Park City, UT: District using 'mindfulness' "to fight mental illness"

Dec 26, 2017, Salt Lake City, Deseret News: Here's how mindfulness helps schools address depression and anxiety https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900006177/heres-how-mindfulness-helps-schools-address-depression-and-anxiety.html … Drivdahl had learned to calm herself down in the moment, something she was striving to teach her students as part of Park City School District’s new plan to fight mental illness through "mindfulness" — teaching students techniques like breathing and meditation to calm themselves and control their emotions. The district initiated the program to address the underlying causes of a trend affecting the state. Teen suicide in Utah jumped 141 percent from 2011 to 2015 according to the Utah Department of Health, and the state's Student Health and Risk Prevention data showed 24.9 percent of Utah teens had depressive symptoms in 2017. Davis School District implemented a similar Mindful Schools program more than a year ago to address anxiety and depression among its students. But the Utah schools are not launching into untested territory by using mindfulness techniques to combat mental illness and its sometimes fatal consequences. The Ann Arbor Public Schools in Michigan have been using the methods to address youth mental illness for 10 years. “Just putting Band-Aids on all day long is not doing the trick,” said Amy McLoughin, a school counselor in the Ann Arbor Public Schools, in reference using solely talk therapy with students. “We really have to be in a situation where we have to start learning very quick coping skills to helping students when they’re not with us be able to tackle these problems on their own.” … Davis School District was concerned about anxiety and depression among students when it teamed up with Davis Behavioral Health a year and a half ago to teach mindfulness in schools. Citing the risk prevention survey data, Christy Hutchinson, the K-12 prevention coordinator for the district's Student and Family Resources Department said 26 percent of Davis School District students felt depressive symptoms in the past year. In Utah, 25 percent of students felt depressive symptoms, according to the survey data. And at the national level, 1 in 5 youth have anxiety or a mood disorder, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.