BUFFALO, N.Y. — The students of the Buffalo String Works quartet pull back their bows and play Richard Meyer’s “Dragon Hunter.”

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. adolescents were experiencing a mental health crisis. All indications suggested that the pandemic exacerbated this — especially among youth most impacted by school closures and isolation including low-income and students of color. That's according to data in the COVID Experiences Survey by the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention.

While New York students start their third school year amid the COVID-19 pandemic this month, more solutions are popping up across the state to address this growing need, including a peer-led cafe by the Buffalo String Works (BSW) and in-school social workers by Catholic Charities of Buffalo.

BSW helps students who are refugees, immigrants and those who have long called Buffalo home, including violinist Teresa Kyaw, a ninth-grade student at Buffalo Seminary, whose family came here from a refugee camp after fleeing Burma.

“Because of COVID, we were all separated and we couldn’t see each other, and things were really bad,” Kyaw said. “I know personally I wasn’t doing that well mentally just seeing and knowing our teachers cared for us and knowing that I wasn’t going through this alone.”

Kway, who is one of the four quartets that played “Dragon Hunter'' sits on BMW's student council along with Snow Queen, a ninth-grade student at Nichols School, and her friend.

The nonprofit received more than $50,000 in grant funding from Generator Z, in partnership with the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, to create a student-centered cafe for peers to connect, study and have access to mental health support.

BSW was one of six school-based programs that received grants for emotional and mental health this year in Western New York.

"The programs are all student-led and designed. In addition to the grant money, the recipients also receive a stipend of up to $1,000, said Abir Ali, director of Generator Z. "This is a space where teens get to learn about all the things that they don’t learn about in school,” Ali said of the importance of programs like BSW.

"My father wanted me to have the opportunity to play an instrument because he never had the chance to," said Mohamed Aakil, a ninth-grade student at Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts, member of the student council and of the quartet.

BSW was a place where he could learn music but also connect with others. When schools closed due to the pandemic, Aakil felt isolated and alone without a lot of people to talk to, but the BSW Cafe and the student council offered him a chance to help out.

“Our students have been incredibly resilient,” said Yuki Numata Resnick, executive director and co-founder of Buffalo String Works. “That being said, I think that they are craving that sense of togetherness. That sense of isolation that they’ve been through especially as middle school and high school students has really impacted them.”

The mental health support at the cafe comes in three forms: mentorship training for students, counseling skills training for Buffalo String Works staff and access to an onsite professional counselor.

“The last cafe we had counseling, so we could talk to them and they could help out with us and give us some advice,” Eh Nay Tha, a ninth-grade International Preparatory School at Grover and the fourth member of the quartet said. “I had someone to talk to and tell my problems about without them telling others.”

School-based mental health intervention programs help reduce psychological stress in students, according to a 2020 meta-analysis.

Catholic Charities of Buffalo operates several different mental health programs at schools, including on-site social workers for kindergarten through eighth grade, many with a focus on developing social and emotional skills as a family.

“It’s a lot of self-regulation. How can I have those coping skills in place so that when difficult things happen in life, whether it be a pandemic or general life stressors, they have the skills in place?” said Elise Pogorzelski, a clinical supervisor of school-based programs with Catholic Charities of Buffalo.

Some of those skills include taking a moment before reacting, mindful breathing and journaling. Pogorzelski also suggested that parents practice self-care alongside their children to model healthy coping skills during Spectrum News 1’s monthly #IAm1in5 Facebook Live on mental health.

Signs of emotional and mental distress in children age 6-11 include withdrawing from friends, being unwilling to leave home, disinterest in schoolwork, aggression and having conflicts with friends and family, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

“It’s really a change in behavior in general,” Pogorzelski said. “If you start to notice that your child is starting to act out a little bit more or maybe they’re a little more isolated and are not doing activities that they are used to or not reaching out to friends.”

The New York State Office of Mental Health (NYS OMH) published a series of ‘Back to School 2021’ videos for parents, caregivers and students.

“This has been an extremely trying year for the students of New York and for their parents. Some students haven’t been in the classroom for 18 months. Others have had to juggle hybrid learning,” Ann Sullivan, the NYS OMH Commissioner said in a press release. “It’s been a period of extreme sacrifice and now, as we prepare to enter the 2021-22 school year, we want parents and students to know that we are here to support you and your mental health.”

The videos were curated after the NYOMH surveyed hundreds of New Yorkers to learn what their concerns are and provide information that is age-specific ranging from birth to young adulthood.

While the necessary stay-at-home policies during the height of the pandemic helped contain the COVID-19 virus, many students are looking for ways to safely connect and ease that isolation they felt during that time including at BSW’s virtual lessons.

"The program had attendance in the high 90s throughout the year," said Andrew Borkowski, educational director at BSW. “That is something worth celebrating. But the other side of that is that a lot of students essentially spent a lot of time alone.”

Due to that, students had to relearn and readjust themselves to the changes that come with going back to school. While Borkowski notes that these changes can be overwhelming, students are resilient and music helps them build a community together.

“Many students come to music speaking different languages, but when they come into our room, when they come into a rehearsal space, they don’t necessarily have to be speaking the same language, they can be playing all the same parts at the same time,” he said. “They can be playing that same piece together and communicating through that music.”

The national nonprofit, Mental Health America, offers a free back-to-school toolkit to help navigate any challenges that may arise.

NY Project Hope Emotional Support Helpline at 1-844-863-9314 is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Friday to help students and families through this transition and is staffed by trained crisis counselors.