Dr. Shamender Talwar is the keynote at Leader U 2023 June 7 at MTSU.

-- Photo By Tom Wood | The Ledger

Mental health is one issue that weighs heavily on Nashvillians. Gun violence is another, separate and distinct. But when the first leads to the latter, the result is both deadly and tragic.

Such was the case with the Covenant School mass shooting in the Green Hills suburb that left six dead, including three 9-year-old children.

That heartbreaking incident has had a lasting effect on the entire community – from families and friends of the victims to the police who found and killed the shooter in just 13 minutes after assault began (officer Rex Engelbert and detective Michael Collazo will receive a national award for heroism June 30 in Indianapolis); from the other first-responders that day who provided comfort, food, transportation and medical aid to the courts, politicians and educators who grapple to find solutions and prevent similar events in the future.

Dr. Shamender Talwar, a British social and crisis psychologist who will be the keynote speaker at the Leader U 2023 mental health conference June 7 at MTSU, calls mental illness “the new pandemic after COVID-19 and is ‘the root problem’ of the rise in mass shootings.

“It’s a failure from all sides. But we have to make sure that we can help and support everyone from Tennessee, everybody from Nashville (and) Memphis, Tennessee, and America,” says Talwar, co-founder of TUFF (The Unity of Faith Foundation), an international charity whose 2022 mental health and music initiative ‘The Road To Nashville’ offered free mental health counseling to songwriters.

“The root of the problem is not guns. The problem is finding a way of why (the shooters are) slipping through the net in America. Why? Why are they slipping through the net? Because if they didn’t slip through the net, we wouldn’t have these shootings.”

J.C. Bowman, executive director of conference host Professional Educators of Tennessee, says the conference will address mental health concerns for students and faculty. It is open to teachers, administrators, parents and the public. To register, go to www.Leaderutn.com.

“For us, it’s really a thing that we’ve been crying out for – even long before the pandemic – was a need for mental health,” Bowman says. “I mean, not only for students but teachers as well. We’ve been really excited to partner with (TUFF) and get people help and access to tools that they can use in their classroom to help kids.

“This conference is important because educators need to understand the ‘why’ behind the things that are happening in education. Teachers, administrators, and even parents need to learn ways to lighten their load as they navigate the ever-changing education landscape. We know if we can provide educators with some useful tools, they are more likely to stay in the profession.”

Here’s a deeper look at how others are tackling the issues of mental health and/or gun violence – not just in Nashville but across the state and the country.

Inaction louder than words

Since the Covenant School tragedy, there have been 105 more mass shootings in the United States through May 21, gunviolencearchive.org reports. A couple of days after the Nashville incident, two people died in Memphis and four were injured. April 3, four people were shot in Jackson.

But it was the Covenant School shooting that hit close to home for Gov. Bill Lee. His wife Maria had once taught with victims Katherine Koonce, Covenant’s Head of School, and Cindy Peak. Peak and Maria Lee were supposed to have dinner together on the night of the shootings.

May 8, Gov. Lee issued a call for the Tennessee General Assembly to convene a special legislative session Aug. 21 to strengthen public safety and preserve constitutional rights. While state Democrats have lauded Lee’s actions, there has been pushback by the Republican supermajority.

“After speaking with members of the General Assembly, I am calling for a special session Aug. 21 to continue our important discussion about solutions to keep Tennessee communities safe and preserve the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens,” Lee says in a statement.

“There is broad agreement that action is needed, and in the weeks ahead we’ll continue to listen to Tennesseans and pursue thoughtful, practical measures that strengthen the safety of Tennesseans, preserve Second Amendment rights, prioritize due process protections, support law enforcement and address mental health.”

Lipscomb, VU weigh in

Pamela Lewis, president of PLA Media and one of the speakers at the Leader U conference, notes the difference between school guidance counselors and personnel who have been trained to counsel students facing mental issues.

“You have guidance counselors in school, but they’re there trying to make sure that you get into college. Maybe they need to have more training in mental health. Maybe that’s what is needed,” says Lewis, who was one of the volunteers along with Talwar at Woodmont Baptist Church on the day of the Covenant shooting.

Having trained educators in schools could soon be the norm.

In late April, Lipscomb University announced that its College of Education has received a $4.8 million grant – the largest in school history – from the U.S. Department of Education to train mental health professionals in high-need local education agencies (LEAs) in the Nashville area.

“It is exciting to expand our reach to prepare mental health and counseling professionals to fill this critical need in our schools. This grant will be a game-changer for our community,” Lipscomb president Candice McQueen says.

Leslie Cowell, dean of Lipscomb’s College of Education, cites “an even greater need for highly trained school counselors,” a point with which Lisa Davies, lead faculty for Lipscomb’s School Counseling Program and IMPACT Initiative program director, agrees.

“School counselors are not only mental health providers, but they are academic counselors, college and career counselors, social and emotional counselors,” Davies says. “We have the opportunity to help students achieve their dreams or simply just get through the day.”

Over the last few months, researchers at the Vanderbilt Center for Child Health Policy have been releasing the results of their 2022 Vanderbilt Child Health Poll of Tennesseans across the state. Among the more interest results pertaining to mental health and school-based gun violence:

• 83% of parents agree that schools are safer if one or more school resource officers work in the school.

• 71% of parents agree that if background checks are expanded to all gun sales, schools would be safer.

• 35% agree schools are safer if teachers are armed.

The poll also revealed that about 29% of Tennessee parents are concerned their child has undiagnosed anxiety or depression. Other chief concerns focused on school quality, bullying and cyberbullying, and drug and alcohol use.

“Parents’ top concerns have been consistent in recent years, with two in five parents rating education and school quality as their top concern for their children,” says Stephen Patrick, M.D., MPH, director of the Vanderbilt Center for Child Health Policy.

“As we emerge from the pandemic, we see parents increasingly worried about child mental health and suicide, with 36% of parents citing this as a top concern compared to 31% last year. Collectively, the top five list provides important insight into Tennessee parents’ chief concerns for their children.”

Promoting mental health through music

The success of TUFF’s ‘Road to Nashville’ songwriting program has led to a sequel of sorts with a ‘Road to Memphis’ project this year. It partnered his native Liverpool – home to The Beatles – with Music City and offered mental health services to some 400 Tennesseans.

“Nashville has been a second home for me because it’s the first time our organization has gone into mental health in such a strong way, outside of music. Music has been the catalyst,” Talwar says.

“Music has a power that unites people without understanding your actual language. Your mother tongue, for example. When you’ve got music in front of them. you know my language and I know your language. We hear the music, we hug each other. It has that power which no other thing on the planet has.”

Talwar has made connections with vice-mayor Jim Shulman and District 15 councilperson Jeff Syracuse on the TUFF initiatives to boost mental health for songwriters. Syracuse, who is running for an at-large council seat, also wants to see an end to gun violence.

“This nation must end gun violence, especially the proliferation of assault rifles. We cannot solely focus on mental health support, which is indeed a key component, but it must be tied with removing the ability of those individuals to be able to secure these deadly weapons,” Syracuse says.

“As the Chair of Public Health & Safety for Council, I will be working with our Metro Nashville Public Schools, Mayor’s Office, Metro Nashville Police Department, private school community, and likely some subject matter expert guests to take part in special called meetings to focus like a laser on school safety and ensure we’re doing everything in our power to keep this from happening again. I’ve also been in discussions with Sandy Hook and Uvalde to learn from them.”