Teens who need emotional
support might not feel all that comfortable talking to adults about their
problems. With depression and other mental health issues at the forefront of
growing up – coupled with fitting into an academic environment – the toxic combination
of feeling alone and like an outcast, a
teenager can make some dangerous life decisions.
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| "Help, I'm addicted to my cell phone!" |
I experienced a short bout of
“depression” when I was 13 – but I now know that it wasn’t really depression. It
was a period of time where I just didn’t feel like I fit in with my peers. Had cell phones existed and were popular back
in the early 1990s, I would have known not
to tell my counselor at Bildersee Junior High School that I had thoughts of
ending my life – because I could have texted someone for support.
Text someone for support?
Talking to a trusted
counselor, psychologist or therapist recently went out the window when Chiara
de Blasio and the Health Department’s First Deputy Commissioner Oxiris Barbot
helped launch a pilot program called “NYC
Teen Text,” which kick started at about a dozen city schools.
At the selected schools, the program
allows teens to get help from an anonymous professional source by using their
mobile phones Monday through Friday from 2:30 to 9 p.m. and on the weekends
from 1 to 9 p.m. What if you’re a teen who’s up late at night – at home – and
you desperately need to talk someone? Guess you’re plumb out of luck!
Forget about confiding in
your parents, with whom you live – you know, the ones who are raising you? I
think the first thing we need to do is encourage teens to speak to adults –
maybe even educators –who can guide them in the right direction. For those who
don’t want to talk to their parents or live with grandparents, aunts and
uncles, there has to be someone who KNOWS these teens in real life and THAT’S
who should be the go-to guidance.
Chiara boasted the program in
March through the New York City Health Department, saying trained crisis
counselors with access to mental health services will provide ongoing support
to those who need it. How receptive will teens be? The only way this program
will be proactive is if the recipient of the desperate text can advise the teen
to talk to a REAL LIFE person who will feel out the severity of a teens’
“crisis.”
By the way - cheers to Chiara!! Your dad just lifted the cell phone ban from public schools and THIS
is one hell of a way to facilitate and exercise your right to carry a phone
with you at all times.
Another thank you to the
Health Department, which claims teens feel a lot more comfortable texting their
woes with their fingers instead of using their voice to express themselves to
someone face-to-face. I guess this is the reality we want our teens to accept.
Let’s get real!! A lot of
teenagers you see on the streets, trains and buses are CONSTANTLY on their
phones. This is the age of technology – where kids cling to their devices like
infants sucking on a pacifier. Youngsters are also being robbed, attacked and
harassed for their phones…So you’re going to encourage them to whip their gadgets out in school and remain
attached to the electronic while they’re telling a stranger their deepest,
darkest secrets?
By the way, what teen is
willing to stay in school until 9 at night so they can hash out their problems
to someone they’ve never met and probably never will?
NYC Teen Text is a nice idea
– in theory. But the person on the other side – skilled or licensed – doesn’t even
know if the plea for help is real or just a joke. Our teens are distracted
enough with Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat… forgive me if I’m out of
the loop on the dozens of other networking sites – I have a tendency to live in
the real world and get help from REAL people who can see my reaction to their advice.
These days, most people let
their fingers do the talking about everything – but when it comes to this pilot
program, they can talk to the hand!
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