By Victoria Cassell
Published: Sep. 6, 2024 at 12:13 AM EDT
TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – A special album release party raised awareness surrounding mental health for young people in Topeka Thursday night.
“Be with your emotions. Don’t bottle them up and accept help,” says Highland Park HS student, Kobe Hall.
That was the message at the “Work In Process” album release event curated by Fellowship Hi-Crest, Sent Topeka and other community partners.
“Right now there is an epidemic with students where 40% of teens report being sad lonely or depressed, 22% struggle with suicidal idolization and 10% of those according to the CDC will attempt suicide by the time that they graduate,” says organizer, Brail Watson.
The event was specifically tailored to middle school-aged children and teenagers, like Kobe who struggle with mental health issues.
“I think these events are really important because they raise awareness and for people to realize this is actually something I need to deal with and work on and it’s just a great environment. You can’t reach people unless they are having fun,” says Hall.
Organizer, Brail Watson says he hopes to reach people through his new 9-song album, which addresses topics like childhood trauma, the stigma around medication for mental health, isolation, and more.
“It’s really a span of me processing a broken relationship with my father over time to me being down and having to isolate with COVID and being away from my 1-year-old daughter and how that felt and how that affected me mentally and I process by writing. So I wanted to share that with others and then connect it to action where other people could take steps to learn to share themselves,” says Watson.
READ FULL STORY