Renae Elsaesser

IR I 10GT/2
11/18/19

Interviewer: Renae Elsaesser

Interviewee: Kayla Bagent, Youth suicide prevention coordinator at the Howard County
Department of Health

Interview Setting: Interview conducted on 11/18/19 at 3:45 pm through the phone.

Affiliation: Interviewer has been my leader in the Sources of Strength program for the past three
meetings and my advisor for the Independent Research class for two months.

Interviewee: Hello.

Interviewer: Hello, Kayla? How are you?

Interviewee: Hi, yes. I’m good. How are you?

Interviewer: Hi, I’m good, I'm excited to talk to you. Do you mind if I record a

conversation just for my educational purposes?

Interviewee: Oh no worries go ahead!

Interviewer: Okay cool. I heard in the morning announcements that you are coming on

Wednesday to give a mental health talk.

Interviewee: I don’t know if this is part of the interview, but I will still explain it. Yeah, I’m

coming to River Hill which is great to go back and talk to the students and the faculty. But I was

reached out to come from Leadership You. One of the students from River Hill who’s on

Leadership You. There group action is to talk about mental health in schools. So, they sent out a
surgery to all the students around mental health and they have a presentation called talk saves

lives. So since I’m also a volunteer with the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention we

actually have a presentation called talk saves lives which is great so I will just be giving a

presentation in the auditorium on the 20th.

Interviewer: Yes I took the survey. I really liked it. I really liked how the questions were

focusing on the student’s opinion on mental health and the school environment. Was it

difficult to get the schools approval for the mental health talk?

Interviewee: For that talk it wants because the student had already coordinated with the principal

and the guidance counselors in order to get a presentation approved. Because I know Oakland

Mills had a volunteer from grassroots go out and do a talk for them. It’s at a few different

schools among the students. The student from River Hill had reached out to me because we had

met through a leadership you program, and another program called youth in conversation. So,

she had reached out and they already got pre approval through leadership you. So, what we did

was I also met with her and the principle of river hill to kind of go over what the presentation

would entail and what kind of forks we’d have to have in place.

Interviewer: Is this going to be a common thing? Is this going to happen again? Like what

is the long-term goal of this?

Interviewee: I’m not entirely sure that is for leadership you cause in of their action items was to

have the survey around mental health and have a printer come to the school. It’s not at every

school. My hope is that I would get to talk at every school. I think that would be fantastic. And I

went to an event at Hammond high school the other day for their senior fair, so I was just there

with the resource table. Um with some materials and information around our youth suicide
prevention program and sources of strength. And the vice principal and principal were my old

teachers. So, I told them like hey I’m going to be going to river hill to give this talk and then they

were very open to discussing having one at Hammond also so. My goal, one of my personal

goals is to be able to do that with every school. I think that would be great

Interviewer: I love that. We had to give classroom presentations this week basically

explaining our research and what the Independent Research class is and our topic. And

after in one of my classrooms my teacher told me that she’s starting in her room it’s kinda

like an anti-stress room during hawk time.

Interviewee: Cool

Interviewer: Which is a free period for us. And she’s planning on adding new chairs,

wallpaper, stress balls, and it really made me happy. I just love it. I am a little confused on

what my topic is right now. I have really just been researching school procedures. I know

Megan is like focusing on social media more. And I don’t know I might start looking into

the stress of high school students and how that influences suicide rates. I’m not really sure

but I know I want to connect sources of strength to my project.

Interviewee: Okay.

Interviewer: Yes but I’m still thinking about that but I thought it was really cool that my

teacher talked to me about that.

Interviewer: Oh yes definitely. That’s amazing. I wish we had something like that in high school.

And I’ve also been working with um Howard High School. Howard is trying to implement this

kind of new stress relief room where students can go at some point of the day if it’s pre-approved
by the counselor. We are working out details. And my role in that would be to you know the kind

of help them to form the foundation on that. And what their outline would be for kind of

implementing this kind of room. And you know if. I see any barriers or what bay concerns there

would be. So, you know it’s grey at hat the schools are wanting to do something about mental

health. And it’s slowly but surely but we are making progress.

Interviewer: Yes. How does the government address the suicide rates? Cause I heard there

was new data coming out.

Interviewee: Yeah so there’s the youth risk behavior survey given out to students every two

years. Um so the most recent data that we currently have is from 2016. The most recent survey

was given out in 2018. Although we are currently waiting for that data to come out. We don’t

have that right now but we should have it early 2020. But I’m regard to how the government is

doing on a Maryland level. Governor Hogan did a suicide um prevention plan where he gets the

schools involved and he gets the different faith communities involved. Which is great I was able

to meet one of them the other day. It’s a patron from my church who coordinates from every

county in Maryland to kind of raise awareness around mental health. Which is fantastic. On a

more local level with the Howard county health department we are doing the youth suicide

prevention plan. And what that looks like is that there are different components of it. So, we have

like five different areas we talk about. So the first is when we launched the program on February

28 was we really wanted to raise awareness and reduce the stigma around mental health. So

mostly we did that like giving presentations and doing our social marketing campaign. So, our

images we have, the posters that are in the school, the different materials we have. So, we have

three materials that are in all 77 public high schools in Howard county which is fantastic. That

was a big step for us to get the materials from the school. Because the schools do see that it is a
problem. And then some of the other areas we are focusing on is the prevention aspect and that’s

where sources of strength come in. Because our goals in that are to promote connectedness,

create protective environments, and then strengthen coping skills and problem-solving skills. So,

sources of strength is a big portion of that. So how do you think the sources of strength wheel

could be incorporated in schools.

Interviewer: How we were talking about the different strengths in your life, I feel like that

could be incorporated somehow. I’ve been showing some of my friends the wheel. And not

many have seen it but I think it’s pretty cool.

Interviewee: Yeah! And we have a sticker of the wheel and I keep that on my water bottle and

laptop. Because it’s a good reminder for me to focus on You know what my strengths or when

going through stressful situations or I’m having a bad day. Like I can look at the wheel and say

oh I could reach out to my positive friends or do a healthy activity. So, it’s really good and we’ve

been talking to the school systems psychology department on you know how exactly this could

be promoted more in the schools. Um so that’s something we’ll be talking about when sources of

strength start to grow, and we continue to implement it throughout this year.

Interviewer: How did you come upon sources of strength? When did you start getting

involved with it.

Interviewee: Yeah, it’s a national program. Some places have it and some don’t because there are

costs associated with it. But Montgomery County in Carroll County actually have it in a school-

based setting. So, some of their schools. Not all of them but some of them have source of

strength implemented throughout them. So my supervisor, Colleen Nester, she is a social worker

by training and she went to one of these conferences where sources of strength was presented
and he and some of the other directors really wanted to move forward with it and see how we

could implement it through Howard County. I’m so that’s kind of how it got started or the idea

came about to implement it in our county specifically is because they presented source of

strength in this conference held at Carroll County. And they shared the benefits of it and what

they’ve seen and what changes they have seen in their schools. And they spoke very positively

about it which is why we wanted to bring something instead of reinventing the wheel you know

already having this set program that is evidence based and that already has high reviews, and

everything based on that.

Interviewer: So far, I have been researching the stigma, looking into its ok to ask campaign

and I’m not sure if I want to research more about… I am either going to go into stress and

how that influences students. I know I want to do something with I’m not so sure social

media. Cause I’m the end we are going to create a final product. So, I don’t know if I want

just maybe I’ll try to create a video. Maybe I could create a video and include different

aspects of the wheel and stuff like that. Because right now I’ve just been reading different

articles on suicide prevention, intervention, and post vention and each role in that, but I

don’t really know where I should go from there. As a youth suicide prevention coordinator,

what do you focus on? How did you become interested in your field?

Interviewee: Yeah so before working at the health department I did I worked at a psychiatric

rehabilitation coordinator and case manager for adults with severe mental illnesses. So my job

entailed was going on home visits to helping adults work on their treatment plans or it’s in case

management. Whether it be maintaining their outpatient mental health appointments or um you

know getting there in finances aligned or getting access to different forms of treatment or you

know financial disability benefits. Anything like that. Um So working with adults and older
adults made me realize how much I want to work in prevention and with students to prevent

people from getting to that point. Implementing those healthy coping strategies and recognizing

what your resources are and who your supports are and what you can do before getting to that

crisis or downhill point. Which is why I really like sources of strength because it really focuses

on that.

Interviewer: You were talking about the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention.

What is your role in ASFP?

Interviewee: Yeah so I am a volunteer presenter for the AFSP. So, they are a national nonprofit

organization which started more as a research-based organization. And because they did so much

research, they realized you know what an issue this is. Because it became advocacy and

education as well not only education. So, what ASFP does is there are different programs,

different presentations, and different opportunities for advocacy. And they also have

opportunities for support for those who have either attempted suicide or those who have been

affected by a suicide loss. So, there are different supports in place for that but my role for that is I

am a volunteer presenter. Because my role as a youth suicide prevention coordinator allows me

to go out and educate the community, we partnered up with the ASFP because we utilized their

content, their materials, and their presentations.

Interviewer: For sources of strength I remember at the last meeting there were different

stations. We were gonna make different videos and like some groups were doing something

with the Instagram. Are we gonna do that next time or are we supposed to film our videos?

Sorry I’m a little stressed on what I should do for that.

Interviewee: Oh yeah. No worries. So, if you follow the page you’ve seen that there are already

some posts where there’s a photo of someone. So that’s what we’re starting so far and at the next

meeting we’re gonna do some of those in person so if you have a clear idea of what to do. Um so

that’s something we’ll be working on if someone wants to make a video they can record

someone who wants to share their story or they can hold up the sign. I’m also gonna bring some

so people can take them to the schools so they don’t need to print it out themselves. So I’ll be

bringing a lot of those um and I can send you a picture of an example I have. It’s just like it has

the sources of strength logo and then a certain color. So like they’ll say family support in orange

and then the border of the poster is orange. And it just says family support so someone can hold

it up and then in the caption explain their story instead of writing um the I am stronger thing so it

gives it more variety. But since this is the first time implemented in Howard County to use the I

am stronger campaign to show what sources of strength is.

Interviewer: I am stronger was created by sources of strength, right?

Interviewee: Yes.

Interviewer: Okay. Well thank you I’m pretty sure we covered everything.

Interviewee: Yeah of course! Do you have any additional questions, even if it’s not related to

your paper?

Interviewer: I’m a little stumped on how I’m continuing. I don’t really know what I want

to research more about. I know I want to do something with the school systems, and I want

to connect it with sources of strength. I kind of like this idea of the anti-stress rooms. Like
my teachers gonna collect data. She’s gonna do a survey after the students are in the room

and how they feel. So that could be helpful but ya.

Interviewee: I think that could be good and you could use that data as well perhaps. That could

be something you could hone in on if you want to go with the stress management room. We

don’t want to call it a stress room.

Interviewer: hahaha yeah. Anti-stress room? That’ll be good. I’ll email about my different

ideas. I like this social media aspect and the I am stronger campaign, but I don’t know if I

want to go into that cause Megan’s doing something with that.

Interviewee: Yeah and it’s hard. When I was in high school, I knew I wanted to be something

around mental health but I’m not gonna lie when I was at river hill, I was horrible at physiology

like I didn’t do so well in the different parts of the brain. Like it was difficult. So, I was like

maybe I don’t go into psychology. But then you know as I continued to learn more it was great.

Once you’re in it the more you really know what areas you want to fiber into deeper in. Ya so if

you have any questions on how I chose my oath or how Colleen chose hers like you can

definitely talk to me about that. You know and what you would be interested in for your paper.

Interviewer: Thank you so much.

Interviewee: Yeah of course! Do you need anything else related to sources of strength or any

upcoming things.

Interviewer: No I think that’s it. Thank you.

Interviewee: Sounds good. Are you gonna go to the talk on Wednesday?

Interviewer: Yeah.. I might have a test to make up. But I’m gonna try to get out of it.

Interviewee: Haha no if you have a test don’t worry.

Interviewer: No it’s fine. I’ll try to get out of it.

Interviewee:No you can go take your test.

Interviewer: No, I want to be there. I’m excited for that.

Interviewee: Okay well you go tell your friends to come

Interviewer: I definitely will.

Interviewee: Yeah it’s gonna be really interesting. When I went to river hill the other day and

saw some of my old teachers, they were like oh I didn’t know you were doing this now that’s

awesome. Um so it’s good to see them again and I’m really excited to see on how many students

are going

Interviewer: Yeah I have been talking to some of my friends about it and they are going to

go to it!

Interviewee: Yay oh my god! I’m looking forward to them coming. Alright we’ll thank you so

much for asking me to talk about this and I am really you know grateful that you are one of the

students who wants to be an advocate for mental health and wants to look more into it and see

what the schools can do. And that’s amazing I commend you for that

Interviewer: I’m so grateful I can talk to you about everything.

Interviewee:Yeah of course. And if you ever need anything I am hear through email and phone

or remind or anything like that.

Interviewer: Great! Thank you.

Interviewee: You’re welcome and have a good night.

Interviewer: Have a good night. Bye bye.

Reflection

Key things I will take away for my research is to start researching more openly and eventually

I’ll be able to find myself more interested in a narrower topic. The interview went pretty well but

I feel like if I had a narrower topic and specific goal it could have been better. For my next

interview, I will ask more specific questions since I will have done more research, so I will have

more to ask. Coming up with questions before the interview was a little difficult for me because

my topic is still pretty large, and I do not know exactly what direction I should continue in. One

thing that was a challenge for me was I had to ask new questions for Kayla because she had

already answered some and I wanted to keep the conversation moving so I had to come up with

some of the questions during the interview. It was a lot easier than I expected to talk to her and I

thought it would have been a lot more awkward than it was.