NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — If you happen to meet 5-year-old Blaire Mack, she'll tell you how excited she is to be a kindergartner in Newport News, and she loves to read.
Mack just moved to the area with her mother Portia Wyatt who recently retired after more than 20 years in the Air Force.
Wyatt knows the important of mental health.
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"I have been a big advocate for mental health my whole career," Wyatt said.
It's mental health that brought Wyatt and her daughter to the first event of the Family Empowerment series hosted by the Newport News Schools Family and Community Engagement (FACE) at Heritage High School Thursday night.
Wyatt's personal mission was to find resources that could potentially assist her daughter with moving to a new environment.
"With the retirement and the movement and transition for my daughter, I know that that can take a big hit on her mental health as well," Wyatt told News 3's Jay Greene.
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According to the National Alliance on Mental illness, nearly one in five young people aged 13 to 18 will experience a mental health crisis every year.
Resources and outreach programs lined the halls of Heritage High.
"We need to provide our families with tangible resources that they can really apply to their lives, said Tiffany Jones, the Family and Community Engagement coordinator. "This needs to be applicable resources. that's why we have things for this because we see that their mental health is being affected."
Experts like Raimanda Thompson with Next Step Therapeutic Services LLC said mental health resources geared for students are needed now more than ever.
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"There’s a lot of crime in the area, most of them are with out teenagers…a lot of gangs, peer pressure, things of that nature," Thompson said.
Thompson said those external influence can impact mental health, and, in turn, affect grades and school performances.
Portia Wyatt said it's simple. Mental health matters. But it's important that people know their own feelings.
"Being in the military, we're kind of taught to suppress it, in a sense," she said. "But you have to feel those emotions so that you can learn, grow, figure it out and and move on."
For those who might be struggling with mental health, help is always available by calling the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.
