LifeSkills talks about youth suicide based on recent threats – WNKY News 40 Television

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – With school threats still prominent in parents’ minds, it’s important to let families know there are ways to navigate these challenges.

With the way these threats get out to the public, it’s important to check in on students and make sure they’re OK.

“Lots of people were sharing information that they thought was real, but it wasn’t… and I know that was trickling down to the kids as well… and so that alone was causing a lot of stress or is still causing a lot of stress for children and families right now,” Clinical Director of Children’s Services Katie Hopper with LifeSkills says.

Part of that stress on families is thinking their child could be involved with these threats.

“Part of that quick sharing of information is not necessarily having facts of what’s actually going on… and so, it’s not unusual when that happens for youth and families to be accused of having made some of those threats… and it really came down to it wasn’t them, it was somebody else,” Hopper says.

One way to help those who need it is by letting them talk things through with a mental health professional.

“It can be really helpful to have somebody that’s not in the situation to be able to kind of talk through and be supportive, help develop new skills for the kids to be able to cope with things… but also teaching parents how to help their kids and advocate for their kids,” she says.

That’s why staff at LifeSkills say, as hard as it may be, to not talk about these threats with your kids until you have the full facts.

“We know that kids take their cues from their caregivers… and so if their caregivers are very upset, very emotional, quick to share information that they don’t know, it’s just worries and, not necessarily gossip, but if there are just kind of I heard about this and so, they’re telling everybody what they heard and it just turns into a never ending game of telephone that nobody really knows what’s happening. So really encouraging parents to just minimize talking about it in front of their kids until we’ve got concrete facts about what’s going on and then being able to talk to their kids in an age appropriate way and letting them know what’s necessary for them to know, but not necessarily all the details,” Hopper says.