CHESAPEAKE, Va. — On Saturday, Central Library held the tenth annual Youth Mental Health Forum, hosted by Chesapeake School Board Member, Sam Boone and a panel of mental health experts.
Those speaking at the panel included Santina Ribero, a mental health professional, Dr. Jamitta Covington of JC Counseling, and Lissette Lorenz and Angelina Younes, both with lived experience involving mental health.
Topics included early warning signs and symptoms, treatment and resources and preventing teen suicide.
Among those speaking at the forum was 15-year-old student Angelina Younes.
She says she's used music to fight her own battles with mental health and thinks social media and screen time contribute to some of her peers having depression.
"Because social media is just so unrealistic and its an unrealistic standard of what people should look like," explained Younes. "Teens are going through so many changes within their bodies and its hard for them to accept these changes because they're not used to them and social media doesn't help because people have different body changes every single day,"
As a reminder, if you or a loved one is struggling with mental health the suicide and crisis lifeline number is 9-8-8.
