Miami-Dade Faculties Employees Obtain Psychological Well being Coaching – NBC 6 South Florida
The primary day of faculty is simply across the nook, and school-based professionals are preparing.
Not simply academics and directors, however lots of of psychological well being counselors, social employees, and nurses gathered at Ronald Reagan Senior Excessive Faculty in Doral for The Youngsters’s Belief annual coaching convention, an train designed to get the attendees in control in time for the primary faculty bell to ring.
In one of many workshops, psychological well being professionals have been discussing quite a lot of points, together with the crucial that each one employees on campus, not simply counselors, discover ways to spot the warning indicators {that a} pupil is perhaps in disaster. That coaching course of has already begun, in accordance with Sally Alayon, who heads the psychological well being providers division of Miami-Dade County Public Faculties.
“Psychological well being is simply as essential as bodily well being, they’re very conscious that in the event that they see a baby in want, that baby must be referred, dad and mom are shopping for into it, additionally,” Alayon mentioned.
She says it’s a part of the trouble to erase the stigma of looking for psychological well being providers at school.
“They don’t have to come back to us, we go to them, and we offer the providers from both trauma-informed remedy to only pre-therapy as a result of they’re having a panic assault,” mentioned Lissette Colla-Maza, a psychological well being counselor who works in inner-city colleges.
The Youngsters’s Belief invests greater than $16 million a yr to employees 150 school-based clinics, and people clinics are the one locations the place some youngsters can entry healthcare.
‘We’re beginning to increase their providers all through the neighborhood, particularly for youths that actually want the assistance as a result of generally they don’t have docs, they don’t have entry to any type of medical skilled and we’re those which are right here as a useful resource,” mentioned faculty nurse Eduardo Barrio.
Over the previous two faculty years, pandemic isolation after which repopulation in colleges prompted a ton of psychological well being points, however now, the college district is hoping they’ve turned the nook.
“We all know that there are some kids who’re nonetheless experiencing some challenges, some social-emotional, psychological well being challenges and whether or not it’s going to the college nurse, who’re right here immediately, working with the social employee or one of many psychological well being professionals, a lot assistance is round you and we deliver this message not solely to college students that this assistance is round you however we deliver it to all of the employees members to make sure that they benefit from these alternatives and refer college students to those helps and refer dad and mom to those helps as properly,” Alayon mentioned.
Her division has been on a hiring spree prior to now two years, with 118 counselors and the district is trying to herald 15 extra.
It’s a sign of how a lot significance they place on the difficulty of psychological wellness.
