Mental Health Education Improves Lives

We all know that education and early intervention are crucial to improved mental health recovery outcomes, and NAMI has been providing mental health education to students in grades six through twelve in nearly every Bucks County school district for over twelve years. That’s great, right? It is, but together, we can do more.

Our Youth Programs Director, Mia Scocozzo, noticed that some middle-schoolers, after seeing a NAMI Ending the Silence presentation, would approach her and say, “I wish I had known about NAMI before my hospitalization in elementary school.”

Mia, a former middle school teacher, got to work writing and designing an age-appropriate mental health curriculum for students in grades kindergarten through fifth based on literacy level that focuses on naming emotions, then provides basic resources and skills to cope with and manage them. Upon completion, students become mental health superheroes like NAMI MAN. With help from the NAMI Bucks team, and with Innovation funding from NAMI National, the new “Small Talk” program was researched, developed, and ready for students with successful pilots launched in Bristol Borough and New Hope-Solebury School Districts.