It’s jarring. One in 10 Butler County students in sixth-, eighth-, 10th- and 12th-grades seriously considered suicide in the past year, according to the results of a recent survey.

Within this group, the highest percentage came from high school sophomores. About 19% of 10th-graders surveyed in Butler County reported contemplating suicide.

That’s nearly one in every five 10th-graders.

It’s a hard statistic to hear, but children all around us are struggling with their mental health. With numbers this high, these are children that we all know — our relatives and neighbors.

And though alarming, this statistic wasn’t surprising to Brandon Savochka, Butler County Human Services director and mental health administrator, who was quoted in an article Monday in the Butler Eagle.

The number of people facing mental health struggles according to the survey results has not changed significantly in recent years. While numbers have shown upward trends, there’s been no staggering spike in the numbers.

The statistics point to an ongoing issue which, if anything, Savochka said, isn’t even reflective of the impact of COVID-19 yet.

Maggie Caesar, vice president of clinical services at Glade Run Lutheran Services in Zelienople, called the situation a crisis.

She’s right. Though these numbers aren’t surprising or up drastically from recent years, it is a crisis to potentially lose any young person. The mental health of our youth needs to be a priority.

We need to listen to our children and show them that it’s OK to ask for help.

We are their example. We need to take care of our own mental health. We need to speak kindly about and offer support to those who seek help for their mental health.

It’s critical that we wipe away any stigma that could prevent our children from asking for help. Stigma should not be a factor in whether someone seeks help.

And, of course, beyond the stigma, it’s important that we tackle other barriers to mental health, too. In Monday’s article, Caesar also noted staffing shortages as an obstacle to better mental health care.

We need to take a hard look at how we can address these issues, too, but stigma, it’s senseless.

We can do better. We can be kinder. We can talk about our own mental health. We can assure children that they are not alone in their mental health struggles.

— TL