Lauren Alexander and her peers quickly went into action at a recent party when they saw a fellow Piedmont High School student suffering from clear signs of alcohol poisoning. Several students pulled out alcohol-awareness cards, using its information to get medical assistance help for him, said Alexander, an 11th-grader. The pupils had received the cards from the Wellness Center, a school-based program designed to create an atmosphere where Piedmont students may positively influence each other.

"I talked to kids at the party I've never talked to before at school, but we all came together to help," Alexander said.

The story was one of several told Tuesday at a presentation illustrating the Wellness Center's importance to the Piedmont community. A new spotlight is shining on the mental health needs of students in affluent areas in the wake of the recent string of teen suicides at Henry M. Gunn High School in Palo Alto, the tony Peninsula town with demographics that mirror Piedmont's.

Founded in 2006, the Wellness Center is based at Piedmont High School, but its mental health services are open daily to all kids from grades 6 to 12, including Piedmont Middle School pupils.

Teen suicide prevention is always a concern for parents. However, Piedmont High School's most pressing issue is its troubling rate of alcohol abuse, ranked highest in Alameda County, according to a 2007 state survey. There is ample pressure for kids here to succeed

"It's a work-hard-party-hard environment," said Brooke Zimmerman, who heads the Wellness Center. That behavior perhaps is modeled after the students' high-achieving parents, added Zimmerman, also director of student services at Piedmont Unified School District.

Local pupils face other problems, too. Wellness Center visitors report that their five most common health issues are related to relationships with friends and family, stress, anxiety, depression and academic performance.

So perhaps it's not a surprise that 265 teens — about one-third of the high school's 800 students — visited the center during the 2008-09 school year, Zimmerman said. Their visits totaled 2,267 for an average of 5.6 visits per student.

"We've created a culture where kids can step up and walk in and ask for help," said Nancy Frank, a Wellness Center Steering Committee member.

The Wellness Center offers students health education on topics ranging from nutrition to sexual health and STDs to managing stress. Also provided are individual counseling and group counseling, including a social peer group for autistic students and a high school senior girls' group about drugs and alcohol.

"Kids can talk about anything there," Alexander said. "It's the one place on campus you can go and not be judged."

Program leaders tout the benefits that student-to-student assistance brings to the school. For instance, "Peer Educators" consists of nearly 20 juniors and seniors giving to 9th-graders a presentation on drinking-and-driving and offering lunch time talks on subjects such as racial tension, peer mediation and academic integrity. Meanwhile, the "Youth Educators" program selects 17 juniors to give a series of one-hour lessons about drugs, alcohol and good decision-making to 8th graders at Piedmont Middle School.

"Our hope is that having all these students in leadership positions will improve the culture of the school and some of the student behavior," Zimmerman said.

The Wellness Center has scored successes in its brief existence, program leaders said.

Still, it faces myriad challenges, including a temporary loss of its offices at Piedmont High School while its building undergoes seismic retrofit construction. It also must make do on a shrinking budget due to the economic downturn and state budget crisis. The program's $202,000 budget in 2008-09 dropped 60 percent, down to about $80,000, for the current 2009-10 school year. Program leaders hope to raise enough funds to get back to the 2008-09 level, but it will be a challenge, Zimmerman said.

Those attending Tuesday's session included Alameda County Schools Superintendent Sheila Jordan and Delaine Eastin, the former California superintendent of public instruction, both of whom lauded the program.

"What you've done here is start a model that can be studied and replicated across California," Eastin said. "You're empowering kids who'll never be the same because of this program and you're helping them by the act of participation."