Education and Suicide Prevention with Louis Knight

Education and Suicide Prevention with Louis Knight

The world in 2020 isn’t the easiest place to navigate. The coronavirus pandemic is amplifying mental health issues among Gen Z, who feel stressed, isolated, and worried about the future in light of isolation and uncertainty. Suicide is currently the second leading cause of death among Gen Z and increased 56% between 2007-2017 with 10-24-year-olds. Pandemic or not, many schools and universities don’t offer adequate support for their students who are struggling with their mental health.

On September 22, The Conversationalist Founder and CEO Sophie Beren joined British-born singer-songwriter Louis Knight and a group of inspiring Gen Z panelists to discuss education and suicide prevention. Louis brought sensitivity and experience to the conversation and amplified each panelist’s voices as they shared their perspectives and stories on their mental health journeys, resources in schools, and ways to best support friends and family.

A (British) Idol

Our host, Louis, recently competed as a finalist on Season 18 of American Idol. His songs are personal and reflect his raw emotions, the most recent of which, “Save a Little Love,” was released in October. He’s also an ongoing advocate of suicide prevention, an issue that is deeply personal for him. When he was in high school, he lost one of his best friends to suicide, which he shared with the panel attendees at the top of the panel.

How would you define mental health?

“Mental health is so much more than how you feel, panelist Deborah Olatunji said. “It’s the community you surround yourself by.” She noted that in school, people don’t always have a community to lean on. Olatunji is an education activist, the author of Unleashing Your Innovative Genius, and a freshman in the School of Nursing at UPenn.

Satvik Sethi, 22-year old mental health activist and social entrepreneur, said that mental health should be as important as physical health, and it’s important to normalize conversations around it. “I strongly believe one of the most important aspects of mental health is that everyone has it,” he said.

How much do you prioritize mental health?

Hannah Lottenberg, a UPenn senior studying Communications, and Sociology, said she prioritizes her mental health over everything. “If we’re not secure in our mental health, we can’t participate in other aspects of our lives such as school [and] relationships,” she said. 

Do you ever check up on the mental health of friends and family?

Nick Kimble, an African American entrepreneur, and content creator said he now checks on his friends regularly, but he didn’t always. He’s also a believer in the importance of spreading good energy to others. “A simple smile can go such a long way,” he said. 

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Louis agreed with Nick’s point. “You never know what kind of day the person on the street is having,” he said.

Densika Ravindiralingam, a high school student from Toronto and the co-founder of Mindscape, a youth organization focused on mental health, said the pandemic’s challenges has highlighted the importance of this for her. “One thing I’ve noticed is a lot of us have been starting to reflect on our identities and what we prioritize and don’t prioritize,” she said. “I think the pandemic has been a wake-up call for a lot of us.” 

Why is there such a stigma around mental health?

“There’s a concern that talking about it is going to give people ‘ideas,’”  Mason Bernardo, a 21-year-old student, activist, and GLAAD Campus Ambassador said. “It creates a difficult mindset where it’s taboo to talk about things.” 

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How is mental health impacting people in school? Has your school been addressing it?

Avery Bielski, a high school senior and actress from LA, said that her school is making it a priority to address mental health this year, but they weren’t as active in handling it before that. This issue is personal because she took time away from school to deal with her mental health. She is currently working on creating an organization called Embrace the Anxiety. 

Louis commended her for taking time off to prioritize mental health and circled back to the prevalence of mental health stigmas and prioritization. “If you broke your arm or something, you’d take time off,” he said. “The world needs to see mental health as hand in hand with physical health.” 

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Alisa Gonzalez, a student at Florida Atlantic University, agreed with Avery and said more mental health resources have become available at this time. She’s had professors who encourage students to take mental health days throughout the semester. 

Hannah echoed this experience but said the resources available on her campus are student-driven and have become more accessible because they have expressed the need for it. She added that she wants her University to destigmatize resources and highlight students with experience using them, so more students feel comfortable accessing them in the future.

What do you think schools or teachers could be doing differently or better to provide more hope to students?

Deborah emphasized the importance of investing in social and emotional learning. “If we move toward an education that is more emotionally supportive, as opposed to just pushing students out of school and to the next step as soon as possible, we’d have people open to talking about going to therapy or struggling with mental health,” she said. 

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Can you think of any other solutions?

Satvik recently graduated from college, where he did extensive research on mental health and has observed the disparity in resources for students. Regarding the upcoming election, he said that mental health support has to come from the top. “What we need is to go beyond just checking in on people, but realizing all of the things that impact our mental health [such as] climate change, police brutality, affordable housing, healthcare. Let’s go beyond checking in, even though it’s important,” he said. “We can’t talk about suicide prevention without talking about all these issues that take such a huge mental health toll on our communities.”

Louis agreed and also brought up the issue of therapy and other resources being too costly for people. He’s been in therapy for four years but recognizes this isn’t accessible to everyone. “There are so many people who don’t have that same privilege,” he said.  

Louis turned the conversation toward making comparisons on social media, which intersects with many of the topics The Conversationalist covers. “Let’s have more conversations; let’s be more realistic about it,” he said about choosing to post on a day he was struggling with his mental health.

What are some practical ways to check in with conversations and start conversations about mental health?

“Vulnerability is our greatest strength when it comes to talking to anyone,” Nick said. “The key is to show you’re open, show you don’t judge.” 

How has this conversation broken your echo chamber? 

Deborah learned that everyone has an important perspective on mental health and can create policy changes that stem from our conversations about it. “Mental health is at the intersection of every issue,” she said. 

Mason said that it’s essential to lead by example and to be transparent about your emotions. “I’ve gotten a fresh viewpoint on how I want to go about things in the future,” he said.  

Avery learned about the intersection of mental health and education. “It makes me want to broach the topic at my school to see how we can better the community,” she said. 

Louis said he hoped to continue the conversation going forward. “It is going to fall on Gen Z,” he said. “All of you seem so ready to take charge of that, and I’m so grateful to share this generation with you. I think we are going to make a change.” 

After the panelists headed out, Louis joined Sophie for a Q&A session. He spoke about his mental health in light of the pandemic, his experience with The Conversationalist, and his journey as a musician and songwriter--mainly through his experience on American Idol and writing the song, “Change.”

Join The Conversationalist for plenty more panels in the weeks ahead, featuring important conversations about topics that impact Gen Z’ers. Follow The Conversationalist on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok to learn about how you can enter to be featured on a future panel and text UNIFY to 1 (877) 222-1119 to join our community and connect with members.