“I’ve never seen it like this before. Our children are struggling at levels that are unbelievable,” said teen suicide expert Susan Tellone, who described an unprecedented spike in mental health crises to the Senate Education Committee on Thursday. Committee chair Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth) called the hearing after the highly publicized death by suicide last month of 14-year-old Adriana Kuch who was a student at Central Regional High School in Bayville.
“We’re disconnected in terms of mental health in supporting our youngsters. We’re operating in silos. And I know you don’t have a magic wand. Nor do I. But we must start to figure out how to coordinate services and bring the mental health experts to the students — to the staff, quite frankly,” said Joe Isola, superintendent of Howell Township Public Schools. Across the board, advocates decried a lack of mental health staffing and services to handle kids in crisis who are crowding ERs and scrambling to find in-patient treatment.
