Last week, GHS students attended an assembly where a college student shared testimony around his own mental health journey, offering these key take-aways:
- You belong here.
- Go 'all in' on you.
- Hold on to hope.
- Ask for help if you need it.
This testimony was a good reminder that mental health can not afford to be relegated to the shadows. The first step in combating mental health struggles is to acknowledge their existence.
MSAD #51 offers a robust and ever-expanding host of school climate and mental health supports in order to connect each student with our schools. This is aligned to the district's mission "To guide all students as they acquire enthusiasm for learning, assume responsibility for their education, achieve academic excellence, and discover and attain their personal best."
In addition to a heavy emphasis on connecting students to their schools, we have prioritized interventions that help all students succeed using a Tier 1 mental health approach. In a Tier 1 approach, a focus on enrichment and social/emotional health and education, along with coping skills and resources, are supported by school staff and/or community members. Examples of this would be school-wide assemblies, spirit weeks, topical speakers, team-building activities, etc that dovetail with advisory programming, guidance, and/or health classes. We administer a universal mental health screener, the Student Risk Screening Scale (SRSS), that helps to establish a baseline by which students who may need extra support are identified. An intervention tool that is used for many situations is use of restorative practices and restorative circles when the need arises.
In a Tier 2 approach to mental health, targeted classroom or small group interventions address general concerns (stress management, social skills, mild emotional distress) and provide foundational skills for students with mild symptoms with or without mental health diagnosis. Tier 2 is often facilitated by the school mental health team in cooperation with other school staff. For Tier 3, individual or intensive group support for students with moderate to severe mental health symptoms that significantly impact their school functioning are scheduled and provided by the school mental health team.
Here are some of the investments our schools have made with respect to mental health:
- Dedicated Mental Health/Risk Assessment Specialist for higher-level mental health concerns.
- Increased mental health clinicians to 11 social workers and 8 school counselors.
- K-12 mental health universal screener (Student Risk Screening Scale).
- PhD level School Psychologist on staff full-time.
- Numerous programs around safety, bullying, and other pertinent issues include Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Camp Kieve (GHS), Ecology School (gr. 7), Civil Rights teams.
- Advisory programming.
- Restorative practices, including restorative circles.
- Suicide prevention training for all staff.
- Student-initiated KyleCares/Active Minds club at GHS.
- SAVE Promise Clubs (associated with Sandy Hook Promise) grades 6-12.