Thank you
for coming to Ingraham High School home of the Rams.
I'm Martin Floe principal at Ingraham High School.
As a principal for the last 18 years at Ingraham High School.
I've seen the changing needs for our youth in the city
around mental health supports and the pressures that the students
now have that future or past generations didn't have to deal with.
I'm really excited for the unified approach to mental health
that the city has taken.
And again, welcome to Ingram High School, and I'd like to introduce Dr.
Brent Jones excuse me, Superintendent Dr.
Brent Jones.
Thank you, Martin.
You know, this past few years have been extremely challenging
for Seattle students.
But they've shown tremendous strength and resilience.
The COVID 19 pandemic
and subsequent remote learning just disrupted
some of the socio-emotional opportunities that they had to grow and develop.
But our youth have again been resilient
and they deserve investments from us as as adults who are managing
organizations that bring resources to our students.
Seattle Public Schools has been working with mental health professionals,
trying to make sure that we we are resourcing social workers,
mental health professionals and doing all kinds of things
for partnering with entities like the City of Seattle
and other entities to provide services for our youth.
This initiative reach out Seattle is really about us coming together.
We have 12 sectors that are going to be thinking about ways
that we could
be proactive and reactive to situations that students get involved with.
But it's our collective energy,
our collective effort that's going to make this so powerful.
And with that said, our city leader, Mayor Harrell, has been lifting up
the right things in the right ways, and he's been producing
opportunities for us to get together and connect and make sure
that we have investments that are going towards things that are really important.
I admire his leadership and we are deferring to him to coordinate,
help us to really make sure that Seattle is one Seattle
and that we have the resources for our young people to thrive.
Without further ado, Mayor Harrell.
Thank you, Dr.
Jones.
I was so excited.
I tried to take Martin Floe Principal Floe’s
role at starting this, and I apologize.
Pretty excited about this.
This initiative, this program.
Reach out Seattle.
Uh, at the beginning of this introduction,
I do want to start by remembering Ebenezer Hale.
Haley, if I'm pronouncing Ebenezer name correctly, a 17 year old
who we all know was shot and killed last fall,
and the school we are in today here at Ingram.
Our hearts remain with his family and friends.
And in his memory,
we're called to take action not because of his life or death,
but because this issue that's happening in our schools
throughout this country, in particular here in Seattle, requires
the kind of commitment that I'll describe and reach out.
Seattle, we start by making sure, as we do
in most of our work, that as mayor, it's not a top down approach
that we want to center and collaborate and take advice from our youth.
That's why they are such a critical part
of what we're trying to do right?
A thriving future for our city
and for our youth will require us to take a new approach and president mental
health needs that are facing the students today are nothing to laugh at.
And many of you know, I try to bring a sense of humor
and a sense of congeniality and collaboration.
Wherever I go.
I try to
be the eternal optimist, and I continue to be.
But with the trauma and the pain
and the stress that our youth are facing today in the schools,
when I was walking down here through the halls,
it reminds me that the stakes have changed.
Just life is differently.
But how can you learn when you are facing
trauma, pain, stress, anxieties?
How can you be all you can be your authentic self
when you have to look over your shoulder and constantly worry about
gunfire, violence or bullying?
So what are we going to do about it?
We know that our young people deserve
a safe, supportive environments to learn, grow and reach adulthood.
What is our role? What can we do?
So we believe in our Reach Out Seattle initiative
that we will unifier our approach to prevention and early intervention
and help young people access the resources they need to lead healthy lives.
One of the first things we always ask in the situation
where something went sideways is, well, did anyone know?
Where are their signs?
Did someone have a discussion with that person?
Last week
or a week ago?
Was there untreated trauma
that needs to be addressed?
This vision we are establishing
will center our city's diversity
with an emphasis on how we can reach youth
in particularly in historically underserved communities.
Youth without access to health insurance and youth
in communities who experience health inequities.
In other words, we go where those who are most vulnerable,
but we don't leave anyone behind.
Mental health conditions are real and treatable.
Part of this work in this initiative is to destigmatize
how we discuss mental health,
how we raise community awareness.
Excuse me about the nature of the crisis we are seeing.
This initiatives approach is based off the Seattle Fire Department's
Medic One and Medic Two model developing a community wide learning program
and empowering community members.
Family members,
neighborhood organizations now talk about is centered around
12 sectors and men, and I'll describe those sectors
how we
equip them and program them and prepare them and educate them
to recognize the signs of youth in psychological distress.
Critical work.
These community learning programs will be created
with input from our youth to make sure it meets their needs.
That's why I started by saying it's not going to be a top down approach,
along with the expertise of our first responders and local mental
health providers like Seattle Children's Hospital and other partners.
Youth experiencing mental
health challenges deserve compassion,
care, love, support from adults.
We must instill hope and teach them
it is okay to reach out for help.
Quite candidly, I even tell my own staff
that I tell everyone around it's okay
to reach out for help
by focusing on the youth,
we can disrupt the progression to adult disease and create
a healthier future for our youth and our entire community.
This is upstream work.
Effective upstream prevention and early intervention can prevent severe
mental illness, decrease the need for intensive inpatient hospitalizations,
and ultimately reduce the risk of relapse
of related mental health conditions.
This new initiative will complement the 9.4 million investment,
the city made in our 2023 budget that we passed
to expand mental health resources at school based health centers.
Part of that investment includes a new student mental health supports
pilot program
through the Department of Education Early Learning, and our director here, Mr.
Chappelle, is here, and we're pleased that one of the pilots will be launched
right here at Ingraham High School.
We have some excellent leaders here today.
Data will speak more in depth about this exciting reach out Seattle.
So I'm going to introduce first Dr.
Leslie Walker from Seattle Children's Hospital.
But I don't want to just say it that way because she indeed has a very impressive
bio, so I'm not going to read it all.
It was like this long from Wikipedia.
I'm just joking.
Dr. Harding Where you can start that?
Dr. Leslie Harding
That's Leslie Walker Harding is the Ford Morgan Endowed Professor and chair
of the Department of Pediatrics,
as well as Associate Dean for the University of Washington.
She is also the chief academic officer and senior vice
president for Seattle Children's Hospital.
She's been dedicated to the health and well-being of children and adolescents
for over 25 years, particularly in the area of prevention
of adolescent substance use and promotion of healthy adolescent development.
Her current focus is to raise awareness
of and bring to national scale proven interventions to prevent the development
of substance use and mental health conditions in children and adolescents.
So I'm going to stop there
before she takes the podium and say one of the
when you're when you're should of a coach of a city or sort of a mayor,
you just got to get people, a lot of people smarter than you.
It's not easy to do for me,
but you have to get superstars
who are committed to this kind of work the best of the best.
And for that, I present you Dr.
Leslie Walker Harding, helping us lead this initiative.
Thank you and good morning.
And thank you, Mayor Harrell, for that long introduction.
But it's really wonderful to be here
today to be able to help kick off this important U.S.
youth initiative as
Mayor Harrell said, I have spent a lot of time
working with adolescents around prevention, intervention and treatment
of substance use, mental health and behavioral health issues that affect
adolescents, young adults.
So this is very important to me and to the city.
As the mayor noted, national surveys of young people have shown alarming
increases in the prevalence of mental health and behavioral health challenges.
Prior to COVID 19, the CDC data stated that one in five young people
was dealing with a mental health disorder since COVID time.
There are some studies that are saying now it's more like one in three
adolescent youth are dealing with a mental health
disorder and in particular adolescent girls.
The rates of youth experiencing
mental challenges clearly have increased since the pandemic,
and it's heavily affected those who are very vulnerable,
people who have preexisting mental health concerns, youth of color disabilities,
young people who are LGBTQ Plus,
as well as others from diverse backgrounds who are at increased risk
not only has the pandemic had a enormous impact
on youth mental health,
but it's also created additional barriers and challenges in access to treatment.
The CDC estimates that only 20% of youth who have a diagnosable, treatable
mental health condition actually are able to talk with a mental health provider.
And what's so
heart wrenching about this is
that even that 20%, only that 20% is really overwhelming.
Our mental health system as it is right now at Seattle
Children's Hospital, we see and feel the impacts of this every single day.
The mental health crisis
is bringing more and more young people to our emergency room.
Many have to stay there days and weeks because there's nowhere to send them.
The mental health flaws in the hospital are full.
We have many, many people on the medical floors with mental health conditions.
There's nowhere to send them to and it's it's heart
wrenching to see this happen to our youth
and see them in need of such help.
That's why we're here to support the launch of Reach Out Seattle,
which will take a comprehensive approach that we really need and
from every sector of the city to help our youth
deal with mental health crisis and build a healthier future for them.
The model of Reach Out Seattle is focused on prevention,
early intervention and identification of youth mental health challenges
through the community learning programs and through public education
campaigns with limited availability of psychological services and providers.
Prevention and early intervention are key and critical
to the to being successful.
With this model, the goal is to ultimately decrease the need for high intensity
inpatient hospitalizations by empowering parents, caregivers
and trusted adults to be first responders in the community,
developed with
youth and mental and behavioral health providers.
The community learning programs will educate those who work
with young people to recognize the signs of someone struggling
as part of prevention and early intervention
rooted in the principles of youth psychological first aid.
The intervention component is focused on non-clinical interventions
that work and will provide adults with tools needed to respond to youth
and crisis, as well as provide youth with tools
needed to respond to their peers in crisis, support them
and help them get on the path to wellness and clinical.
If clinical interventions are needed, then the initiative will also provide
an accessible list of resources to coordinate access.
The learning programs will be accessible, scalable
and culturally responsive to meet the diverse needs
of the Seattle community, with special emphasis on the communities
that experience the highest burden of health inequity.
By creating a coordinated system
with all the sectors of the city, there won't be a wrong door.
Every door will be the right door for support and services for our youth
and families will have the opportunity to move beyond the current mental health
crisis to thriving and having our youth live to the fullest potential.
So thank you for listening for a moment, and I do pass it on to Director
Reba Gonzalez.
Good morning, everybody.
I was honored to work for the Seattle Fire Department for three decades
and now direct the CARE department, which has a911 call center and the
and is tasked with designing appropriate emergency responses
to folks experiencing a mental health crisis.
Our fire department here in Seattle made a huge contribution
to public health when it began the Medic one program in 1970.
This is when the first group of firefighters were trained as paramedics
with help from Harborview Medical Center and the University of Washington.
The success of Medic One taught that taught us that the community
can play a crucial role in prevention and rapid response to an emergency
and that non-medical
professionals can play a significant role in saving lives.
Building on the successful community engagement approach of Medic one
and the Medic two program was started in 1971
to provide training classes in CPR and choking techniques.
It was prompted by research showing that prompt bystander CPR
and doubles a patient's chances of becoming a long term survivor.
Reach Out
Seattle is inspired by the Medic One and Medic Two training programs.
When we think about how to strengthen youth resiliency and prevent mental health
crisis from happening, we can learn from the grassroots engagement approach.
Seattle Fire took to community engagement.
We will survey the landscape for what people and institutions
interact with our young people and especially identify who has influence
and craft an engagement strategy that is appropriate for the audience.
We will leverage the resources of libraries, community centers
and private sector.
We will design training for people who are not necessarily subject
matter experts and craft messaging that is clear, concise and memorable.
We will we will raise public awareness
about what a mental health crisis can look like,
especially at early stages, so our young people
do not go into adulthood without the tools they need to be successful.
Research
consistently demonstrates that mental health crisis is often
not identified or treated until around 14 years after symptoms appeared.
Think of all the suffering that could be alleviated or avoided
if we could close that gap.
I know that the kind of change we want for our young community
requires every part of our community to come together in a united commitment.
This is the spirit of One Seattle, and we are so honored to be part of this.
This these are our kids and they deserve our very best effort.
I'd like to now introduce Kate and Sony,
who is a Seattle student union representative.
You might have.
Hi, everyone.
My name is Chetan and I'm the executive director for the Seattle Student Union.
We're an organism.
Sorry about that.
We're an organization dedicated to making positive change in Seattle
and Washington State through student activism.
First of all, I want to thank all the city leaders here today
announcing this program and the introduction of Reach Out Seattle.
As a student, I, along with my peers, grew up in an increased crisis of gun
violence across the country since elementary school,
we've had to practice active lockdowns, hiding in a corner,
pulling down the blinds and staying absolutely
completely silent because we knew one day our lives would depend on it
during a lockdown.
You don't know what's happening or why.
You just remember your teacher hiding you as they hear
jiggling or shaking of the doorknob and then the pounding of the door.
In middle school, I was in two lockdowns, two lockdowns within the same year,
two moments where we knew that whoever it was, they were coming.
That feeling stays with you and it never goes away.
Every single hour and every single day.
That is how often students,
staff and teachers think about gun violence at school.
Gun violence and youth mental health are interconnected like no other issue.
Mental health issues also continue to rise among youth.
A new study from the CDC points out that 45% of youth had poor mental health,
and within the last year, 22% have seriously considered suicide.
That's an increase of over 10% over the past ten years.
Over the past two years, I've watched as my classmates mental
health deteriorates somewhat over the weight of social media.
But I know this something else
When students realize the crushing weight of the world's problems climate change,
mass shootings, huge economic disparities, COVID 19 and I'm sure there's more
that I'm missing, things can start to get hopeless.
Gen Z is the most tapped into current events, but it can come at a severe cost
to all the youth listening
know that we see you, we hear you, and we're here for you.
Adults need to be able to talk to youth about these issues and create spaces
both in school
and out of school where students and young people can feel like they belong,
whether that's through increase in counseling, service
services available at schools,
or simply just having a teacher or identifying who to talk to.
We need to know that we have a support system.
We not only need a support system, but when someone is in crisis, adults
need to do everything they can to reach and combat student or young person down.
It's going to take all of us to solve this increasing crisis.
Thank you. I want to
clap where
I now want to introduce Max Santiago and Ingraham High School
ninth grader.
All right, let's.
Hello, my name is Max Santiago.
And yeah, hi, my name is Max Santiago.
I'm a ninth grader at Ingraham High School.
And today I'm here to talk about mental health importance.
Over the past three years, mental health.
Thank you.
For amplification.
Over the past three years,
depression and suicide rates in teens has increased.
But why has it increased?
Well, that's because of COVID 19 Teens over
COVID 19 experienced a lot of isolation.
And through that isolation, not being able to talk to people
or knowing how to deal with the weight of the world at the time,
the after effects of COVID led
into serious depression for teens. And
it's important to talk about
this and understand it so that we can figure out ways
that we can get resources out there for teens who are struggling
and understand what it is
like to really be a teen at this age and time.
Because most people would think of teen mental health
as the time of when they were a teenager and go straight to how things
were for them seeming like that time was worse.
But everybody's
going to go through something and it's going to go in different ways,
but it matters and it matters now.
So that's why it's important to talk about mental health.
Thank you.
Okay.
The voice of the youth, powerful.
And this is not for amplification, it's just for recording.
They're all plugged into it.
So before I take some questions, I just want to say some closing remarks.
This work, this concept,
this this effort, there's a few folks I'd love to thank,
including the first lady, my wife, Joann Harrell.
I'd like to thank her publicly, and I'm going to thank some other people
that I want to just sort of use that as an example
that Joann and I have been together a long time.
And even though I try to keep a happy face on all the time, she could always tell
when something's bothering me.
I'm smiling.
What do you mean something's bothering me?
And I say that to say that
the safeguard that at least
we have in our family to
detect pain or anxiety or concern
that we have, that many people do not,
and sometimes it's untreated and asymptomatic.
And this work that we heard from our youth, that is why this is so important.
And having said that, I want to go down the list just to thank a few other folks,
our executive general manager, manager Adam Emery, a Dr.
Janine Jones from the University of Washington, Dr.
Walker Harding, who you heard from from Seattle Children's Hospital.
Jean Enersen .Where's Jean? She can she fix that mic and stuff?
Because we all know who Jean Enersen is
and thank you for your passion for this work and your leadership.
Seattle Department of Education Early Learning.
Seattle Public Schools.
Seattle Student Union Representatives
Chetan Soni and Noir Goldberg and I slaughter your names right?
Did I get was I in a ballpark?
Okay, that's all I ask. Okay.
Public health in Seattle and King County,
the Seattle Channel, who produced some excellent public service
announcements to raise awareness, the importance of youth mental health
that you will soon see on social media and television.
We have to get the word out.
This is almost like a we see the symptoms of it now.
We want people to know
that we're trying to actively and intentionally address the issue.
I also want to advertise
that this evening we'll have a teen town hall
and resource fair tonight at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center.
From 5 to 7 p.m..
I'll be there and many of our Cabinet members will be there again
to have a dialog with our youth about resources available and about this
effort that we're talking about this this morning.
This event is an opportunity for our youth to learn more about city and community
resources available to them, like employment and recreational opportunities.
What I'm talking about tonight. So we're excited to host that this evening.
And I want to thank
all of you, everyone here this not that does have a camera in front of them.
I want to thank all of you for your support when I talk about one Seattle.
I talked about everyone just
coming together as one recognizing
on this particular issue
the assistance that our youth need,
but more importantly, the opportunity we have to give them assistance.
Exciting stuff.
And with that, we'll take some questions.
But it started out with the intervention component
and just what that's going to look like.
Is there going to be
teachers being trained or is it going to be a proactive element
versus students coming in and asking for help with parents asking.
Yes, let me take a shot at it and then I'm going to ask
some folks around me might be able to put a little more meat on the bone.
So I, I early announced that we're looking around 12 sectors.
Let me describe those sectors are youth, of course,
parents, businesses, media, schools and school based health services.
Youth and families serving organizations, including those focused on youth
who are homeless or unstable housed first responders, designated crisis
responders, our unified care team, religious organizations, civic volunteer
organizations, including those serving immigrant communities,
health care providers, state, local and tribal governments,
and other organizations involved with youth and mental health care.
So what we've identified are 12 sectors, if you will, where we will get them
the training, the education, the resources, the ability to recognize
those who must be treated and dealt with and get them to the right resources.
So it's a sector
strategy
identifying where we think we could most effectively and efficiently
reach our youth who are in need and the weapons.
That training and intervention look like.
You mentioned it being like a concept in an effort.
Is anything concrete right now?
Yeah, I'll maybe refer to one of my someone with that has a d r
in front of their name too.
Would you like to
Is Dr.
Jones Maybe she could come a few bars.
Thank you for the questions.
This is built.
What we're doing is building the intervention component on principles
of psychological first aid, which is a evidence based approach
to doing interventions for mental health when people are in crisis.
And so the principles that we selected are safety is the first principle.
Second is calm and comfort.
A third principle is empowerment or self-efficacy.
A fourth is connection, and the fifth is hope.
And so by taking these five principles, we are designing a program
where people are going to learn
practical strategies on things to focus on, as well as getting scripts
for things to say in response to a crisis or a concern.
And so we want to build it out in a way that speaks to people
that are not mental health professionals per se, that any one of us can use it.
And the idea is that we're supposed to be able to be equipped
with the skills to respond to the mental health needs of youth.
But nothing is done yet.
And training is not available yet.
Not available yet, but it is outlined. Yes.
So you know, what a timeline for it.
We know a timeline which
fall.
Fall is the intended timeline.
And will it just be the social media and media ads?
How will it get dispersed to people?
Don't say,
did you hear your question?
So yeah, so this part is sorry,
I was not prepared for this.
So the social media component is beginning now.
We've done some videos with youth and then as well as with mental health
experts to kind of talk about what are the principles to
those are just getting exposed to what the concepts are and then the rollout
will actually be including individuals kind of teach the teach the public.
So having in a French intervention opportunity is to learn
and actually can continue to communicate within small groups
so people can learn in their own settings.
And as Dr.
Jones said, we're deployed to be rocking and rolling in full.
That's our goal to get that social media started with it.
There's still some workshops we're going to do.
So the conversation starting now, we hope to be an up and running and full.
And I just want to better introduce Dr. Janine Jones.
She's a psychologist and she's the associate
dean of the College of Education, University of Washington.
And sorry I didn't give you your due.
Any other questions? Yes.
You mentioned substance abuse and how you want to lead with compassion,
given the decision by the and the vote by the Seattle City Council last night
and kind of what's up in the air regarding prosecuting people
for drug possession, what is your stance on youth intervention?
Is treatment the first option, diversion tactics?
What's the plan for substance abuse? It is.
And what I've in, I'll I'll address
the issue about the city council.
That's what we're talking about,
that I've tried to make it very clear from this administration's standpoint.
We lead with intervention.
We lead with treatment that people who are suffering from both mental illness
or drug misuse,
health issues, it's a health issue.
And when I talk about One Seattle, I quickly talk about compassion and love.
And again, you know,
walking the streets of
of Ingraham just sort of reminds me when I was a kid in the dinosaur ages.
Yeah.
You get a little scrape or a little fight with someone
and you see the person next day and you brag about who won
because no one really knew. And life goes on.
There was no social media bullying.
There was no
gunplay to the level you see it now.
And we we know why people
sometimes will go left or go right into a life of
just not good things.
I'll just put it that way.
So, yes, we will lead with intervention, will lead with prevention,
will lead with care and most importantly,
we turn to our academicians for best practices.
Um, that's why we're so fortunate to have this kind of talent
on our intervention work.
So yes, we will lead with intervention.
The legislation that was voted on yesterday had no funding
or mention of treatment.
So what is the diversion plan for the youth or the adults
regarding treatment in Seattle for substance abuse? So
let me ask you a
question about, I think the post-Blake decision.
I think is that what you're alluding to? So I'll just I'll just be direct, okay.
Because you're
in the next several weeks.
And I talked to Councilmember Lewis this morning.
The next several weeks, I'll be meeting with
several people, including the city attorney,
the prosecuting attorney, Lisa manning, health specialist
treatment providers, people that are our police department,
our law enforcement advocates to come up with really
what I'll call the spirit of a post-Blake world.
Okay.
What happened yesterday at city council For those that followed it,
I watched portions of the hearing that the process,
I think, was less than ideal, that what should have happened
is when we look at the first issue comes up is what is the spirit of the law?
What are we trying to accomplish? What is the culture in Seattle?
And then my watch
is going to be one of compassion, one of treatment.
And I'm asking our officers in this work that we're going to do
is to look at it from very to put it in a very simple terms,
two lenses.
One is, is the person a threat to themselves?
Are they unhealthy?
Are they are they living the kind of life, for whatever
reason, untreated trauma, institutional racism,
whatever, had led them to a passive
harming themselves or drug use
and recognize this person needs help
on the other lens?
Are they a threat to others?
The fact of the matter is we have to make lawful
and constitutional arrest when people are a threat to others.
There's two lenses by which we must embrace the black decision.
I've publicly talked about the war on drugs
and talked about my experience growing up in the Central District in the sixties
and the seventies and the devastation it took on families and communities.
We're doing some of the reparation work right now,
so we're not leading with let's just arrest everybody.
That is not the spirit of what came out of the Blake decision.
So I'll meet with the city council members, will meet with law enforcement,
and we'll figure this out together.
And I look forward to these discussions.
We'll be doing that work this month in June.
And so in July you'll see the outcome of this work.
Thank you for the question.
And I had a sneaking feeling it was going to come up.
I would be following that.
Regarding treatment, the legislature put aside
tens of millions of dollars for treatment and other related programs.
Do you have any indication
how much Seattle will be getting and if that'll come due July one or.
Yeah.
So, Joel, a few things, and I don't want to get in front of myself
because my concern was staying right in back of you.
I think in July we'll be able to answer that question better.
And there's also here's here's a here's a problem or challenge we have.
If someone is engaging in behavior that is either a threat
to others or a threat to themselves, where do we take that person?
What do we do with that person?
And so we're looking
during these next several weeks where we take that person for treatment.
Okay,
That's going to be the critical decision.
And the other part you have, Chief Gonzales here, that is we're creating
this third department and it's taking some time
because we also know that we need
third this third department as a first responder to people
that perhaps are are a threat to themselves.
And where where does your people take them?
So we're going to give you some specific answers.
I want to do this work collaboratively, which quite candidly,
you know, they were on the dais trying to figure this out yesterday,
support the legislation.
I'm not on the city council.
My position was not to support it or defend.
And my position was to make sure the legislative process worked out.
I would have done it differently.
If you want to know, quite honestly, I would have had a committee meeting
to have some robust discussions to listen to the experts
and the health community.
How can you not
and listen to those that want to be safe?
They're not these aren't bad people.
They just want to feel safe around bus stops and in inside busses and
and in their neighborhoods.
They want to feel safe.
They're not bad.
People
have this discussion
and come up with something that meets everyone's needs.
It's not that hard.
That is a legislative process.
It yesterday
I my heart went out for all nine of them trying to figure this out.
But we're going to figure it out.
That's the good news.
We're going to figure it out. We're going to figure it out together.
We're going to put in the work this month and July
will up with some policies.
And I again, the specific answers where we take people that are in need and I,
I ask everyone that can hear my voice right now
that when I see two or three people
huddle around tinfoil,
that could be my friend.
That could be someone that I went to high school with.
My first impulse is how can I help them?
That's my first.
But that's the mayor you elected, and that will always be my first impulse.
But I have to recognize that
someone else may see a threat in that person,
and perhaps they're pushing a stroller with their child.
I have to recognize that they need to feel safe.
That is the calibration.
And we need to figure this out in Seattle, because a whole
is struggling with this right now.
And I talk to mayors around the country on this.
I believe we could figure this out here because we have the right people.
We certainly have the right youth.
Okay.
Oh, I was going to set down the questions
and that was my that was my mike drop.
Go ahead. You got it, sir.
So you said you watch some of the hearing.
You probably heard
some of the people who said if legislation like that is passed,
we're immediately going to go back to the days of racist
policing and communities of color being targeted.
What do you say to those folks?
I mean, you're the one and the chief is here.
You know, you're the two that are in charge of that effort.
A fair question.
I think many of you know that I went to every precinct, met
with every officer at every shift
to impress upon them the saddle that I want
to see, particularly in the eyes of our police officers.
You look at our submittals to the federal court
from the consent decree, you see our use of force
is admirable.
We're doing what we're supposed to do
that I'm hopeful that the spirit and this great leader
of our police department, the spirit of leading with compassion,
seeing the face of someone you're about to arrest and a face
that someone that needs help, but also being ready to do your job.
That under my watch, I mean, I'm
that this fear
of going back to a war on drugs is not going to happen.
It's just not going to happen.
That is the beauty, I think, of having someone that grew up on these streets
at T.T. Minor Meany and Garfield in the sixties,
and I tell stories about that
that you have a certain lens and the lens is always to try to help people.
I understand mistrust of government.
I understand, I understand that.
But that's not going to happen here.
It's not going to happen.
Listen, my
administration's not going to happen.
After the tragedy that happened in November,
the student union asked that they bring the ratio from 300
to 1 300 students to one counselor down to 200 to 1.
Has any headway been made on that effort?
300 counselors.
I'm going to turn to a Quaker.
And from a bulldog to a Quaker, Can you help me up on that one?
Dr. Johnson?
So we're trying to create
an ecosystem of safety and wellness for our students,
and we're trying to treat the need instead of ratios.
And so we're trying to understand collectively.
That's why you see this group of people here,
what can we do as a collective, as a partnership to find resources,
to be resourceful for how we can provide services to students?
I wouldn't focus on the ratios because the ratios are a made up thing.
However, we have deployed more staff to help students
to help principal flow here in other places to another schools,
105 schools to have more resources so they can serve students.
And so again, I want to press upon this body and us
when we talk about one Seattle, we're trying to create this ecosystem.
We can't do it on our own.
We're trying to do this in a collaborative way with evidence based research,
with some of the enforcement folks, mental health professionals.
All of us are coming together to.
Try to wrap around that.
Just INGRAM But this whole entire city in the school district.
And so I think you'll see our efforts being braided together over the next
year or so.
But for anyone who wants
answer the term psychological first aid, can someone unpack that?
But I just think that's a very interesting term that I have not heard before.
Psychological first aid.
I know I didn't use that term, so I'm not going to fill that one with anyone.
Let's take a shot at this.
You didn't redefine French.
I didn't know.
So that that is a term from there is actually a package of of ways
that people have designed the interventions to support people
when they're in crisis.
And the reason why we say psychological is because oftentimes
we don't make the connection between mental health and health.
We separate them.
And most people don't pay attention to the fact that mental health is health,
that they're one in the same.
The body doesn't know the difference between the two.
So when we talk about psychological first aid, we're doing that intimate care
for what our minds and bodies need without paying attention
to the other parts that we usually do when it's first aid,
like taking care of stopping bleeding and those kinds of trauma.
The reason why the PFA approach or psychological first
aid approach is used in crises is because we often forget
that people have to have immediate needs taken care of first.
And so it gives us a way of being able to address those immediate needs.
And then moving to the ongoing long term mental health approaches are typically
long term, regular ongoing interventions.
But psychological first aid is intended to be that first thing that we do. So
regarding this,
Garfield High School recently had three shootings outside of it.
No students were involved.
But given that and the incident here,
the recommendations were made to increase
security video cameras, both those sorts of things.
What is kind of the line, I guess, that
you see between, you know, safety and also comfort?
You know, if students are being watched or, you know, metal detectors,
is there any psychological kind of negative impact on students
feeling like they're being watched all the time?
Dr. Jones, do you want to answer that?
Maybe you could say, um,
did you did you fully understand the question?
Cause I got lost a little bit there.
A little bit.
And I'm actually going to go back
to the psychological first aid, because actually this is actually
it's actually
good because it's actually been part of our work as well.
It's you want to have an aura.
You want to get people to understand that it's normal to not feel normal,
an abnormal situation,
especially when you have shootings that have happened around Garfield
or you've had a shooting inside Ingraham High School
and you're having to take that first several, several days
for just that unwind and unpackaged that because you have to make
sure your needs are being met, but also then trying to get into
some level of normalcy and practice.
So when we've we talk about safety and security and and stuff,
you know, people immediately
say like we need officers to be present or we need security staff to be present.
But you're also trying to make sure
that the emotional need is being addressed as well.
And so that's really what this
program will be about, is really trying to make sure
the emotional need is being about is being supported.
But when it comes to actually the safety and security, we are trying
we are working closely with the schools,
not necessarily it's not going to be necessarily having officers drive around,
you know, constantly because we don't want
we don't want the youth to feel that level of trauma that.
Is there some concern that I'm going to have an issue go on.
We do get threats.
You know, routinely throughout the school.
So we have to assess them and triage them, try to determine like,
do we need to have a presence?
And sometimes
we want to try to minimize that presence because we don't want to create trauma
among youth.
So when when a student says they've been in lockdown a couple of times
in a year, and I can tell you one school has been in lockdown.
They were in lockdown seven days out of a 14 day period just a couple of years ago
because of the location of the school and where it's at.
And so you're you want to make sure at that point,
then you do have a lot more presence of police officers
and trying to make sure that people do have that level of safety.
But you also need those officers to be interacting in a positive manner
with the students and in a non enforcement way
to try and assure the students that it is not just level of
of making sure that we're going to be doing punitive action
and go around to them and their friends.
So it's that balance and that's what we're constantly assessing,
working with the school district all the time,
especially in around Garfield's, especially at around the 9400 block of
of Rainier Avenue because there are several schools in around that location.
But we're constantly assessing because we don't want to be part of the
the contribution of trauma.
We want to make sure that we're supporting our youth,
that they have the ability to thrive and have the ability to be able to
to learn in an environment.
But also at times, there is going to be times
where they're going to the youth are saying,
we also do need an officer, because just the nature of what's going
on, we need to have a little support.
So we're always constantly in that communication and being able to assess that.
Thank you.
Again, I just would add that there's a lot of guns out there.
You know, last year we recovered over 1350 firearm
In our first three months of this year, over 400 guns.
And so as we continue to
address the issue, we're doing everything possible to keep our youth safe.
I'm going to take one more question, I think,
and then we're going to call it I heard that bell go off.
So but can someone just address the prevention piece of this
and how can community be involved?
A lot of the strategies, adequate sleep, diet, exercise,
limiting social media, it seems to fall on youth themselves and families.
So how does the rest of the community.
Get involved in the prevention aspect? Very good. Thank you.
Excellent question.
Could one of our and this would be our last comment.
Thank you. Good way to take it home.
Yeah.
AM Prevention is so many different things and I think that
you know sleep
how how many hours are you working?
I think it is part of the part family.
It's part school.
It's part you know what what's happening in the community.
It's Parks and Recreation, who is also involved
and, you know, the work, study, work, all of these things, I think
will help with prevention because what kids need is to feel valued,
to know they're not alone, to have the basic
things like sleep, food, housing, those kinds of things,
and that all of those things go beyond the family.
And what we want to do is pull all the sectors together
to make sure when we see a kid in crisis that we're actually addressing it
in the right way.
And a lot of addressing a lot of these things like food insecurity,
how you're going to have a job so that you can, you know,
learn industry, learn how to help possibly with your family.
All of those things help with psychological discredit,
distress and prevention and with all the sectors working together,
we can really pull a lot of those resources
and make them available in a very visible way for kids.
So I think it is some in the family
or where a young person lives, but it's also still
everybody else that's around the community that the child lives in.
Or teenager.
Thank you.
The takeaway for me has been in
looking at the development of this is
we don't want it just to fall on the youth.
You may know things that we don't know.
We want to use that as a tool, but it can't just fall on you.
It has a fall also on the community has assets to us.
We'll get them the help,
but we're putting the net out there, the structure out there
to those 12 sectors and the communities welcome and together we'll get through it.
Thank you very much, everyone. Have an awesome day.
All right.