The information in this blog post comes from Pima County's Health Department newsroom.
The Pima County Health Department has launched a new initiative to address the mental health impacts of COVID-19 on K-12 students and faculty. The initiative is being called "Not Alone" in recognition of its central message to young people struggling with their mental health: they are not alone. The Library's Health Action Team provided a focus group to give feedback to the project designers as they were developing the program.
Not Alone can provide free individual counseling sessions through COPE Community Services, Inc. Recipients may also attend skill-building groups. Additionally, Not Alone is partnering with Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundation, which provides peer-to-peer support through its Be There certificate program.
"Recent data being released about youth mental health is alarming," said project director Matthew Schmidgall. "Suicide remains the third leading cause of death for adolescents, and one-in-three high school students recently reported that their mental health was not good. The Not Alone campaign was designed with these concerns in mind and aims to connect young people to the resources they need."
More information about Not Alone, including the link to sign up for services, can be found at https://pimahelpline.org/notalone/
