By Kendall Patterson
On Saturday, March 18, the Chester County High School HOSA club hosted their first Mental Health Festival in the parking lot at CCHS.
The festival comes from a mental health promotion HOSA competition.
“The HOSA Competition is a mental health promotion competition, so we had to choose a topic and we chose depression and suicide prevention,” said CCHS Senior and CCHS’s HOSA Club member Krissie Jones.
Actions the mental health team have done include organizing this festival, making Instagram posts for mental health awareness, putting notes on students’ desk at night for Kindness Day and participated in a AFSP (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention) walk.
“We’re thrilled to be out supporting the group at Chester County High School to build more awareness for this important conversation,” said Darin Hollingsworth, a volunteer with AFSP and also the Walk Chair of the “Walk Out of the Darkness Walk.”
Additionally, Jones stated that the CCHS HOSA Mental Health team plans to try to get students and community members “Be There Certified.”
According to the “Be There” Certificate website, “The Be There Certificate is a free, self-paced learning experience designed to increase mental health literacy and provide you with the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to safely support anyone who may be struggling with their mental health. It provides a deep understanding of Be There’s 5 Golden Rules — a simple but actionable framework on how to recognize when someone might be struggling with their mental health, your role in supporting that person, and how to connect them to the help they deserve.”
All of the students in the HOSA Mental Health group are “Be There” certified along with other students at the high school.
“We didn’t have to do all that we’ve done but we have chose to,” Jones said.
She said that the club plans to continue to do the festival again next year.
