Benson Mental Health Support

Every few weeks our BHS Student Support Specialists (counselors, social workers, school psychologists, & therapists) include mental health awareness in this newsletter format.

• BHS archived mental health topics (newsletters) are here.
• Ways to be a trusted and safe adult + resources for youth: Supporting young minds | Mental Health America (mhanational.org)

Despite overwhelming need, nearly 30 million people across the U.S. don’t have access to affordable, comprehensive mental health and substance use treatment. The stark truth is:

• Around 1 in 5 adults experienced any mental illness in the past year.
• 1 in 20 adults experienced serious mental illness in the past year.
• 1 in 5 youth have a mental health condition, with anxiety being the most common condition.
• Globally, about 35% of mental illness emerges by age 14, with nearly 63% appearing by age 25.
• In 2023, 20% of high school students in the U.S. considered suicide.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, an annual observance founded by Mental Health America in 1949 to highlight the importance of mental wellbeing, educate the public, reduce stigma and promote support for those affected by mental health conditions. Each year, individuals and organizations come together to raise awareness and advocate for better mental health care and resources.

There are many ways you can help promote more conversation around supporting individuals impacted by mental health - see link below.

Check out these resources to make your voice heard:

• Send a message to Congress in support of key mental health and substance use care programs.
• Sign up for our advocacy alerts to stay informed of new advocacy opportunities.
• Download our Advocacy Handbook for tools and tips.
• Sign up for Capitol Connector, our weekly federal policy newsletter

Source: https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/mental-health-awareness-month/

Students for Mental Health Club - our 3rd year of participation!

Please join us for the NAMIWalks event on May 16. Link to donate to the Benson Team and/or register and join us! Our goal is $250 raised, and we have already raised $100! https://www.namiwalks.org/team/82217

Walk Day Details

Join us on Saturday, May 16th

Location: Peninsula Park, 700 N Rosa Parks Way, Portland OR
Route Length: 1/2 mile loop
Registration & Resource Fair Opens: 11:00 AM
Opening Ceremony: 1:00 PM
Walk Begins: 1:15 PM
Event Ends: 2:00 PM

Benson's Students for Mental Health Club partnered with Project Red, PPS Substance Use Prevention & Support, and the Royal Rose Foundation to educate interested people in the Health Occupations wing and distribute naloxone or Narcan for overdose reversal. Almost 100 people went through the conversation and left with free doses of Narcan.

We are hoping this will be available at Tech Shows to come as well!

Instagram for Mental Health club

Join us for a night of action, adventure, and legendary experiences! Whether you join us dressed as a fabulous hero or a stunning villain, this Queer Prom will be one for the books. This is your night to be seen and celebrated.

Date: Friday May 15th, 6:00 - 10:00 PM

Location: AVENUE, 631 NE Grand Ave, Portland, OR 97232

What: Dancing • Photo Ops • Chosen Family Vibes

Who Can Attend: This event is for high school students only (grades 9–12).

You must bring your school ID and be ready to show it when you arrive. If you don’t have it, you will NOT be allowed in. This rule is in place to help keep everyone safe.

This event is for Queer, Trans, and Questioning youth. Allies (supportive friends) are welcome too, but only if they’re invited by someone who is Queer, Trans, or Questioning—whether that’s a friend or a date. All relationships are welcome here, even if they look “straight.” Biphobia is not okay and will not be tolerated.

Come as you are, come as someone new — just don’t miss this Marvelous Night!

This is a safe, welcoming space where we celebrate YOU, the Queer and Trans youth of the Portland area. Let’s make it fun, respectful, and full of love for everyone who walks through the door.

Registration: https://form.jotform.com/260746577662166

We are going to begin highlighting glimpses from the Healing Story Alliance in upcoming newsletters. Their work might offer insight for those dealing with the pain and tragedy of turbulent current events in the personal, social, and global realms. Examples:

• Healing Treasures: Stories intended to precipitate conversation, and guide teaching and healing with participants.
• Stories We Live: Personal stories and methods for gathering and applying life experiences as healing references.
• Stories for Children in Crisis: Compiled by Laura Simms, includes stories, articles, and links, drawn from years of research and professional work with children.
• Stories for Peace: storytelling in pursuit of peace and understanding.
• Healing the Earth: featuring stories contributed by storytellers working in environmental settings or on educational projects with an environmental theme.

Please find a story pictured below as an example. Website.

A Koryak Story from Kamchatka Peninsula, Retold by Kira Van Deusen. In Kichiga old woman Kytna lived with her old man. They had a daughter named Ralinavut, a grown-up daughter. Not far from their village lived a wolf pack, twenty-eight wolves.

One time Ralinavut went for a walk and got lost, she did not return home.

They looked for her everywhere, in all the surrounding settlements, but no one had seen her. Then they decided that she must have lost her way, frozen to death and been covered with snow. It occurred to no one that on the same day Ralinavut got lost, the wolf pack had gone away from that place. And no one guessed that the wolf pack had taken her away as one of them.

But her mother did not believe that her daughter had died and kept waiting for her to return. Three years went by. Ralinavut did not come back.

Then Kytna took up her shaman’s drum. She played and sang all night and in the morning she said to her husband:

“Our daughter is alive. She is in a wolf pack, far away in the north. The place is called Talkap. Three years ago this wolf pack was living in our area, twenty-eight wolves there were. Those are the ones who took our daughter away.”

Finish the story here: https://healingstoryalliance.org/how-old-woman-kytna-brought-her-daughter-home/

April: Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Autism Acceptance Month, Marijuana Awareness Month, Project Semicolon, Arab American Heritage Month; Alcohol Awareness Month

May: Mental Health Awareness Month, Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Jewish American Heritage Month, National Foster Care Month, National Day for Awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (May 5), Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) – (May 6), International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (May 17), World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development (May 21), Vesak (May 23), Pansexual and Panromantic Awareness Day (May 24), Trail of Tears Commemoration Day (May 28)

Sources, Diversity Resources - PPS Resource on heritage/history months

May 5 is National Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls Awareness Day, a time when the Indigenous community and our allies wear red and gather to remember, honor, and give voice to women whose stories have not been heard. Congress passed a resolution creating the designation to honor Hanna Harris, Northern Cheyenne, who went missing and was found murdered on the Cheyenne Reservation in July 2013.

For decades, Native American and Alaska Native communities have struggled with high rates of assault, abduction, and murder of tribal members. Community advocates describe the crisis as a legacy of generations of government policies of forced removal, land seizures and violence inflicted on Native peoples.

• A 2016 study by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) found that more than four in five American Indian and Alaska Native women (84.3 percent) have experienced violence in their lifetime, including 56.1 percent who have experienced sexual violence.
• In the year leading up to the study, 39.8 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native women had experienced violence, including 14.4 percent who had experienced sexual violence.
• Overall, more than 1.5 million American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence in their lifetime.

You will likely see students and staff around Benson in RED and/or with red handprints across their mouths in solidarity. You are welcome to participate, too!

Source: https://www.bia.gov/service/mmu/missing-and-murdered-indigenous-people-crisis

As is always the case, it is OK to not be OK: here are resources that can help.

• 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, 24/7, free and confidential support - call or text

• Local Resources: Multnomah County Crisis Line - 503-988-4888 including mobile outreach (interpretation available; open 24/7); Lines for Life General Line: Call 800-273-8255; Oregon Youth Line: Text Teen to Teen 839863 - Texting trained teen mental health responders

Benson Wellness Resources - Benson Wellness Center with mental health supports, BHS Counseling Center with school counselors (by alphabetical order)

PPS Youth Resources in Trivory; Benson Community Resources

FREE Naloxone for overdose prevention - Opioid Certification | END OVERDOSE

PPS Prevention Strategies; The New Drug Talk Oregon | The New Drug Talk

PPS Healthy Choices Bulletin - curated list of substance use resources and also highlights student and family accessible services and activities.

• April edition, Substance Abuse Prevention Resources; link to archived Healthy Choices Bulletins. Substance Use/Community Resources

Image above HERE

Want to learn more about: Vocational Rehabilitation, Portland Community College, Disability Rights Oregon, Autism Society, Albertina Kerr, PPS Community Transition Program, and so much more!

• Here is a document for all organizations with links - GREAT resource!
• Local organizations: Local Disability Organizations and Resources
• You can also contact our Youth Transition Specialist: Veronica Bastillos, Youth Transition Program (YTP), Transition Specialist - Benson & Meek High School, 971-895-1707; vebustillos@pps.net