Seventeen. Seventeen, is the number of colleagues I personally reached out to and asked the question, “As a teacher, what mental health supports can you help students access?” Seventeen is the number of replies that I received that did not have an answer besides “the school counsellor.” I am not surprised, because I also did not know, but I am overwhelmingly concerned after having these conversations.
After teaching through a pandemic, being fairly aware of the issues that our society faces, and completing the research that I have for this blog, I am confident in saying that now more than ever our students are struggling with mental health. Many students have experienced trauma, are lacking social-emotional skills, and do not have mental health coping skills (Schwartz, 2022). Our students need so much more than a school counsellor. In the rural, K-12, school that I teach at, we have approximately 400 students and one school counsellor who is at our school for 2 days a week. That is enough time to see between 5-15 students depending on the school’s needs for the week. Seventeen teachers whose responses were “the school counsellor,” is not enough for these kids who are struggling, however, we as teachers are undertrained on how to help our students. On top of that, our class sizes are getting larger making it even more difficult to set time aside to help our students with their mental health and to teach social-emotional learning. When I reached out to these 17 colleagues, it was either over text, social media, or by email. Several great conversations came out of the simple question that I asked. It is not just me who is deeply concerned for our student’s health but teachers collectively. One friend replied, “Oh wow, I have no idea, let me know what you find out!” Several others mentioned that they just try to talk to the students that they notice are struggling. Schwatz’s article confirmed that this is the number one tool that teachers use when trying to help students with their mental health (2008). But how can we make time for them all? And how to be help students who are in real crisis, at home, or mentally? Another colleague, who is an administrator stated that we are in a real crisis and are severely lacking in mental health supports. Crisis centers pass you along to other organizations who pass you back to the first one. There is no where to go. With this feeling of hopelessness starting to wash over me, I couldn’t help but think of all of the campaigns we have seen in the last few years about mental health. Slogans such as, “It’s okay not to be okay,” and “Sometimes you just need some help” playing on commercials and on social media advertisements. It feels very performative when we are left with no concrete tools and strategies to support students who are in crisis. I spent about twenty minutes searching my school division’s website and could not find anything about what mental health supports we offer. I searched local news websites for resources and did not come up with much. One article talked about the Saskatchewan Rough Rider’s new campaign called “The Game Changers Playbook,” which states that it provides mental health resources for youth (Benson, 2022). I was excited by this but quickly learned that the online resource was a maze of hyperlinks to short motivational videos and worksheets. We need strategies and tools for teachers to help them in the moment. Schwatz’s article outlines this need when she stated that, “Less than 40 percent of teachers surveyed by the Education Week Research Center said they received training in conflict de-escalation, and a similar number said they had been trained in child trauma. Only 29 percent said they had received mental health training” (2022). Teacher education programs are lacking in social-emotional training and mental-health training. I wish I was ending this post on a more positive note, but I have more questions than answers. I will say however that it is inspiring to see that a lot of people share these concerns and that this is being talked about. I hope that curriculum will start implementing mandated social-emotional learning, I hope that teachers will begin to be adequately trained in these topics and that they will be provided tools and resources to help their students. I hope that more counsellors will be hired and that class sizes will go down. I do still have hope. References Benson, A. (2022, October 14). Saskatchewan Roughriders introduce New Mental Health Initiative for SASK. youth. Global News. Retrieved October 25, 2022, from https://globalnews.ca/news/9196731/saskatchewan-roughriders-new-mental-health-initiative-sask-youth/ Schwartz, S. (2022, February 28). Teachers support social-emotional learning, but students in distress strain their skills. Education Week. Retrieved October 25, 2022, from https://www.edweek.org/leadership/teachers-support-social-emotional-learning-but-say-students-in-distress-strain-their-skills/2019/07
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