GREENWOOD — Students and staff at Greenwood Community High School believe it's important for people to understand that it's okay to not be okay. Resources are available to students to talk about mental health.
"We just want to end that stigma of people being ashamed of it or things like that," said Annie Chrisman, President of Bring Change to Mind at GHS.
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11th grader Annie Chrisman meets bi-weekly with classmates to find ways to help reduce mental stress.
Whether it's yoga, a suicide prevention walk, or highlight mental health week, GHS is working to make students comfortable. Chrisman said it's making a difference.
"Obviously, we still have a lot more work to do, but it's just the little things like people are talking about how their day went or like things that like negative things that have happened and just talking about it really helps," said Chrisman.
Greenwood Education Foundation is taking it a step further by using donations to pay for free therapy for students K-12. That includes music therapy and DBT, a type of cognitive behavioral therapy.
"We work on interpersonal, like relationship skills. We work on emotional regulation, really, the distress tolerance. So, when we're in those crisis-type moments, we're able to use the skills they've learned," said Stephanie Kindred, therapist for Generations Counseling. "We take insurance, but if like they don't have insurance, we have interns that can see clients for $35."
GHS Student Services Advisor Kara Christian-Moss encourages starting these conversations early.
"I'm seeing just a larger need for extra mental health resources and extra mental health help, especially with this population where it's a very, like transitional age," she said.
The school counselor, Ben Sutton, wants students to come talk, whether that's for academics, relationships or other emotional troubles.
"A lot of students have preconceived ideas about counseling and stuff like that, and so we're trying to break down some of those barriers, encourage them to come see us," said Sutton.
"The Greenwood Education Foundation had gotten word from a lot of our staff after COVID, when we resumed classes, that we were seeing a shift in our students. We were seeing a lot of students come to school with anxiety, a lot of emotions that they didn't know how to regulate. When they said that they needed mental health resources, we decided what better way than to provide some free therapy services for students in grades K-12," said Executive Director of the Greenwood Education Foundation, Tiffany Woods.
Woods said the foundation wants to continue to provide free services, but the changes in state and federal funding present challenges.
"As we look for next year, we would love that support from businesses, individuals, families, any kind of community support that would like to come through and support this initiative. They can go directly to the Greenwood Education Foundation's website and make a donation under the GEF CARES tab," said Woods.
"You're nobody is somebody else's everything, and I really like that because it tells me that somebody that I don't know anything about, has a lot of things going on and they mean the world to somebody else, so you should always treat everybody with kindness," said Chrisman.
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Rachael Wilkerson is the In Your Community reporter for South Side Indy/Johnson County. She joined WRTV in September 2021. She is an Emmy award-winning reporter and a 10-time Emmy nominee. In 2024, she was nominated by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Great Lakes Chapter for her Daily News reporting. Rachael believes everyone has a story to tell, and she’s here to make a difference in her communities. Share your story ideas and important issues with Rachael by emailing her at rachael.wilkerson@wrtv.com.
