Schools Fill in Emotional-Support Gaps

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With teen suicides drastically rising and depression affecting 46 percent of all school children, emotional and social support will increasingly be more available to students in the Laguna Beach Unified School District.

For the first time in the district, each of the district’s four schools has one full-time psychologist, Irene White, the district’s director of special education and student services, reported to board members Tuesday.

White introduced a team of nine academic counselors and psychologists at the meeting. “What you don’t hear about,” she said, “is how they’re able to prevent tragedy.” The counselors are now calibrating academic planning with the increasing emotional needs of students. Another counselor will also be hired, said White.

Most high school students feel disengaged and intense pressure, said newly hired Keely Chism, school psychologist, citing a Stanford research article by Dr. Patrick Cook-Deegan. Most students said their purpose in high school was to get into a good college, she summarized from the report. “We’re looking at how we can create meaning and purpose in every day for students,” said Chism. “We can’t just focus on academics.”

With high school in mind, elementary-school counselors are teaching coping skills, such as “mindfulness,” said Luisa Mossa, elementary school counselor. Being aware to what’s happening in the moment, she said, engenders an overall sense of well-being.

“If you stress-out before a test, it affects your memory, your recall,” Mossa said she tells students. Practicing awareness skills and relaxation increases resiliency, perseverance and the ability to stay calm, added Grace Jones, another elementary school counselor.

Enjoying learning rather than focusing on the goal is another new approach, said Jolene Dugan, an elementary school counselor. “We want to show them how to be learners, how to enjoy school. Do they know why they like school,” she said.

With the increase in teen suicides and depression, gaps in the district’s guidance program began showing up, said Chism. One gap is that high school students are not participating in support programs, she said.

To fill this gap, a “prescriptive” or mandatory program will be offered for ninth-graders, said school psychologist Lila Samia. The program includes four sessions, including one with parents, with an outside clinical psychologist, Dr. Jerry Weichman, for students with serious emotional concerns, Samia said. Parent participation in support programs drops off in middle school and even more so in high school, said high school counselor Angela Pilon.

Individual academic counseling for six weeks, which often turns into emotional counseling, is also being offered for each of the 296 high school students who have gotten a D or an F, said high school counselor Nichole Rosa.

“It’s like a little triangle of love,” said Rosa. “There’s the counselor, the case-carrier and the school psychologist. It’s a constant wrap-around. I’ve been at three high schools and never seen a special education program as strong as ours. It’s a wholistic approach.”

The high school program also offers district-funded counseling for five sessions to families in need, she said. In addition, the district is establishing a program with Mission Hospital Laguna Beach to offer further emotional and substance-abuse support, she added.

“We’re doing a lot of catching the baby down the river and not figuring out how they’re falling off the bridge,” said Rosa. One student, who had already attempted suicide, suffered an anxiety attack this week, she said, and came in for help.

Recent reports and articles on the number of teen suicides in Palo Alto, Calif., brought the need home.

“There were shocking parallels to Laguna Beach,” said board president Bill Landsiedel. “Whether we intend to or not, in high school today, we’ve created such a pressure-cooker. And the 296 kids, that’s a shocking number, with D’s or F’s. How are they emotionally handling it?”

Landsiedel encouraged more meetings on the district’s emotional support endeavors. “Mental health, it’s the last thing people want to discuss,” he added,” and it’s the first thing that should be.”

Suicide, substance abuse, cutting, bulimia, acting-out, panic attacks and disinterest are not unusual among the Laguna student population, say the counselors. Increasing pressure and stress from school and home are the underlying culprits, they concurred.

The schools rely on a progressive three-tier system of support to address academic as well as social/emotional concerns, the third tier geared for more directed care to address a particular problem. The idea is that when a student has a greater sense of well-being, teaching and learning become easier, said Mossa.

In elementary school, the report stated, children are worried about bullying, a domestic abuser, divorce, natural disasters and guns and violence. In middle school, they’re worried about embarrassment and not belonging. In high school, they’re worried about peer acceptance, workload and the future.

To address concerns, elementary-school children can join the Fitness Club before school as well as an after-school Friendship Club. There are also three parent-education workshops.

Students at Thurston Middle School can sign a United in Kindness pledge, said counselor Nance Morrissey. “It means when someone is being mean to someone, are you going to stand by or stand up?” she said. “It reminds them again and again that social and emotional health and wellness is at the root of being successful in school and being a good person and being a happy person. And happy kids are successful kids.”

 

 

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1 COMMENT

  1. So proud of our school district for being responsive to the whole child in this way. It is a cultural swing I believe will come in broader ways and I’m not surprised LBUSD is a leader in this.

    Great move!

    Mary Pat Kelly PhD

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