Non-Profit Teaching Teens 'What They Need To Know' About Mental Health

HOPKINTON (CBS) - When it comes to mental health, many teens don't know what it is or what to do. A new group wants to help by bringing the struggle to light and into the classroom.

Abbie Rosenberg is a former therapist who started the "Mental Health Collaborative," a non-profit in Hopkinton that uses an evidence-based curriculum to teach about mental health in school.

"I realized that mental health literacy and that foundation is really, what I think, the missing piece in our country. We really do such a good job at teaching all kinds of literacy, but not so much mental health," Rosenberg told WBZ-TV.

Rosenberg says her program "teaches students what they need to know, in terms of how to recognize when they need help, what is stigma and how to decrease it, how to promote their best mental health."

"These kids were just starving for conversation about mental health," said Gabrielle Giordano, one of the educators working for the MHC.

She's helped Rosenberg bring it to local schools, including Hopkinton, where the program was piloted.

"For a lot of these kids, they're suffering and they are seeing things that, either in themselves, or in other people, that they can't put a name to, so this helps them put a name to it." Giordano told WBZ-TV.

I asked Giordano why is this something we have never done before as a society - teach our kids about mental health, the way we teach math or science?

"It's amazing to me. I wish my kids had this. I wish I had this. It seems so simple and it seems like why aren't we doing this? and when you teach this to kids, knowledge is just everything, right," she said.

They go over everything from good mental health and understanding the different illnesses and treatments to stigma and the language around mental health.

It's not therapy or counseling, but empowering the student, with knowledge and awareness about some of life's toughest and often least talked about challenges.

"Everyone was thrilled with it. We had many students come to the teachers and say how important this was for them and how it changed their lives and how much more open they feel to talk to parents," Rosenberg said.

The educators can go into the school and teach, or they can instruct the teachers on the curriculum. They have done both in person and virtual.

For more information, visit mentalhealthcollaborative.org