![]() ![]() In 2019, the SafeUT app received 30,000+ submissions from Utah students in need of mental health counseling. “Now it’s 24/7 if somebody wants to do that.” “It used to be you’d go to school and be bullied during the day,” says Ross Van Vranken, executive director of UNI. They recognize just how vulnerable a young life surrounded by screens can be. ![]() Licensed therapists from the University Neuropsychiatric Institute (UNI) are humbled to take each call. Usually, confiding in friends offers no solution talking to parents brings no comfort. Here, problems pushed down during the day resurface: bullying, anxiety, substance abuse, and general stress. During this time, students are out of school, have eaten dinner with their family, and are alone in their rooms where they feel safest. That often means late at night, as the app’s busiest times are between 7 pm and midnight. Users can avoid lengthy waitlists, psychiatric provider shortages, and costly deductibles to find help right when and where they need it. Launched in 2016 by a statewide commission, SafeUT taps into the tech divide by offering around-the-clock crisis intervention. So how do we do that? To help a suffering, tech-dependent generation, can we meet them where they are? The answer lies in the SafeUT app.įree. Between physician shortages and spotty health insurance coverage, struggling teens are often forced to wait several weeks for a simple consultation-weeks beset by the very issues they sought help for in the first place.Ĭhildren like Julia deserve better. But for every 100,000 Utah children in need of mental health care, there are only six child psychiatrists. Julia Ludlow was one of the lucky ones-with her parents’ help, she soon saw a mental health counselor. It can be a choice to end life after a string of painful experiences: job stress, a breakup, the inability to connect with others. Suicide isn’t often a decision made in a single moment. By December, 30 other teens would do the same. In January 2013, 12-year-old Dylan Aranda died of suicide. There’s Lilith Shlosman, who first attempted suicide as a freshman due to bullying and other factors. An unrelenting stigma and limited access to mental health care has been linked to a disturbing rise in suicides across the state, with some victims as young as nine. While Julia felt utterly alone, there are many more like her. “When I checked the box that said I wanted to kill myself, the fear on my parents’ faces was something I’ve never seen before,” she says. ![]() ![]() Something broke inside of her, and she agreed to meet with the school counselor and complete a mental evaluation form. While collecting water to wash down the rest of her pills, Julia ran into a classmate and shared her secret in between sobs. Later that afternoon, she would retreat into a quiet alcove near her school cafeteria in northern Utah and attempt to end her life. She felt invisible, suffocating under the isolation, until one fall day like any other in 2015, when she packed a dusty Altoid mint tin with as many Tylenol pills as she could fit. After years of struggling to make friends, she had resigned herself to a life of solitude: quiet rides home on the school bus and nights cooped up in her bedroom, hermit-like, with no one to talk to.ĭespite book smarts and a gentle demeanor, Julia struggled to connect. As a child, loneliness dogged Julia Ludlow like an unwanted shadow. ![]()
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