Reducing Barriers to Mental Health Access at Your School
We know there is so much to address and work towards when it comes to destigmatizing mental health within the communities you serve, especially black and brown communities.
The resources that are readily available in communities of color are limited and yet the need is high.
In my previous work as a School Social Worker, I worked at a predominantly Latino High School serving first-generation students who had very little resources and extremely limited psychoeducation about mental health and how to care for oneself, mind, body and spirit. It became my mission to identify ways to remove those barriers of access to counseling support, increase the number of touchpoints to resources on mental health, and eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health.
As a Spanish-speaking, second-generation, Latina woman myself, there was a relationship that I was able to build with parents and students that was different from my white counterparts. However, what remained constant was that we could only do this work together as a collective. So, it wasn’t about just getting buy-in from teachers and students, it was also about getting buy-in from teachers, administrators, and staff.
I found that surveying my community (teachers, families, and students) on what they are needing support with or what they deem to be issues of concern is a great way to gather direct feedback that you can use to focus your initiatives throughout the school year.
Curious about how and when to gather that information? You might want to try it on report card pickup night at the beginning of the year, in end-of-semester surveys, as well as in end-of-the-year parent-teacher conferences. You could send an electronic survey via SocialNote or through your school’s SIS system.
Depending on what information you gather, below are some ways you can put this feedback into action.
The key is to get the information out there as much as possible and see what works and what you might need to adjust for the future.
Begin to educate your school community, including parents, staff, and administrators on the importance of mental health support and resources for students so that they can support the initiatives you would like to pursue on your campus.
Provide parent workshops on different topics throughout the year that speak to the needs or areas of concern that are coming up on your campus.
Host a support group for teachers/staff on how they can take care of their mental health.
Use lunch time and advisory periods as a way to disseminate social-emotional learning lessons on various topics for students.
Finally, host a series of grade-level assemblies and either invite someone from the community to speak on a mental health topic or collaborate with other mental health professionals in the district to speak on this.