While invisible, mental health is something that affects everyone. Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, student mental health has become a more notable issue than ever before. After the stressful events of the past few years, two students, seniors Spencer Venancio and Philip Eviston have sought to make a change.

Realizing the immense need for advocacy, they worked together with staff members to increase education and awareness about mental health. Working together with English teacher Jill Rusignuolo, a list of resources was compiled and QR codes were placed around the building.

“We formed a club after knowing about this immense need for mental health,” Eviston said. “The need for change got us motivated.”

There certainly was a need for it. Over 1000 people have already used the QR codes to access resources for mental health.

“whether it is just finding your counselor’s email or it’s something more serious like contacting the wellness center. More than 1000 individuals in the building have already scanned and used it,” Eviston said.

Before this list of resources, there was very little information about mental health available to students. It has, due to the stigma around it, always been a kind of ‘taboo’ topic.

“When you’re putting these QR codes up, you’re not just putting them up and leaving them be. We really want to make sure that these are jumping-off points for conversations,” Venancio explained.

Getting people talking about mental health can help remove the stigma around it and get students to seek out the help they need.

Students becoming more comfortable identifying these issues in themselves, Rusignuolo said, is one of the goals they have with this initiative.

The official name of this resource is the SAHS community and mental health resources linktree. The community aspect of it contains a list of clubs as well as resources like peer helpers.

“Yeah, there is a growing sense of hopelessness and despair in adolescents today, and I think that at the end of the day, it all boils down for young and old people to feeling a sense of connection. So much of what we struggle with stems from a feeling of disconnection and isolation from each other,” English teacher Jill Rusignuolo said.

There have been challenges, though. There are 2000 students here and they all have different perspectives and needs. All of these people, besides those with the same classes and activities, are disconnected from each other. One group of students could struggle with something very different than another.

“We’re looking for change. And you know, we don’t always see it as quickly as we might want to, but we have to recognize that things at a school of 2000 students take time,” Venancio said.

There is still much more to do and everyone can contribute to trying to make a more welcoming environment for other students, but progress is being made.

“We’re all works in progress as people and our school will always be a work in progress. But I think we are definitely moving in the right direction thanks to the intentions and efforts of a lot of caring and hardworking people,” Rusignuolo said.