and faced various difficult environments while seeking treatment. They offer a different angle on mental health as an advocate for transgender and queer rights.

“A lot of mental health issues will stem from or be worsened by parental conflicts if parents aren’t accepting or if they just show that in the wrong way,” Delaney said in the documentary. “It means you can’t tell them how you’re doing because you don’t know that they’re not going to brush it off the same way they brushed off your identity.”

The Community Photobooth hopes that not only youth but also parents and teachers can understand the importance of mental health in modern times. Given the difficulty with implementing rigid rules and designing class curriculums around mental health, progress can start by educating the youth to be advocates for themselves and their peers, to be “vigilant supporters of their peers who may be going through something themselves because often, the best connection that a kid might have is their friend,” Rosario said.

And that first step to supporting your community might be just asking a seemingly easy question.

“When you ask ‘How are you?’ it shouldn’t just be an ‘Oh, I’m good’ answer, and I think a lot of the time we brush off the questions like that, and you’re like ‘I’m fine’ when maybe you’re not,” Kitahata said.

If you are having thoughts of suicide or experiencing emotional distress, call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.

Grace Wu is a senior at Carlmont High School in Belmont. Student News appears in the weekend edition. You can email Student News at news@smdailyjournal.com.