Can a place to decompress at high school really help prevent suicides?

SARATOGA SPRINGS – Westlake High School is preventing suicides by providing a safe space for students to get mental health help through its wellness center, a new study shows.

The BYU research study found students, parents and school staff all agree the wellness center is reducing depression and anxiety in students and improving the mental health of those who attend.

Westlake High School implemented the wellness center in March of 2020 after multiple students died by suicide that year and some students were killed in a traumatic car accident.

"There was an intense need to do something here at the school," assistant principal Deon Leavy said.

Leavy said since the center's opening, multiple suicides have been prevented and many students have found help and healing at the center.

The impetus

Lehi High School assistant principal Jennifer Bitton used to work at Westlake and was the main organizer of the wellness center. She had already been researching wellness centers in schools and wanted to implement one at Westlake.

She was visiting a wellness center in St. George when a student died by suicide. Five days later, another student died. Bitton decided she needed to fast-track the wellness center in hopes of preventing future suicides.

"A wellness center won't prevent all of them, but if we could save even just one or two students, that would be worth it," she said.

Westlake ended up partnering with the IM Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to helping the rising generation live balanced lives. The foundation has an initiative to put wellness centers in schools around the country, and Bitton said Westlake High decided to partner with the IM Foundation and use its model of wellness centers.

Bitton and other administrators were flying back from visiting a few more wellness centers in Palo Alto, California, when another student died by suicide. The next day, Westlake opened the wellness center.

In just those first four days, 400 students visited the wellness center. However, because the COVID-19 pandemic caused schools to close, the wellness center was only open for four days. That following fall, Westlake High reopened the wellness center when school started up for the new year.

"The real purpose, and why I wanted to implement it, is we expect kids to manage emotions but we don't give them the time and the space nor do we teach them how to do it," Bitton said.

The wellness center provides that space for students to take a break, talk to someone if they need to, and learn coping skills for depression and anxiety. There are fidget devices, weighted blankets, nature sounds and scenes playing, coloring books, couches and more at the wellness center.

Although the wellness center doesn't offer therapy, there is a staff member there for kids to talk to who can help the student connect with a counselor or social worker if needed.

Students take an entrance survey when they enter the wellness center and report what emotions they are feeling and how intense those emotions are. The student gives the staff member his or her phone and takes a 10-minute timer with them while they are in the room.

After the 10 minutes are up, students will talk to the staff member and let them know if they need an additional 10 minutes, or if they need to go to a counselor for further help. Students take an exit survey when they leave, which asks the same questions to gauge whether their time in the wellness center helped them process their emotions and feel better.

The research

BYU professor Paul Caldarella reached out to Westlake during 2020 about potential research opportunities. He found out about the wellness program and met Bitton and knew he wanted to evaluate how the wellness center was impacting students.

Caldarella conducted the research with Malka Moya, a BYU psychology graduate student and lead author of the study. Data was collected through a Qualtrics survey that asked about perceptions of how the wellness center was impacting students.

Out of the 752 students, 124 parents and 69 school staff who completed the survey, most indicated positive perceptions of the center. Survey responses implied the majority of respondents believed the center "contributed to students' academic success, elevation of mood, confidence and coping skills," the study said.

The results also suggested attendance at the wellness center was associated with a decrease in student stress and anxiety.

"The students used it for stress relief — a place to go to get nourished physically and emotionally and make connections with other students and with the counselor there," Caldarella said. He said a big factor in the center's success was the counselor at the wellness center because she built relationships with and among the kids.

Prior to the wellness center's opening, Bitton said if someone went to the counseling center at the school, there were often too many students needing help and not enough resources to help them all.

"The wellness center relieved that. It's a triage for counselors," she said.

Some students are just having a bad day and need a break, so they can come and take 20 minutes to recharge and prepare to go back to class. Other times there are bigger issues occurring, and the center helped students identify what was going on and get the students to the proper place and resources, Bitton said.

Caldarella said during a meeting with school psychologists and counselors, everyone was talking about how overwhelmed they are with the caseload.

"There aren't enough people with licenses to see all the kids that could benefit from counseling," Caldarella said.

The wellness center gives kids a place they can go at any time of the day to deescalate, recharge and go back to the classroom. Caldarella thinks it's important for all schools to have a wellness center as it "fills a niche" and gives kids an area to rejuvenate and deal with the pressures placed on them.

The research was based on when Westlake High's wellness center was funded through its partnership with the IM Foundation and had a licensed wellness specialist in the room. The school is no longer partnered with the foundation, the center is funded through school funds and there is a different wellness coordinator working in the room.

The impact

Bitton said the data shows that "kids approve of it, they like (the wellness center)." Looking at the daily data the school collects from the entrance and exit surveys, Bitton said students show improvement in mood and emotions when they attend the center.

Although the research survey didn't ask about suicide ideation because the researchers felt it was too sensitive of a subject, the rate of suicide at Westlake has decreased since the wellness center's implementation, she said.

Bitton said she knows of at least five students who had planned to take their life, but going to the wellness center and talking to someone helped prevent that.

"If he didn't have a place to go, I don't know what would have happened," Bitton said about one such student.

The wellness center helps students feel more comfortable about processing their emotions and less stigmatized to take care of themselves, Moya said.

She referenced research studies that show kids who have at least one trusted adult at their school are less likely to die by suicide. She believes that the counselor in the wellness center was probably that one trusted adult for many of the students who frequented the center.

Westlake High used to have "Wellness Wednesdays" where the wellness center would conduct lessons on various aspects of wellness such as relationships, food and nutrition, coping skills and more.

The school introduced "Hammer Time" this year where students meet in a homeroom four days a week for half an hour. Now, the school has Wellness Mondays where teachers share lessons during Hammer Time from the counseling center.

Leavy said Hammer Time's main focus is to build student connections with each other and with the teachers.

Leavy said part of increasing wellness in students is helping them know anyone can come to the center because it is a safe, normal place that the whole school contributes to. The health classes will bring students to the center when learning about mental health, the art department creates posters for the center and Leavy plans on working with the athletics coaches to encourage athletes to also spend time decompressing in the center.

"This is a space for everyone — for kids who are marginalized and for kids who may be marginalized but don't want people to know it," Leavy said.

Moya said although all across the board the wellness center was perceived to be beneficial, one of the most interesting findings was students of color used and benefited from the wellness center more than students who were white. A high portion of LGBTQ students also visited the wellness center often.

The center is meant to be a place to feel safe, but Leavy said the center isn't meant to enable escaping behaviors. "We want to empower students to center themselves, identify what they are feeling and know they can get out of it, too," she said.

The goal is to help students feel better so they can go back to class and keep learning. The center is just a resource to help them successfully get their education while also taking care of themselves and empowering them to be in control of their lives, Leavy said.

Increased pressures

Being a high schooler today is more difficult than ever before, Bitton said.

This is Bitton's 29th year working in education, and she has seen an evolution of the things that cause problems for students. With easy access to news, the influence of social media and cyberbullying with cellphones, Bitton said there are more pressures than ever and expecting students to function just like kids did 20 years ago is not feasible or reasonable.

"We have to change. A lot of times we think kids will adapt, but if no one teaches them how to do it and how to cope with big things, then we have kids taking their lives. The more education we can provide the better off they will be," Bitton said.

Wellness centers can provide the necessary education on dealing with emotional and mental stressors, she said.

Leavy agreed. As a former school psychologist, Leavy has seen how in recent years, schools have focused so intensely on college, career readiness and grades that many students disregard their emotional and mental well-being.

The stress of being a kid and trying to get into college — then adding a pandemic, isolation, fear, and global crises on top of all of that — makes kids carry a much larger load than they can handle, Leavy said.

"If we can help them feel better, they will learn better and be better. That's why it's important now more than ever," Leavy said.

One of Leavy's responsibilities as assistant principal is to oversee student wellness. She has been focusing on adding social and emotional wellness initiatives to the school to foster connection and wellness in students in all aspects.

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