Helping Kids in Crisis | Andrea
Fox Point
I’m walking home from Hasbro because I work at a school and I had to take a student who was really struggling with mental health to get checked in. I’m just walking home getting myself centered.
I’m thinking also about how we claim we privilege children, and yet, when you look at our budgets, how we spend our money, the decisions we make, we’re leaving them behind. And the people who are trying to help children also don’t have the resources they need. It’s hard because we see the big picture all the time. But only when it hits people you love or your family or children you’re trying to care for… it’s just ridiculous.
We’ve learned how the system works. I mean, this is awful, but when a child is in crisis, if you call an ambulance and have an ambulance take them rather than taking them yourself, they’re more likely to get seen faster and taken more seriously. We also know how to do documentation and do the things we need that make it work better, but it also means that people who are also in crisis but don’t necessarily… if English isn’t their first language, and they don’t know how to work the system, then they can be kind of left behind. And I also think there aren’t enough beds. There aren’t enough therapists. And since COVID, mental health has gotten worse for kids. And we’re dealing with all this stuff right now.
I work at a school and I’m the principal. It’s a small private school on the East Side, but like a really special place. So we have a social worker, and we have others. But partly, I’ve learned over time that if the head of the school takes them to the hospital, people respect the title. Even if I haven’t earned it, by the way. And I’m willing for these kinds of things, like for people who are vulnerable, to throw it around. It’s very sad and very hard, so I should be doing the harder stuff. I mean, I love kids, so.
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