teen girls are in the midst of an unprecedented rise in suicidal Behavior a CDC survey released Tuesday finds nearly 30 percent of high school girls polled Nationwide seriously considered attempting suicide that's double the rate for boys of the same age more than half said they felt persistently sad or hopeless those numbers were even higher for lgbtq students and have been consistently rising over the last decade the report comes as Federal lawmakers are considering legislation to hold online social media platforms more accountable for their connection to youth depression for more insight I'm joined by Gary Nelson Willingboro High School's director of Mental Health Services Gary as someone who works in this space what does a report like this really alarming numbers here say to you about what's happening with our adolescent girls in particular it's really saying that they're in crisis there are a lot of different issues that our young people are facing I know for myself on the ground seeing kind of what's been going on with them big it's been everything with uh coping with loss dealing with depression dealing with peer-to-peer relationships dealing with Intimate Relationships a lot of that is happening too and dealing with family problems that are at home so all of these things have kind of come together and it's just made this this huge crisis that where everyone's having a tough time tackling to be honest are we just paying more attention now I mean was this Brewing over the last several years and then you add something like the isolation of a pandemic and it sort of tips it over the edge I would imagine I definitely believe this has been brewing for a good amount of time with social media and the way that it's created this uh this bubble has created this this image of Beauty for students and it's it's given unrealistic expectations so they're on social media most of their day and you combine that with the pandemic that really messed up our kids since uh their social interactions and messed up how they relate with their peers it's just it's created this big big mess that now we are seeing the end results of it what do you think needs to be done I mean clearly there are programs like the one that you run there in Burlington County but how else can this be countered um when the numbers I mean they're just tragic really to see that these young people are considering you know attempting suicide dealing with depression aggression what else needs to be done to be honest I believe the number one solution would be to pour and to make a significant investment in our local mental health agencies and look at the look at a very nuanced approach and deal with Community by Community because what I'm seeing is students they really respond to someone just being there it's not even necessarily that you have to do clinical counseling or you have to you know help them with a certain thing sometimes your presence and someone that just says I'm going to be here and listen to you A lot of times that has been enough to help students kind of feel like they can cope with things and also important making that investment into you know more of our mental health agencies that actually actually do the work um having them based inside of the school is vitally important because they get to see they spend a significant amount of time with the students and they really learn them their families how they're dealing with things inside the school and they get to address it right on the ground floor which of course has been an issue of late um and I think this is important Gary what are red flags that family members parents can look for because teens are Moody uh as it is so it can be tough to spot some of this parents can look out for uh shift significant changes inside of a child so if you are used to your child interacting with you a lot talking a lot and now they're suddenly isolating they you know they they look sad all the time anything that is kind of out of the ordinary from what you see from them those are the really the things to pay attention to parents know their children the best so when something is off make it a point to just be open and listen to what the child is saying rather than going in trying to solve a problem show that you're willing to just sit and hear and listen to them before you you know before automatically throwing them into counseling before automatically saying this is what you need to do listen Gary Nelson director of mental health services at Willingboro High School thanks so much for giving us your Insight thank you