Ben Garbacz/Daily Mining Gazette Andy Kalcich gave a presentation on the Green Bandana Project to the CCISD Board of Education and staff during the board meeting on Tuesday. The project is meant to address mental health concerns and needs within schools.

HANCOCK — At the Copper Country Intermediate School District board of education meeing Tuesday, CCISD Mental Health Services Specialist Andy Kalcich gave a presentation on the Green Bandana Project, a program focused on mental health concerns and needs within schools. The project began after an observed increase in anxiety, depression, stress and low self esteem in students.

Kalcich said 13.3 percent of Copper Country students were referred for mental health support, which coincides with the national average of students in need of support. He said the CCISD would like to see the numbers come down, and even on the national leve the number is too high.

“Most referrals involve anxiety, stress or low self esteem,” he explained. “Our goal is to reduce these numbers over time. So over time we expect the referrals might tick up a little bit with this program, but overall we will hopefully see a decrease in the amount of referrals coming in due to the positive outcome of this program and getting students involved in this peer to peer program to help open up conversations between peers and to create a welcoming and inclusive environment in our schools.”

Kalcich shared some national statistics from the CDC, which revealed 20.4 percent of students seriously considered suicide and 9.5 have attempted suicide. Suicide is the leading cause of death in children from ages 10 to 14 and the third leading cause in ages 15 to 20.

“Mental illness rates are rising faster among the 14 to 24 year old age range and 79 percent of children with mental health struggles never receive treatment. One in 10 young people experience a mental health illness in their lifetime. So these stats alone are another reason that we wanted to put another thing in place to help our students cope with some of these things and to find the correct resources to get the help that they need,” Kalcich said.

The Green Bandana Project began at the University of Wisconsin, and has since spread to multiple locations throughout the country. Kalcich learned of the program while in a master’s program at Michigan Tech. Outreach for the program began at the end of last school year and Kalcich has seen Hancock, Chassell and Dollar Bay Schools fully trained in the Green Bandana Program. Participating students, teachers and school staff are trained in suicide prevention and learn of warning signs and symptoms in themselves and loved ones.

“It’s not training them to be counselors by any means,” Kalcich explained. “This is just so that they know the signs and symptoms to look for, and then it teaches them the resources they have in the school and in the community to help reach out, which in the schools is myself and our mental health team, and we are in constant contact with them to make sure that they’re doing okay and that we have all the resources where we need them at that time.”

Houghton-Portage Township Schools will receive its training on Monday and Lake Linden-Hubbell Schools will be trained on Dec. 5. Trained schools have monthly meetings and the CCISD will check in on the schools periodically on the trained students and school personnel. Kalcich said the schools will have different awareness campaigns and reducing stigma campaigns to better inform the school bodies of mental health issues.

“I’ve gotten requests from parents and other school staff members from the schools who aren’t yet participating, asking about this, wanting to be involved,” he said. “Parents have reached out to me, personally. Students have actually gone into principal’s offices and asked if they can get this going. So it’s taking a kind of getting a mind of its own and taking off.”