What is Hope Squad? Local kids lean on each other for mental health help

• Grant Us Hope was founded in 2016 by Diane Egbers, who lost her son to suicide in 2015. Grant Egbers was 15 at the time he died.
• There are more than 200 schools with Hope Squads across the Tristate and Hope Squads are in schools in 30 states.
• Students told The Enquirer there is a disconnect between kids and adults when talking about mental health. Most students said they wish parents would be better listeners.

When it comes to mental health issues, local kids are begging the adults in their lives: "Listen to us."

Mental health concerns for youth have never been greater. A 2021 survey of local students in grades 7-12 found more than half reported having high levels of stress, and one in 10 said they have contemplated suicide.

Local experts, kids respond to rising youth mental health concerns: What's being done to help our kids?

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When kids feel they can't get help from adults, they turn to their peers. Those peers most trusted to help classmates in mental health crises are nominated to be on Hope Squads at schools with the program. Grant Us Hope, a local nonprofit organization, has implemented the peer-to-peer suicide prevention program in more than 240 schools across Ohio. Hope Squads are in 30 states across the country, and Ohio has the most squads of any state besides Utah.

Hundreds of Ohio Hope Squad student leaders and advisors convened recently at the Lakota West Freshman Campus in West Chester for their first regional gathering since 2019. The Enquirer asked several students at the conference what they wish adults knew about mental health and youth. Here's what they said:

• Braeden Fedders, 18, is a senior at Mason High School. He said some adults chalk up the youth mental health crisis to a generational trend and have a sort of "helpless attitude" about the problem. "It can be, like, kind of demeaning," he said.
• Ryan Faessler, 15, is a sophomore at Loveland High School. He said the world has changed since most parents were in school. "There are just different challenges for kids these days," he said. "And I think that might be difficult for some people to understand."
• Keeghan Wills, 17, is a senior at Middletown High School. She said when kids tell their parents they are depressed, oftentimes parents will respond by saying they have "nothing to be depressed about." That's false, she said. "I feel like parents definitely need to be there for their kids and to watch out for those signs."
• Clark Velasco, 17, is a senior at Middletown High School and said adults need to listen to kids more and be more empathetic. "Put yourself in their shoes and try to truly understand what they're feeling," he said.

Students involved with Hope Squads at Milford High School and Lakota East High School expressed similar concerns to The Enquirer earlier this school year, describing a disconnect between kids and adults when talking about mental health.

Hope Squad students at the conference also identified the biggest issues they see contributing to poor mental health in kids:

• Social isolation.
• Comparison.
• Academic pressure, social pressure and/or pressure to be "perfect."
• Family issues.
• Social media and technology.

Social media is a common scapegoat for youth mental health concerns. But it's not the lone culprit, Fedders said.

"I get a little irritated when adults just like to only say mental health issues are because of social media," he said. "But I don't think that's necessarily true."

The best thing adults trying to help kids can do, Fedders said, is bring kids into the conversation about solutions.

"I feel like there can never be enough resources in the school building for struggling kids," Wills said.

What is Grant Us Hope?

Grant Us Hope is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Sharonville that oversees Hope Squads in Ohio and Indiana. It was founded by Diane Egbers after her son, Grant Egbers, died by suicide in 2015. He was 15 and a student at St. Xavier High School.

When she lost her son, Egbers said, she started searching for a way to help other struggling kids so no other parents would have to face the same fate.

"We just didn't see that he was losing hope," she told The Enquirer.

Grant Us Hope was founded in 2016 with a goal to change the culture and stigma around mental health, making it "OK to not be OK," Egbers said. She believes if Grant had gotten help a year or two before he took his own life, things may have been different.

Seeing more than 700 Hope Squad student members come together earlier this month gave her an "extraordinary feeling," Egbers said. She loves seeing how proud kids are to be leaders, and is confident they will take the skills gained through Hope Squad with them as they become adults and move into other communities.

"What gets me the most is just how the Hope Squad kids embody the spirit of our son," she said. "These kids are going out into the world and this is the generation that is going to change the stigma."

Kids helping kids: Is that too much pressure for young adults?

Hope Squad students always report red flags to an adult at school, Scott Inskeep, Grant Us Hope CEO, said. The students are trained to notice the signs of suicide and other mental health issues and how to reach out to their peers exhibiting those warning signs.

Fedders said he mostly notices red flags on social media. Sometimes kids who are struggling post alarming messages online, and that's what could prompt a Hope Squad member to reach out. If the interaction starts via social media, Fedders said, he tries to shift the conversation to in-person or at least FaceTime.

"Because that's the best way to communicate," Fedders said. "There can be lots of obstacles when you are going through text, and many things that you're missing, like the tone of voice.

"The most important thing is just to try and make a safe space for that person and make them feel like they can trust you."

But sometimes the effort to create a safe space can be a burden to Hope Squad members. Wills said she tried helping a peer who was "going through a hard time" last school year.

After the interaction, she thought of all of the things she could have or should have done or said differently to help.

"I just walked away feeling like I didn't do enough," Wills said. "And that really stuck with me for a while."

The responsibility is overwhelming sometimes, Wills said. But at the end of the day, she recognizes that any help at all is adding positivity to someone else's life.

Kids talk to each other about mental health regardless, Inskeep said. And students are the best resources adults have to understand which kids might be struggling. Hope Squad adds structure to the conversations that are already happening among youth, and provide additional resources to students who want to help their friends.

"It's just one other way to help those kids be the conduit, if you will, to an adult who can get them the help that they need," Inskeep said.

"This is about saving kids' lives."