A Connecticut nonprofit engaged in youth suicide prevention is enlisting coaches to identify and intervene when student athletes are in a crisis.
LAX2LIVE, a mental health initiative for lacrosse players, is also recruiting student ambassadors across Connecticut schools, with 52 ambassadors in 24 schools currently.
“We reach potentially thousands of kids and their families and their coaches each and every year,” said Ann Dagle, co-founder of LAX2LIVE.
The program is offered by the Brian Dagle Foundation, named after Dagle’s son, an East Lyme High School lacrosse player who died by suicide while in college in 2011.
Dagle was at the high school Tuesday, flanked by mental health advocates including Julienne Girard from the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, Stephanie Bozak from the Department of Children and Families and Howard Sovronsky, the state mental health advocate.
With a little training, Dagle said student ambassadors and coaches can help prevent suicides.
"It helps them understand when somebody is struggling,” she said. “How to ask that really difficult question, ‘Are you thinking about hurting yourself?’ And then know the resources that are available.”
The foundation is directing youth in need of mental health care to call 211 to reach the state's confidential information and referral hotline, which is run by United Way of Connecticut. Its youth suicide prevention hotline handled close to 30,000 calls from last July through June this year, according to the organization. The nonprofit also reported there were nearly 55,000 calls to the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline.
Nationally, roughly a third of high school students reported poor mental health, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ryan Dueker, a lacrosse player and senior at East Lyme High School, spoke of daily stressors — the pressure to get recruited by college sports teams, managing schedules and college admission.
“Just one conversation or one check-in can really just pull away from someone kind of trying to take their life,” said Dueker, who serves as a student ambassador for LAX2LIVE. “On the field you deal with all the stress of the game and everything, but then off the field you might have family challenges, school, clubs, and that can all pile up.”
High school sports participation is at an all-time high, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.
“As a child advances in athletics, pressure for success increases, injury risk grows and the potential impact on future goals increases,” Dr. Laine Taylor, chief medical officer for psychiatry at The Village for Families & Children, told Connecticut Public. “Some youth, families, and sports organizations can lose focus on the positives of sports participation in exchange for reaching elite status. In our Urgent Crisis Centers and community agencies, we have seen many middle and high schoolers presenting with anxiety related to these pressures.”
Under a state initiative, urgent crisis centers provide immediate care to children and teens experiencing an active and urgent mental health crisis, providing an alternative to visiting the emergency room.
Taylor said many student athletes are anxious about their performance, the impact of an injury and disappointing their coaches or parents. They struggle maintaining a healthy weight and worry about whether they'll be successful enough for college recruitment, Taylor said.
“When we work with these children and families, we look to existing supports – like a supportive and caring coach – to reinforce a healthy balance of self care and discipline [and] emphasize the joy of sport and athletic achievement,” she said.
Statewide, harm or risk of self-harm was the top reason children and youth showed up at urgent crisis centers, , according to the latest data.
East Lyme High School school psychologist Chris Mountain, a board member at the Brian Dagle Foundation, said sports offer a means to meet youth where they are.
“When we pair a sport students love with mental health awareness, it makes it easier for us to deliver the message about suicide prevention. It makes students more available to hear it,” he said.
