During the peak of COVID, there was a spike in mental health issues seen in teens and adults. COVID didn’t just kill 6.19 million people worldwide, but it also impacted the kids stuck at home and in the dark for many months. Mental health issues have become very mainstream in the media, and many people have begun to notice these issues.

 Liv Steen, freshman at Emerson University, started a Mental Health Matters club in 2019, before COVID. During the pandemic, the club wasn’t active and running. 

Louie Schachtman, sophomore, noticed these issues in his community along with the rest of the nation. Schactman decided that after not being in school for two years, he wanted to restart the club, which wasn’t active during online school. 

“I feel this club is needed because we have so many kinds at our school that struggle with mental health and other things in their lives,” Schachtman said. 

Schachtman felt that students needed an outlet inside the building where they spend most of their lives, HHS. Most students were deprived of the real world for so long. Once they stepped back into school for the first time in two years, an outlet needed to be created. 

“The topics will vary as the club goes on, but as of now, we are looking to dive into what mental health is like within stuff, whether that is music, sports, daily life as a student; we also want to teach coping mechanisms for others,” Schachtman said. 

Throughout this club being reinstated, the students at HHS, students will have an outlet to talk about their struggles with mental health within the community and everywhere else.