ITHACA, NY (607NewsNow) — The Sophie Fund has launched their Mental Health Support & Suicide Prevention for Schools in Tompkins County initiative with the goal of improving mental health and putting suicide prevention measures in place for youth in the area.

Per their website, “A survey of high school and middle school students in Tompkins County came up with similar patterns. Forty-seven percent said they felt anxious or worried on most days, 35 percent felt sad or depressed on most days, and 34 percent said that ‘sometimes I think life is not worth it.’

Such data prompt a call to action, to intensify our efforts to safeguard the mental well-being of children growing up in our precarious digital age.

In that spirit, the new resources guide was created by the Suicide Prevention & Crisis Service of Tompkins County, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Greater Central New York, National Alliance on Mental Illness Finger Lakes, Mental Health Association in Tompkins County, and The Sophie Fund.”

For more information on the initiative and how it came to be, visit The Sophie Fund website here. Find the full resources guide here.