KINGSTON — The subject of mental illness is somewhat taboo.
But when it comes to recognizing the early warning signs and relaying those from a child’s classroom to their home, it is a complication that cannot go unspoken, said Donna Pollard a trainer with the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Friday morning, KJH parents and staff heard firsthand from mental health providers and clients about the early signs of mental illness, how it can be treated and how it is best relayed to parents. They utilized a program presented by NAMI representatives entitled “Parents and Teachers are Allies: Recognizing Early-Onset Mental Illness in Children and Adolescents.”
“I’m really proud of the staff,” KJH principal Susan Wistrand said. “Because they had to rearrange some things to make this happen … it was no problem.”
The KJH staff, the North Kitsap Education Foundation, and the Kvistad family — whose son Zachary, a former student at KJH, was diagnosed with severe mental illness at the age of 11 — teamed up to make the program a reality.
When Zachary took his life last May, the Kvistads opened a memorial fund at Kitsap Bank. Those funds, which were donated by the community, were used to help bring two volunteer NAMI trainers from Southern California to Kingston.
An important fact to keep in mind on the subject of mental illness is it’s not related to the person’s character, intelligence or parents, Pollard said. It is a medical condition.
Sometimes that gets overlooked in a subject that is wrapped in stigma. In order for progress to be made, that stigma must first be unravelled, Pollard said.
“We only fear what we don’t understand, and this was the first step toward bringing understanding to the table for all parties involved,” Zachary’s father, Eric Kvistad said of the event.
Though many mental illnesses are treatable, they cannot be conquered by willpower alone. Early identification and treatment is essential to reducing the effects of the illness, according to NAMI.
“Mentally ill children find it difficult to concentrate therefore their performance (at school) spirals,” Kvistad said. “The more they fail the more entrenched they become in their illness.”
The more frustrated a child becomes, the more likely he or she is to become unstable and, ultimately, unsafe.
In 2006, the school communities of North Kitsap High and Kingston Junior High were rocked by tragedies involving student suicides, as ruled by the Kitsap County Coroner’s Office.
Both schools have since gathered their feet underneath them and are taking proactive steps forward.
“What we wanted is for teachers to be better prepared to recognize signs of mental illness so that they can alert the parents as well as the support staff of a potential problem,” Kvistad said. “It was a huge step and well received by the staff.”
One teacher even felt the NAMI training session, which was delivered by the NAMI trainers as well as local residents who have expertise in dealing with mental illness, should be mandatory for all schools, Kvistad said.
For more information on the different kinds of mental illness as well as resources for support and awareness visit NAMI’s Web site at www.nami.org.
