It can be difficult to open a conversation about mental health struggles, especially for the people experiencing emotional strife. So it’s good to see Seneca Valley Senior High School students try to take some of that difficulty away with its Hope Squad, the school’s version of a national peer-to-peer program focused on suicide prevention through education and peer intervention.

Hope Squad members, who are nominated by classmates to be part of it, are meant to be students who are easy to talk to and good at listening, and who are supportive of peers who are struggling. At Seneca Valley, it includes around 100 students from grades seven through 12.

While the members are leading the charge for the school in addressing mental health and the stigma surrounding mental illness, those students, too, may be dealing with their own personal troubles. Providing an outlet for everyone at the school to not only talk about mental health, but help those undergoing internal struggles, is a great way to promote communication through community.

And as Katie Smolter, a special education teacher and faculty adviser for Hope Squad, said Thursday, Feb. 20, students are more likely to open up to one another than a teacher or faculty member. The Hope Squad can help an individual experiencing thoughts of self-harm or even suicide take these conversations at their own pace, and find support through peers who may understand what that person is going through.

Let’s hope this level of community support doesn’t leave these students once they graduate from the halls of Seneca Valley. This type of initiative could prepare them to have the hard talks they’ll face as they go through college, as well as their entire lives. Hopefully this initiative will also rub off on other school districts, so they each start their own Hope Squad.

It’s not just the students who could use it — it’s everyone whose lives they touch inside and outside the halls of Seneca Valley Senior High School.

– ET