RI Girl Scout Helps Students Dealing With Mental Health

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, RI — A girl scout from South Kingstown has earned the Gold Award, the highest honor in Girl Scouting, for her project addressing stigmas involving mental health.

Alyssa Hiener received the award after completing her project "Labyrinth and Mental Health Curriculum." The project provides coping skills to teens living with mental illness.

As a student at South Kingstown High School, Hiener said she watched many of her friends and peers struggle with mental health disorders, including herself. She said one in five teenagers live with at least one mental health disorder.

According to a survey conducted by SurveyWorks, half of all Rhode Island public high school students said that they are very stressed. About 70 percent of students said they almost always worry about their grades in school.

Given the survey results, Hiener's project aims to create a more peaceful environment at school

"The Labyrinth and Mental Health Curriculum" will reduce mental health stigma by educating students and teaching them the truth about mental health while providing them with useful tips and coping skills.

"This project was important to me because I have lived with diagnosed mental illness since middle school, and I always hoped that I would have the opportunity to learn more about them in school," Hiener said. "I was disappointed at the lack of mental health education provided in schools and wanted to ensure students were getting the necessary mental health education. I also wanted to work towards erasing the stigma of mental health, especially in youth."

A labyrinth is a technique used for walking meditation. It is a single, winding path from the outer edge in a circuitous way to the center. Labyrinths are used world-wide to quiet the mind, calm anxieties, recover balance in life, enhance creativity and encourage meditation, insight, self-reflection, and stress reduction.

Hiener created finger labyrinths, which are an easily transportable labyrinth that are just as effective as a walkable labyrinth. Alyssa burned four finger labyrinths into wooden blocks and printed 24 labyrinths that were laminated and labeled.

Each will be used during the curriculum and placed around the school in the guidance office and the student assistance counselor’s office. By tracing a finger labyrinth and learning more about mental health disorders, students will learn in a more peaceful environment and become more educated about improving their own mental health, Hiener said.

"So many times, I have tried talking to an adult about my mental illness, and they have responded with ‘you're too young’ or ‘you're not mentally ill, you're not crazy,'" Hiener said. "I want youth to feel that they can talk about how they are feeling and not feel judged or unsupported. Creating a mental health curriculum helped to erase that stigma through education and give students the opportunity to truly talk about what they are going through."