Everyone knows that high school and middle school can bring about mental health challenges of their own, in addition to the issues that individuals in those age groups are already experiencing.

One CNY organization is teaming up with Syracuse city schools to offer students training in how to help themselves and each other in the event of a mental health crisis.

“Just trying to tell people is really hard,” said ninth-grader Jamaya Williams, who is taking Helio Health’s Mental Health First Aid class at PSLA at Fowler High School in Syracuse.

The class teaches students strategies to handle their own mental health, and teaches them how to help others.

“It’s nice to be in a setting like this where everyone can understand and everyone can learn from each other,” she said. “We’re all still learning how to handle our emotions.”

Williams says the class had her thinking about a former friend who suffered from mental health challenges, a relationship she says she feels she would have been better equipped to handle had she taken the class before.

“I feel like I would’ve been able to help him more if I’d known some of the things that I do now, but also just be there for them,” she said. “That’s one of the biggest things that you can do.”

Organizers say part of encouraging students to be there for others involves reducing stigma and the use of harmful rhetoric, and like physical first aid making students more comfortable stepping in when the time comes.

“We want to try to reduce that and normalize. Mental health issues, they’re a challenge and it’s persistent especially in this population.”

Williams says part of learning mental health first aid is understanding what your strengths are and where you can improve.

“Especially, if you’re not good with comforting people, or reassuring people because I understand that not everyone is good at that,” she said. “Sometimes people don’t really get that experience to know how to do that, so just being there for the person, helping them through whatever they are going through, and talking with them if they need to talk.”

Whether it’s dealing with her own mental health challenges or helping others, she says she hopes to see the school district go even further in offering help for students.

“I kind of wish there was more classes that we can go to, and maybe a different class in general,” she said. “Talking about mental health important, and it was really nice.”

They say they’ll be offering the courses to the entire Syracuse City School District and hope to expand that in the future.