Ray Lewis is partnering with Baltimore County schools to pilot a new mental health screening tool.
The goal is to identify depression, anxiety and other mental health risk factors early in students from ages 8 to 15. The program is already in schools in at least five other states.
Deep Creek Middle School is one of 15 middle schools that will have the new Rising Together schoolwide mental health screening program.
“Knowing all of the numbers on how many kids actually struggle with mental health and the suicides and the overdoses,” Lewis said. “This is out of freaking control.”
For Lewis, mental health is more than just an interest or passion. It’s personal for his family.
“My son passed away from an overdose, and you have two choices. You can lay in the bed and you can bury yourself, or you can get up and you can say, ‘He’s not dying in vain,’” Lewis said.
Lewis speaks with students about the importance of mental health, serving as the keynote speaker for Baltimore County schools’ Mind Over Matters conference on Wednesday.
He’s also using his Ray of Hope Foundation to help bring a new schoolwide mental health screening program to Baltimore County Public Schools.
“We know that, in a post-COVID society, the pressures that our young people face with social media and toxic attitudes are plenty,” said Myriam Rogers, superintendent of Baltimore County schools. “We are so grateful to have a partner to help us get this work started on their behalf.”
With the help of the Ray of Hope Foundation, Possibilities for Change, J&B Medical and the Stephen and Renee Bisciotti Foundation, the schools will pilot the screening program at no cost to the district.
Trained staff will help students with the questionnaire, designed to help schools identify mental health risks and behavioral health needs early — and connect students with support.
Parents can opt their student out, but Rogers hopes for full participation because of the program’s results over the last decade.
More than 40% of students reported improvement in their depression and anxiety symptoms after identification and intervention.
“It could be the very thing that brings resources to our students, that helps to save their lives,” Rogers said.
“I just want them to know they have help,” Lewis said.
The goal is to eventually have the screening tool in every school.
READ MORE:Ray Lewis, Baltimore County schools piloting mental health screening tool
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