Harrisonburg City Public Schools to host teen suicide prevention program Thursday

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - September is suicide prevention awareness month.

Harrisonburg City Schools is educating students on more than just math and reading.

“We have made efforts for several years now to focus on suicide prevention in the fall and September and to provide that mental health awareness and support to our teens,” Chloe Jerlinski, the student support coordinator for Harrisonburg City Public Schools said.

Throughout the week Harrisonburg City Schools are providing education and resources to students in each grade level about mental health and suicide awareness.

“By doing activities in our elementary schools to build awareness of emotions and managing emotions and then also advisory lessons at the secondary level to talk about mental health,” Jerlinski said.

For the older students, HCPS is doing things a little differently.

“This is unique this year where we’re inviting teens and their parents to come together and listen in one room and hear about signs and symptoms of teen depression and how we can work together with families to help support teenagers who are dealing with mental health issues,” Jerlinski said.

Thursday night the More Than Sad presentation by the American Foundation for Suicide will be given.

“Thursday night we will have some of our mental health counselors there and available also we will have other staff from our student support department who will be there as a resource to answer questions or talk with families if they have specific and individual concerns,” Jerlinski said.

The event will be from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Harrisonburg High School and it will be presented in Spanish at Thomas Harrison Middle School.

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