The number of students absent from Central due to issues related to mental health dramatically increased three years ago and still remains high at Central and neighboring schools. Though the reason for this increase is unknown, the problems and consequences it can cause are not.  Dean of Students Lisa Xagas has witnessed first hand the negative impact these problems can have.

“Over the last several years we have seen an increase in students who have mental health or social emotional concerns that involve them being taken out of school,” Xagas said. “Whether to receive treatment or hospitalization, over 100 students were out last year alone.”

Central’s system is set up to be helpful when it comes to giving support to students absent for mental health issues according to Dean of Interventions Pete Flaherty. This position was newly added last year to “assist students in transitioning back to Central after being hospitalized, whether it be due to pressure or anxiety,” Flaherty said.

Treatment and hospitalization that require students to miss school can hinder their ability to complete classes. Xagas said the deans and social workers help as much as they can to give students alternative options if needed.

“There can be graduation problems if we have students who require extensive treatment, especially if it is during final exams,” Xagas said. “Either that student will get an incomplete and they can take the final later on when they are able to, or they may have to drop the class all together.”

Sophomore Emily Barry, a prior patient at Linden Oaks, said that with the deans help she was “able to catch up with just a small drop in grades even though the time [she] was hospitalized was right before finals.”

According to Flaherty, hospitalization and outside treatment has benefits for the students’ well-being and can prevent further harm to the student or others around them. Barry agrees and said that hospitalization helped her in the long run.

“Inpatient hospitalization really did help me with the suicidal temptations and gave me a lot of skills to use to cope with all my issues,” Barry said. “Before being hospitalized, I had all of these thoughts running through my head all of the time and it sometimes made it hard to concentrate in school.”

Certain students may not seem like they would suffer from any kind of mental problem but it could be happening to anyone, as “everyone’s fight is individual,”  according to Xagas.

“We have students that are out for hospitalization that are honor roll and A.P. students.” Flaherty said. “We also have students who have a more difficult time in school that are hospitalized. It happens to different people for different reasons.”

Flaherty believes the extensive effort Central has put into helping students who have mental illnesses has had a positive impact on the Central community.

“There is a need here in terms of helping students with issues,” Flaherty said. “Students and parents are becoming more aware of the resources outside of school and are taking more preventative action to meet the students needs beforehand.”