COEUR d’ALENE — Local high school students know that mental health matters and they’re sharing that message with their classmates.

This week, students at Lake City High School and Coeur d’Alene High School collaborated to bring Mental Health Week to both schools.

“We’re trying to get resources into the hands of students who need it the most,” said Luke Sharon, Lake City senior and student body president.

Sharon launched Mental Health Week at LCHS during his sophomore year, along with fellow students Rebecca Murdock and Cayden Stone. Their weeklong effort promotes student well-being and access to mental health resources within schools and beyond.

Each day this week, students visited booths in the cafeteria, where they got information from a dozen area agencies including Panhandle Health District, Safe Passage Violence Prevention Center and the Suicide Prevention Action Network.

The week culminated in a Friday night football game where students from both schools were encouraged to don green, a color that has come to symbolize mental health awareness.

“We had a lot of involvement, especially with our underclassmen,” said Andi Jane Howard, CHS student body president.

Howard said student organizers aimed to give their classmates easy, low-pressure access to community resources.

“For the students who need that resource or need to talk to somebody, it’s a lot less intimidating to walk by a table and grab a pamphlet,” she said. “Having that opportunity is so important.”

In 2021, the most recent year for which data is available, 387 Idahoans died by suicide. Idaho’s suicide rate is the 12th highest in the country, at a rate of 20.5 persons per 100,000, according to the 2023 mortality-by-suicide report published by the Centers for Disease Control.

“You hear about it all the time,” Sharon said of Idaho’s suicide rate. “But when you feel it like I did and you see how mental health really affects the people around you, it makes an impact on you.”

Sharon has witnessed firsthand how people close to him have struggled to access mental health resources. That’s why he’s passionate about promoting mental health care.

“Mental health is so much more than just the suicide hotline,” he said. “It’s about building up the structural capacity of resources and giving it to students and letting them know that people care about them in their school and in their community. If we can give one person the resources they need, then we can accomplish what we need to.”

After he graduates, Sharon said he hopes the students who come after him continue organizing Mental Health Week in local schools and find ways to reach even more students and other community members.

“I want to see it grow,” he said. “I want to see mental health awareness spread to more schools in our district, not just consolidated in the high schools.”

Help is available to North Idaho residents who are struggling with mental illness or thoughts of suicide.

The North Idaho Crisis Center at 2195 Ironwood Court in Coeur d’Alene offers free, confidential help for people who are having a mental health crisis or substance abuse problems.

The center is open 24/7. No referral is necessary. Call 208-625-4884.

To reach Idaho’s 24/7 suicide and crisis lifeline, call 988.