THOMASVILLE, Ga. — National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day will take place Thursday, May 9, and to recognize the occasion the Vashti Center is hosting several events throughout the month.

The faith-based children and families agency has invited more than 10 mental health resources to take part in a free lunch May 18 on their campus.

Among the organizations attending the event include Georgia Pines, the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, Hands and Hearts for Horses and the Heritage Foundation.

From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., the center will provide food, a DJ, bounce houses and games as children and adults interact with local resources.

The event will also feature free giveaways including tablets and gift certificates.

Reducing the stigma around mental health treatment is a huge part of Vashti’s mission, said executive director Elijah Miranda, and the event provides an appropriate opportunity to address the issue.

“Seeing the community rally around their nonprofits is something I think that’s really special about Thomasville,” he said.

On Thursday, the Vashti Center hosted a breakfast for school counselors from Thomas County and Thomasville City Schools to share resources available to them in the community.

Guidance counselors play an important role in schools, Miranda said, because “having that tool in the toolbox” for teachers means they can spend more time focused on what they’re trained to do.

“(Teachers) don’t feel necessarily equipped to deal with a child dealing with a mental health disorder in the classroom,” he said. “They need a resource to provide options for that child.”

Miranda said data shows that having school-based mental health services correlates with higher attendance, fewer disciplinary referrals and better grades.

Despite a busy schedule as the school year comes to an end, the executive director said there was a good turnout and everyone present said there was a need for more resources for children and families.

One of the topics discussed at the breakfast was the need for mental health awareness training for schools, after school programs, police departments, emergency rooms and other locations to equip trainees with the ability to identify risk factors.

“It’s basically equipping anyone who goes through the training (the ability) to identify risk factors that might be in a child that might lead them to make a referral to a mental health resource,” Miranda said. “This is especially important because anxiety is on the rise.”

Miranda said children today deal with a wider variety of stressors, including school pressure, bullying and social media.

As a result, mental health diagnoses in children are on the rise and the suicide rate in teenagers is at a 40-year high.

Adding to the problem is the fact that Georgia ranks 48th in the country in mental health workforce availability, with the lack of workers being more pronounced in rural areas.

According to a 2018 report on children’s mental health compiled by the nonprofit Child Mind Institute, there has been an increased recognition of anxiety in young people by health care providers in the past 10 years.

Despite a 17 percent increase in youth anxiety disorder diagnoses, the report also notes that symptoms of anxiety disorders are often minimized or ignored, sometimes described as an “invisible condition.”

The report states, however, that anxiety is “a normal and healthy physiological response to a threat in the environment” which arises from out of proportion reactions to situations most individuals can cope with easily.

Anxiety disorders in youth that are untreated increase the risk of depression, substance abuse, failure in school and difficulty transitioning to adulthood.

The report notes a strong association between adolescents with depression alongside social anxiety with more suicidal ideations, suicide attempts and depressive symptoms.

As little as 1 percent of youth with anxiety seek treatment for their condition in the year their symptoms begin, often going untreated for years. Eighty percent of children and adolescents never receive help at all.

Compounding the issue is the fact that anxiety is often mistaken for another disorder, sometimes being called the “great masquerader,” which results in ineffective treatment.

“We have gotten very good at helping individual children and adolescents in need,” the report states, “now we need to get better at identifying the vast majority that never get help, or even know how and who to ask for it.”