As Christine Michaels, CEO of the National Alliance on Mental Illness’ Keystone Pennsylvania chapter, prepares for the group’s first virtual conference on Friday, she can’t help but think of her own family.

This year’s conference, “Closing the Gap: Prioritizing the Needs of Traumatized Youth,” will focus on the impact that the covid-19 pandemic is having on children and adolescents. Michaels has seen it firsthand.

“I have a granddaughter who’s a teenager,” she said. “Before the pandemic, she was a straight-A student. She has some difficulties with anxiety and has gone to counseling, and had a horrible time with remote learning.”

There is also the impact of the pandemic itself: the idea that there is a virus out there that has killed more than 400,000 people in the U.S. and nearly 2.3 million worldwide.

“Everything that adults are doing to cope during the pandemic, children are having to do — but without any experience or insight,” Michaels said. “My grandson, who’s 14, was a high school freshman when the pandemic first happened, and he was texting his mother telling her she needed to leave work and go to the grocery store to get supplies. He couldn’t make heads or tails or what was going on, and he was getting caught up in it.”

Both situations deal with the disruption of young people’s routine.

“When you do that, you start to create anxiety,” Michaels said. “Inconsistency creates it as well, and it can compound into worries and fears. And, with those things, can come physical effects like sleep disturbance or headaches.”

In Murrysville, that disruption and inconsistency led to a student-organized Change.org petition, “Franklin Regional students need support,” which garnered more than 1,000 signatures. On Monday, FR school board members heard the results of a high school student survey aimed at identifying challenges students encountered with the school’s hybrid education model.

“For teens, high school is already a high-anxiety time,” Michaels said. “My granddaughter’s grades suffered, she got behind in her lessons and her parents had to spend a lot of time just reassuring her that she could do it, that she was on the right track.”

Conference speakers include NAMI CEO Dan Gillison Jr.; Parkland, Fla., high school shooting survivor Kai Koerber; and NAMI Keystone Pennsylvania’s 2021 Youth Mental Health Leadership Award winner Abby Rickin-Marks, a student in the Fox Chapel School District.

Rickin-Marks, a senior, received four nominations for her work to raise awareness and reduce the stigma of mental health issues. She is also a student advocate with the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, one of the groups that nominated her.

“Her warm and empathetic approach, as well as her openness about her experiences, creates an environment that is welcoming to teens of all backgrounds,” said Deborah Murdoch, the foundation’s program manager.

In addition to its focus on youth, the 2021 conference has a particular focus on marginalized groups, “such as LGBT teens and black youth, who are at an even higher risk now during the pandemic because they’re isolated,” Michaels said.

The conference will run from 8:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. Friday. For more, see NAMIKeystonePA.org and find “Conferences” under the “Events” menu.

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