Charleston County School District, SC CCSD Insights, News & Notes, 12 Sep 2022

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From YouTube: CCSD Insights, News & Notes - Mental Health Support

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In this edition of CCSD Insights, News & Notes, we focus on the mental health supports our district offers for students and staff. Our new Mental Health and Wellness Systems Coordinator Marques Johnson and Interim Executive Director of Student Support Lisa Allison lead the conversation and explain how this topic has become a major priority in CCSD.

A

Hello: everyone, I'm andy pruitt director of communications, for charleston, county school district, and thank you for watching this edition of ccsd insights, news and notes. In this episode. We are going to discuss the work our district staff members are doing to support students and fellow staff members when it comes to their mental health and to speak with us. First is our new mental health and wellness systems coordinator, marcus johnson marcus. Thank you very much for joining us in this installment of ccsd insights, news and notes it's great to meet you thanks for joining ccsd.

A

Thank you. Thank you for having.

B

A

um First off, we just want a little bit more about you and why you decided to come into ccsd in this role.

B

Mental health is extremely important to me and I think everyone goes through k-12 and so, as a provider, I think working in a school district is probably one of the best places we could find ourselves, because I think our impact is greater because students become citizens of our community and members of our society. So I think it's just sort of a no-brainer for social workers to find themselves in the school district where they can provide mental health services.

A

But for you personally, what's your personal connection to this work.

B

As a young student, we didn't know it at the time, but I suffered with generalized anxiety and it greatly impeded upon my academic success. I was retained in the sixth grade in high school. um I was convinced that school wasn't for me to the point that I dropped out um and I earned my ged and I got in college, and I was certain that I wanted to do. Like some counseling, I wanted to work with kids um and my senior year.

B

I was diagnosed with the generalized anxiety and I went through therapy, and things were very different for me, and so mental health is very near and dear to my heart, because it's something that I experience every day and so having an opportunity to empower uh individuals, families and communities with information and knowledge that would allow them to manage their emotions and manage their thoughts and and to be the best versions of themselves is is is absolutely what I want.

A

To do so, obviously you're very passionate about this work, but if someone came up to you and said well, what what does mental health support look like when it comes to a school or a school district? Can you kind of explain it from a high level.

B

I think it's important when we talk about mental health, supports to see it in the framework of tiering services, tier one tier two tier three and thankfully in our school district, we anchor to the mtss framework model where all of our services, all of our supports, are tiered and so a tier level. uh One support, which is a support that every student is going to have access to would be our social and emotional curriculums.

B

Restorative practices, pbis tier two um interventions- are where we're going to start looking at um some students, not all of our students, but some of our students that may need the small group instruction that may need check in and check out with with the preferred adult. Our tier three supports are we're going to start looking at more individualized plans of support for students that could include individual counseling or an array of more individualized specific supports for students? Some excuse me: fewer students, fewer students at that tier three level.

A

One question too that just from the outside, looking in how do you know if you need that support that extra level of support, whether it's a tier one, tier, two or tier three, um maybe even starting with recognizing, am I just having a bad day or do I really need help, is something wrong? Do I really need to get that extra extra level of.

B

Support, that's a really good question and, to be quite honest, um that's why that tier one support, those tier one supports are so important because at tier one we're going to be introducing that social and emotional curriculum and that's where we would start to begin to teach that self-awareness. We will begin to teach about thoughts and feelings and how they influence us and how we can begin to manage them.

B

And so I guess my answer to that question is, if ever you're in doubt like, if you just feel off just reach out to a trusted adult and try your best to fully engage and participate in those social and emotional lessons, because it will teach you a lot about yourself. It will teach you a lot about the people that you interact with and how you show up in the world.

A

Well, based on the fact that you're here talking to me, it seems like our district has made this a priority to have someone of your background, your expertise in this specific position. How would you say, or how would you describe from your point of view, the districts prioritizing this need and this effort.

B

I think it sends a message to our community that social and emotional well-being or mental well-being is as important as learning to read and write that one it's sort of like love and marriage. You cannot have one without the other. They go together like a handing carriage, perfect.

A

Man and one other question, you know being relatively new to the district in this role. um How do you hope that your work evolves, and what do you see for the future when it comes to helping our students and our staff in this topic.

B

The one big thing that I'm very hopeful about is evening: the playing field normalizing this conversation and making sure that all students have access to social and emotional supports, regardless of the level of social, emotional support.

A

Awesome well marcus, really appreciate you again. Thank you discussing this topic and it's we're glad that you're here we're glad that you're ready to help our students and our staff. Of course the conversation doesn't end here. We want to bring in someone else to discuss more on our background when it comes to providing mental health support, so we're going to speak with lisa allison who's been involved with this work for several years in charleston, county school district.

A

Lisa, thank you for joining us to continue this conversation on one of the biggest topics. Right now, when it comes to schools, is mental health support and so for people watching this video. Could you give us some of your background? How long you've been with the district and why this work is so important to you.

C

Thank you for having me andy. I appreciate the opportunity to talk on this very important topic. I am a school psychologist. I've been with the district for 21 years. I've been blessed to be able to serve our students and our families, both as a school-based psychologist and then also at the district level, helping to support our climate initiatives.

C

Our school psychology services, as well as our intervention for our students, so.

A

Being in the district for as long as you've been in the district, four you've seen the evolution of mental health supports for students and staff. What does that look like, and can you kind of take us from where it was when you first got here to where we're at now.

C

We've definitely seen an increased awareness of the need for mental health support, as well as a reduced stigma in the seeking and the providing of mental health and support. I've also seen an increase in the commitment from ccsd to make sure that we have the right amount of mental health, supports and wellness initiatives and that those are equitably distributed throughout the district and accessible across the district.

A

Now, before covet 19 hit mental health support was already becoming a big topic, but when the pandemic hit and we were started receiving, the funding and the american rescue plan made news. Esther 3 funding, specifically the major requests from our community, whether it was community partners, parents, families, students staff was, we need more funding to support our children and our staff when it comes to mental health. So how are we going to be using that funding over the next couple of years?.

C

You're right andy, we heard loud and clearly from our community that increased access to wraparound mental health supports was a priority for esser funding.

C

So, starting with the adults, we've dedicated funds to increase professional development, around trauma-informed educator, training, restorative practices, resiliency additional self-care strategies, as well as calming rooms in many of our schools, and we've also dedicated funds for students through increased professionals who can help support mental health in our schools, such as our social workers, our school psychologists licensed clinical counselors drug and alcohol counselors and those professionals can not only provide direct support to students, but they can also help families access additional resources outside of schools.

C

We've also increased our contracts with mental health clinicians and some of our community-based organizations that, with the addition of curriculum for our secondary students, has made for a nice package of supports to support our students and families.

A

So this is robust, but the the federal funding from the american rescue plan will go away in a couple of years. So when we put these things in place, how do we make sure they stay in place when that federal support goes away?.

C

Yes, we recognize that the need will not stop when the funding does so we're trying to proactively assess the impact of our services and supports so that we can identify the highest level and the highest leverage practices, and we can advocate for continuing with those with other available funding sources.

A

You know this is a this is not a uh one department handles kind of topic, it's it's spanned, so many of the different departments throughout learning services and and while we go through some kind of reorganization, can you tell me about some of the just the different departments that have been and will continue to be involved in supporting our students and our staff on this topic?.

C

You're right, no one department owns the mental health and wellness of our students and our staff, so it is definitely collaborative effort across the organization, starting, of course, at the top, with the support from our superintendent, so the departments who typically support students like counseling psych services, climate coaches, our social workers, department of exceptional children. Those departments have really taken the lead.

C

However, we work across the organization on all of these efforts: our office of family and community engagement, early learning, community curriculum and instruction, and, of course we couldn't do anything without our school-based leaders and those who support them.

A

So lisa, it sounds like we have a lot of people involved in this, so that may make the next question a little bit more relevant. um Who can someone go to if they want to learn more about, not necessarily that they need that service?

A

But if you are watching this video- and you feel like, I just need to know a little bit more- who should people reach out to what departments divisions people at the school level? Where would you tell someone to go if they needed to know more about what our district offers.

C

That's a great question, so we would encourage people to start locally so at their home school, so whether that's a family member who's, just trying to find out more about what the district offers start with your school. You can start with your child's teacher.

C

You can start with your school counselor at the school, the administrator, certainly the school psychologist based there and if there's not success with that avenue, then certainly you're welcome to reach out to marcus or myself, we'll be happy to point you in the right direction for additional understanding about the services we offer for our staff members we're trying to make sure the communication is clear across the district that we are providing these supports not just for our students and families, but also for them through our employee assistance program and other initiatives to support our staff.

C

Again, I would welcome the opportunity to talk to anybody, and I know marcus would as well well.

A

Lisa, thank you again for speaking with us on this very important topic.

C

Thanks for having me andy, it was a pleasure awesome.

A

And we also want to thank again marcus johnson for his time and his participation in this episode of ccsd insights, news and notes. We do hope that this video becomes an important resource and helps people understand all the effort and all the time that's being put into supporting our students and staff on this very important topic of mental health. Support. We'll see you next time on ccsd insights, news and notes. I'm andy pruitt.

D