The MCIULearns Podcast
The MCIU Learns podcast is where education leaders, innovators, and experts share insights and best practices to elevate learning and empower schools. Each episode features thought-provoking conversations with thought leaders, presenters, and program directors from Montgomery County Intermediate Unit (MCIU) and beyond. Whether we’re discussing cutting-edge programs, professional development strategies, or the latest trends in education, our goal is to inspire and build capacity in educators, administrators, and all those passionate about improving student outcomes.
The MCIULearns Podcast
A Journey of Healing: Building Communities to Support Youth Mental Wellness and Suicide Prevention
What does it take to build a supportive community that genuinely prioritizes mental wellness and suicide prevention among its youth? Join us as Todd and Nancy Solomon share the heartbreaking story of losing their son, Craig, to suicide and their mission to prevent other families from experiencing the same tragedy.
Listen as we highlight how student-led initiatives, like the Aevidum program, bring authenticity and passion to mental health discussions. Discover how the Project AWARE PA Find Help platform improves access to mental health resources, making it easier for school-based practitioners to connect students with the support they need.
Learn more about Project Aware at https://mciu.org/office-of-student-services/project-aware/.
To learn more about the Aevidum clubs, please visit https://aevidum.org/.
Project AWARE PA Find Help features a collaboration between the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, the Carbon-Lehigh Intermediate Unit, and the Luzerne Intermediate Unit.
www.mciu.org
There has to be other avenues for everybody to be able to access the help. Sometimes just one person who looks over and sees somebody upset, you go over and say, hey, you don't look like you're doing so well, you want to talk? I mean, you might be saving a life.
Speaker 2:Hello Montgomery County and welcome to the MCIU Learns Podcast. My name is Brandon Langer and I'm the Director of Innovation and Strategic Partnerships at the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit in Norristown, pennsylvania, and I am joined today by one of our fantastic program administrators for Project AWARE, pia Housiel, and a really amazing family. There's just so much growing and learning to do in this space of mental wellness and student health. I'm gonna hand it off to Pia to introduce herself and she'll get us going here with the conversation.
Speaker 3:Hi everyone. My name is Pia Housiel and I'm the program administrator for Project Aware and we're gonna talk a little bit more about that in a minute and I am with Montgomery County, iu, but through Project Aware I am partnered with Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit as well as Luzerne Intermediate Unit, and I'm really happy to introduce a family that's with us today, nancy and Todd Solomon, and I'm going to turn it over to them to introduce themselves.
Speaker 1:Hi my name is Todd Solomon, I'm Nancy Solomon element. We are considered survivors of suicide and we have made it our mission to educate our community around us as to how quickly things can happen in your life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Todd and Nancy, thank you so much for sitting with us today. And, Pia, maybe you just want to give us a little bit of a background to how you met Todd and Nancy, where this work sits. And then we want to hear from them about a very difficult conversation, but something we're all learning from and growing in.
Speaker 3:So, as I mentioned, Project Aware is happening in Montgomery, Carbon, Lehigh and Luzerne counties and it's a federal grant really focused on increasing awareness and resiliency around suicide prevention and mental health and wellness in our schools and our districts across those four counties.
Speaker 3:And through Project AWARE we have a bunch of different goals focused on universal approaches to suicide prevention across our K-12 continuum, in school districts and schools. Working towards creating trainings for staff, for parents and also for students, directly introducing mental health and suicide prevention curriculum. Creating a platform for school-based practitioners and the students and families they work with to be able to more easily access mental health and related services, and so there's a lot of different things happening through Project AWARE. One of the things that is happening through Project AWARE is our connection with the Avidum Club, and through Avidum is actually how I met Nancy and Todd and we are a part of sort of supporting and promoting Avidum events throughout those four counties and Nancy and Todd have been involved in Avidum and really involved in bringing it to our school districts locally and really a big proponent of why this work in involving students directly in this work is so important. So I think we're going to turn it over to them to hear more about their story and go from there.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we were introduced to Jim Presto, who's the president of Avidum, as he was also. He lost his son to suicide, so we were finding people that might be able to help guide us after we lost our son, craig, and we were directed to an Avidum event in Nazareth and we were directed to an Avidim event in Nazareth where we saw one of their talk workshops and once we saw how other children were opening up about such deep and difficult topics, we saw how this program can help many youth in such a needed area.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, so we brought it back. Our home school is the East Penn District and we brought it back to the admin, who acknowledged that we needed something. They were open, which I think is a big part of it. What I think everybody liked about this particular program is that it is student-led. I think that really helped, I am very happy to say. At least in East Penn it started. This will be the third year that we're going into and it's been the fastest growing club.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we told our son about the club and he was really interested in bringing it to Emmaus High School because he saw there was really a need for it. Yeah, and it's grown to. I think they have over 100 students already.
Speaker 2:So after two years, about being a student led and giving power and voice to young people and the opportunity to share and find support with others, and one of the things that stood out right away. As a VEDM, to my understanding, means I got your back and to have a public forum where students can come together, teachers can come together and share. That I got your back. I don't want to get too deep into your story. Please don't feel like you need to share anything. It's not comfortable, but I feel like that's something that Craig could have really used from what you shared with me in our previous conversation.
Speaker 1:That's my question. We are a happily married couple. We are the type of parents that are involved in just about everything. Todd he works in sales, so he's fortunate enough to have a home office. I was able to be a stay-at-home mom, which I am very grateful for and that allowed me to be very involved in their education. You know, class mom, girl, scout leader I never. This is like one of those awkward answers when somebody talks to you about your kids and how many we um. So we have amanda, who just turned 21. We have carter, who is 17 and about to start his senior year of high school, and we have Craig, his twin, who will forever be 13 um as of December 8th 2020. Um, he was in eighth grade and, for reasons we will never clearly know, craig ended his life and he obviously didn't feel that he could talk to anybody.
Speaker 4:He talked to his sister and he was very close with his brother.
Speaker 1:Very close with his sister too. He looked up to her and saw her as a role model. We really do have a tight-knit family and I think that's important that people know we really had nothing mental health on our radar for him in particular.
Speaker 4:We're not really sure. As we've learned more about suicide, we've learned that people, or even youth, that are suffering often don't speak to people that they're close to about the topic because they don't want to alarm them.
Speaker 1:And I think that's important to also keep in mind. Craig really had friends. Craig was involved in everything under the sun, so it's not like he didn't have people to talk to. Even during COVID we kept our bubble. There were like seven of them that would go and get together. He had been outside playing wiffle ball with that group an hour and a half before, so it's not like we were in complete isolation. We did not take it to that extreme. Craig did did say something to a one of his good friends in his bubble his older sister still a minor, because you know they were only 13 at the time but he said to her that he was sad and that's all we really got. But we know that he was sad and he went to somebody outside of his immediate support.
Speaker 2:And that's something that I think is so important about this continued work that we're seeing with the IU, with Project AWARE, is the need to help not just develop that in students but provide opportunity for adults and students to interact and speak honestly and candidly with one another.
Speaker 2:Pia, that's something with the Avidum groups in general that I've heard you speak about is how meaningful those events are that bring students together and, in many cases, celebrate life, both lives that are lost but also the lives that are saved through just honest and good conversation. I think that the part that I struggle with is being a teacher myself, having lost students to suicide and having lost a really good friend of ours in high school to suicide, knowing that this has been an issue for quite some time and it's so hard, whether it's COVID, whether it's again if a student says they're sad. Well, that's so vague. I'm sure that's really hard and I appreciate you sharing that with us, pia, in terms of your experience with the groups and coming together on a topic like this that is so hard to speak about, what makes that event so impactful?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. It actually is a really powerful and energetic day.
Speaker 2:from my experience, and I see Nancy nodding.
Speaker 3:We're on screen even though we're doing a podcast. I think the energy that the students bring in because it is student led, the outreach director of Avidum does do. Her name is Mary Pritchard and she does do training with the high school or middle school students that are leading the event. In the event where I met Nancy and Todd, it was Emmaus High School students. They have an advisor, they have a club that's up and operating and they had training to be able to be the leaders of that event and so while Mary, as the adult and the trainer, is there and present and sort of guiding the students for what the next step is, it really is student-led and I think students bringing that energy in like, hey, we have a place where we can have these conversations, we can interact with students from all over.
Speaker 3:The event that I was at back in November at Emmaus High School had, I think, 15 or 16 different districts, over 150 students, and so the students really go through work together. They have a workbook that they go through that day that they're sort of focused in on, but it really is about interacting with one another, sharing their stories or their journey that brought them to wanting to be involved in this kind of work Mental health awareness, suicide prevention work awareness, talking about their personal stories or their personal journeys with mental health and mental wellness, and then sort of guiding through a day. There's activities, there's small breakout groups. Adults don't go anywhere near those groups. They are student-led and the energy is from all of the students. They're mixed groups of all the different high schools, so bringing kids together to share with other students, and then they end the day by having an opportunity to share personal stories.
Speaker 3:The events that I have gone to we've had to like sort of cut because the students had to reach, had to go, catch their buses to get back to their schools for the end of day dismissal, so many students wanting to share stories about themselves, their families, their peers, sort of building off of that energy and interaction that they've had with the other students. I'm guessing, todd and Nancy, that when you started hearing about AVIDA and some of the other work that was happening around suicide prevention and suicide awareness in schools directly for students, for kids, that that energy probably played a part in why you put some of your personal family energy behind this work and behind really sort of promoting this kind of work in our local communities.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, I think. Since our three talk workshops, I think now, and still nothing, and still nothing truly prepares me for how raw and real the student gets and the amount of honesty is shocking.
Speaker 4:And I do feel if it existed when Craig was 13, if he had the opportunity to tell another student that actually knew where to go or to ask any questions, that it could have saved his life. And I think also if it was normalized that he didn't feel any shame for for struggling in some way and it was just normal for kids to share their feelings that it would have made it easier for him.
Speaker 1:He absolutely would have. He was well-liked. He was a typical 13-year-old. If he had seen that other children were going and it was helping, he would have brought his own little crew with him.
Speaker 2:Well, I think you're pointing to an interesting you said a little bit ago about not knowing where to go with those feelings. I find that interesting, Pia, that language, because I feel like on the other side of the fence with the Project Aware work, we're also working on that as well Giving people, helping align counselors and other professionals with where to go to find supports for students. All of us need a place to go, in support of ourselves, but also in support of others. Pa, can you talk a little bit about just the FindHelp, the platform that you guys are working on to help align counselors with providers and supports?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, brandon Project Aware, PA, find Help. The URL can be found on our website. I know Brandon is going to do lots of linkage to different resources for us from this podcast. We have been working over the course of the last six or seven months to develop that page, which is a URL from the Find Help site. That's specific to children zero through 21 and has providers who are providing mental health, behavioral health or related services and other resources for that population of students. But really making it sort of a one place to go to find make referrals really accessible, where you can make direct referrals. You can also do that in various languages. If the family at home is speaking a different language, that that can be translated so the family understands what kind of information they're getting. But we've been building the provider side of the platform for the last six or seven months and in the next month we'll be rolling out to all of the school-based practitioners, the school social workers, the school counselors, the school counselors who will then be sharing it as a resource in our community and with families and other school staff to be able to make direct referrals, share resources, share information. So it really should be as we head into this 24-25 school year really sort of taking off as a resource for our school-based practitioners to be using to share information with families, with students who might be struggling, and really trying to streamline that process.
Speaker 3:I'm a school social worker by training. I've worked in Lehigh County for years. I'm now in Montgomery County, which is actually where I started my career 20 plus years ago. The idea of not having to call 15 different providers to see if they have openings, to see where I might be able to get in that, can be really frustrating for a parent to go through, certainly for a school-based practitioner who's helping a family try to navigate the system. And we're really hoping that this Project AWARE PA Find Help resource really helps expedite that process so we can get kids who need services into those services.
Speaker 3:The other thing and we actually talked about this the last time we talked with Nancy and Todd is that there are other options in terms of how do we get resources and information into schools and into sort of the brains of our children as they're growing. We have in Project AWARE we're sort of pushing out SOS, signs of Suicide and Erica's Lighthouse, which are both student-designed curriculums to teach about mental health and suicide prevention and that work and sort of educating our students about what it might mean for them to hear something from a peer and what should they do with that information to have a little bit more education about depression, about anxiety. Some of the things that we've talked about related to Craig's life and also, just as a resource, to what would I do if someone said something to me and I didn't know where to go. Connected to that is, of course, educating the staff so that if they hear or see something they know, hey, I've got to pass this on to my school counselor and that has to happen today. It can't wait for three or four days. We need to make sure we're supporting that student or that student's family right away.
Speaker 3:I know, nancy and Todd, when we first talked, you had talked about some of the other things that you, beyond AVIDOM, were sort of supporting in terms of what was perhaps needed in schools and for kids to learn more about what's happening in this world of mental health and some of the interventions and supports that are in place, and I'm curious if there's anything else you wanted to touch on related to that.
Speaker 1:Well, I think, overall, I think the most important thing is to make sure every single person is educated, whether you're a student, a teacher, a parent, the doctors, the therapists, absolutely.
Speaker 1:People don't know where to go, and that's a problem. And whether kids are smart. Now kids are going to just Google things on their own and if they're not finding what they're looking for, we're in trouble. And I know my kid was smart and I'm positive he was doing research and not finding what he wanted to see. So I think it's very important that, no matter what resources out there, that a student can go and find information for themselves.
Speaker 1:We have cultures that do not believe in suicide. So a student can't go home to say to their parents I'm struggling. Or a teacher can't say to a parent like hey, we're worried about your child because there's denial, Like we have to know back doors so people can still at least get help in school, whether it's through communities, in schools or somebody in your district. There has to be other avenues for everybody to be able to access the help. Todd and I have worked, have been working with Valley Youth House in Lehigh and we are working on creating a retreat for children that have been affected by suicide, Hopefully to happen by the end of this year, If not hopefully. For next year, If not hopefully for next year.
Speaker 4:We're also on the Lehigh County Suicide Task Force, which touches on all these programs.
Speaker 1:I am QPR trained, so I do work closely with your counterpart.
Speaker 3:Can you say a little bit more, nancy, about what QPR is, because I think that's really relevant to our conversation as well.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely. Question, persuade and respond. Qpr In my mind it automatically brought up CPR. It's the exact same type of concept. It's where QPR, cpr you're physically pounding on somebody. You're saving somebody's life. Qpr you're still saving somebody's life. You question them when you hear something, whether it's you know. Sometimes somebody might say something like I hope I don't wake up tomorrow, I want to go to sleep and I hope tomorrow doesn't come Something indirect or along the lines of I just want to die. Because sometimes people will just be right up front and say it.
Speaker 1:The program teaches you to say let's talk about this, let me question you, not let me put a double negative out there. You're not thinking of killing yourself, are you? Because nobody's going to be honest when you're already telling them that answer no, but you then take them into the next step of persuading them. Why is it so important for you to be here? You are so needed, you have so much to offer.
Speaker 1:And then the next step is taking them by the hand. Sometimes you might literally have to literally take them by the hand to bring them to a safe place. And while you are never, ever. We make sure we start each training off with saying you are not a therapist. We do not expect you to be a therapist. We are just asking you to be a caring person when you see somebody is in trouble, to make sure they get to that next step. And be a bridge and be a friend, even to a stranger, because sometimes just one person who looks over and sees somebody upset you go over and say hey, you don't look like you're doing so well, do you want to talk? I mean, you might be saving a life.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I know through Project AWARE we have a few QPR trainings coming up that are geared towards staff and schools, and so that's happening in Montgomery County and I know there's a lot of Luzerne and Lehigh and Carbon also have either at sort of the IU level or within the community, as you're talking about, Nancy, from trainings that you're doing and working with Jason, my counterpart up at Carbon, Lehigh, providing those trainings to the community, to school staff, to parents, just to get information in people's hands about how to intervene, how to say how to ask those questions. I mean that question sometimes is really difficult for people to even put the word suicide into their mouths when they're asking someone a question about their own mental health or well-being, and so this training really does help prepare people. For how would I ask that question if faced with a situation where I was concerned about someone?
Speaker 1:We've even brought it to Avidem clubs, because kids need to know.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They need to know just as much as anybody else and they, most importantly, need to know that they are not responsible. And that is something that we work very hard on. But yeah, even doing the role playing because we do have you role play it's not easy to come look at somebody directly in their eyes and say are you thinking about killing yourself? The words get stuck in your throat, it leaves a pit in your stomach. Just to say the words because in your head you're thinking I don't want this answer. And even at this point I'm a year plus trained. If I have to ask that question, you know I do it taking a deep breath, because I have to ground myself. It's a serious conversation, because I have to ground myself. It's a serious conversation but it's so important to have and you can't let your fear dictate.
Speaker 3:Yeah and not ask the question, right yeah.
Speaker 2:First of all, I can't thank you enough, todd and Nancy, for joining I mean not just us today, but just joining up forces with so many amazing organizations and clubs and really using you know Craig's story and memory to help influence who knows how many lives is really tremendous. So I want to thank you for that. And then and again, reflecting upon this conversation is as I'm hearing about these supports. I'm sure that's even hard sometimes for the two of you knowing how much is out there, but to hear and see your contribution is really inspiring and amazing. So thank you, there's no other way to say it. Thank you for all that you're doing in this space. I would love to hear a memory you have. Is there something that stands out when you're talking with people about Craig's life that you just love to share?
Speaker 1:you're talking with people about Craig's life that you just love to share. I'm going to let Todd answer that one, but while I'm buying him a second to come up with something, because he hates when I put him on the spot, I do want to add that we're also members of the LOSS team for Lehigh County, which was able to start through a SAMHSA grant that Susan Wild was able to secure for our area, and we're one of four, but there are others budding and coming. What the LOSS team is, it's a local outreach to suicide survivors. We are called within a 12 to 24 hour period of a loss and we will go out to a family. It's the your team.
Speaker 1:It's two or three and it's a survivor paired with a caring person who is wants to help, and you're there to be there for the family to say we have been down your road and we're so sorry and we're here to help you because you know our, our chances of dying by suicide have increased, they say, by 4%. Honestly, I think it's even higher than the number of people that are affected by a suicide are. All you all become survivors, and so the purpose of the loss team is for prevention, to make sure you're taking care of those immediate people. So we're very grateful that this has developed, and I wish it was out there when Craig passed, because it would have given me a little hope to know that I can survive this, because those dark days you literally live minute by minute.
Speaker 3:Thank you for sharing that, nancy. I'm just going to comment that the different intermediate units that are involved in Project AWARE already have and in Luzerne we're starting it but a school-based team that can go out and support staff and students in schools, that can go out and support staff and students in schools. So it's so inspiring to hear that that model is happening with survivors and going out to other survivors and offering that level of support in the community. I did not know that existed. So thank you so much for sharing that and I'm glad to hear that you're involved in that. We've given Todd plenty of time to share something about Craig.
Speaker 4:There's so many different aspects of Craig that we are proud of One that stands out to me like, despite him having a large group of friends and being popular, he was the first kid to stand up for that kid that didn't have any other friends. He would make friends with them and bring them into their group, their friends. He would make friends with them and bring them into their group. Or he was the first one to defend another child that was being picked on. He didn't.
Speaker 4:He didn't stand up for that he saw social injustice yeah, on every level he's the first one to protest something that he didn't think was right, even when it wasn't appropriate his his age, but we're proud of that. Getting into politics at a young age.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if I could, he would be going into his senior year. So I sit there often and think to myself what kind of schools would I be looking at for him? What kind of major would he have had? His first thought was that he wanted to have been a soldier, perhaps go into the services. But he had ADHD. But my gut says that he would have gotten himself in law and he would have been some sort of reformer. That's what my gut says. He had a good heart.
Speaker 2:Well, I can say if he's anything like the two of you I have no doubts of any of that. I mean seriously, once again, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing his story and all this incredible work. I mean it really is amazing. Pia, thank you for everything you're doing with this trio, this power team down the east side of the state with Luzerne IU and Carbon Lehigh IU and MCIU with with project aware. I look forward to a great year of us working together, pia, just to get these messages out, to share these stories and grow these programs and connect people to the help they need and the people to the people they need.
Speaker 1:We're very grateful to you as well, pia, to help get this word out, because unfortunately it's late and it needs to come. It needs to come yesterday, needed to come December 9th of 20. Yeah, and so the work that you're doing right now is so appreciated for everyone that sees their kids struggling or is struggling and they don't know how to help.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you, nancy, and thank you to both of you for this work. I think what we do is we do this in community and we do this in partnership and I'm so grateful to have met the two of you and the way that you're honoring his memory and the energy that we see from students being able to connect with each other, connect with others and sort of hold each other up for who they are, because it sounds like Craig was very true to who he was as a person and the honoring of being able to do that for him and that sort of legend continuing through this work that is happening in schools and for other students.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you once again. As Pia mentioned before, I'm going to put all the links to Project AWARE and the resources that were highlighted in today's conversation in the description down below, so please check that out. Please reach out if you have questions, todd and Nancy. Thank you once again, Pia. Thank you once again and, for those that are new, this is the MCI Learns podcast. We connect people to impact, we connect programs to impact, connect people to impact, we connect programs to impact, and we're just constantly driving conversations around education but, more importantly, like we talked a lot about today, connecting people to the right people so we can make a positive impact on the cultures and society moving forward. So thank you again for your time and we'll see you on the next episode.
Speaker 4:Thank you you.