ST. CLOUD, Florida. – When it comes to mental health in schools, professionals like psychologists and social workers face a huge challenge. They only spend a few minutes a week with any given student, and for those who need the most help, that may not be enough.
The reality is that most schools share psychologists with multiple schools, due to a lack of funding. But most of these people work very hard in schools every day to manage potential crises before they arise.
So Trooper Steve went to St. Cloud High School to speak with school psychologist Walkiria de Jesus and social worker Ann Rodriguez to see what they face every day.
Private Steve Montiero: Downstairs here at the school, if there is no emergency, what do we do?
Ann Rodriguez: My day can simply be filled with sorting out students who are making statements of self-harm, or who are making statements that may raise red flags, or who are contemplating wanting to harm themselves or kill themselves. And I do a lot of sorting with this type of student. I also meet, during the day, students who are having a bad day, who cannot concentrate in class, who cry, and the teacher is worried, they It also disrupts classes. I will meet with these students and try to find the best way to help them. Their job is to be in school, right? Their academics, right? The school district, the school is not a mental hospital. But we have children who have challenges. So we’re trying to figure out the best way to support them so they can be here and at their jobs.
TSM: So yes, on a daily basis, you actually interact with students potentially in crisis?
Both: Yes.
AR: We have good days, which means, you know, I only see five students with very intense problems, and then we have very heavy days like Monday, I think it was 10 o’clock. And we ended the day with hospitalization.
TSM: Give me the lowest possible thing that would be a crisis for a student. For a trained professional, you realize: Okay, this student will be fine, he just needs a little direction, and everything will be fine tomorrow. What is this type of interaction?
AR: In high school, it might be, “My boyfriend broke up with me, okay. And I don’t have my cell phone, because I behave badly at home, and I can’t even text him.
Walkiria of Jesus: Or: “I didn’t do my homework” or “I didn’t study for an exam.” And so they make a statement to get out of this situation. And then when they come to us, we probe them, we ask them more detailed questions, and we understand, okay, you’re trying to run away from your mission, like you’re trying to get a pass, isn’t it? isn’t it?
TSM: And you think you almost understand them, but you say this is how you’re going to be able to keep moving forward.
WDJ: Yes, ideally we would like them to put these strategies into practice immediately. But you know, they find their way back. And we remind them again and process what their emotions are and why they feel the way they feel, it’s more about letting them know that things are going to get better. The cloud can move a little to the left and you can move a little to the right. And that’s okay. And tomorrow, the cloud, you may be under the cloud again, and we will remind you to move aside.
AR: Many of our students have coping skills, most of them are maladjusted. They are not good. And so they have to understand that. I give them props, we know it’s a coping skill. This is not the right solution, is it? And we do a lot of replacements. Like, what could you have done differently? How could you better manage this and give them the opportunity to explore this without the pressure of the classroom? The teacher just wants them to be focused on their task. There’s a schedule, there’s, you know, there’s a routine in the classroom that can’t stop to do this with a student. So it has to happen in a different place.
TSM: Let’s talk about something we try not to talk about. But it’s COVID times, right? What, what’s the biggest piece of the puzzle that’s missing? After COVID, would you say, when you see your students now, you know, this piece is missing somewhere, what happened?
WDJ: The truth is COVID, which has shown and amplified what is really happening in many of these homes. And so what happened, once security was removed, school for many of these children represented safety, security, shelter and food. And now they go home where the trauma awaits them, and they can’t leave that environment. And so a lot of these kids were constantly confronting the monster within themselves. And what happens is once they finally go back to school, now we have to deal with all the trauma, it’s trauma compounded, it’s one trauma after another, they are afraid to come back, they are afraid to express themselves. They don’t talk much about their experiences. And we just see their behaviors, how they react, how they cope, they misbehave, they don’t want to come to school, or they just say some of them are using other inappropriate means. coping mechanisms, like smoking and things like that.
AR: I think I worked harder during our lockdown than during a normal school day, because my day started at nine in the morning from home. And I was on the phone with my parents until eight or nine at night, every day, every day of the week. And I was terrified of ending my workday at the number of hours I was allotted. Because I knew these children were having difficulties at home.
TSM: Where are we going? How to get back on track?
AR: I think first of all, students need to know that they are not alone. That everyone has had a hard time getting over this and that it’s okay to not be okay and to talk about it. So I think the first thing is if you feel the need to talk to someone, find someone to talk to.
WDJ: Find one among us. There is one in every school. So there’s a social worker, there’s counselors, their school psychologist, or your school can find one, one of us
TSM: I imagine some are defensive, but tell me about the role the parent plays in helping you
WDJ: Family dynamics certainly play a role in evaluating many services, in identifying a need, and we find ourselves taking on a lot of that educational aspect. RIGHT? Because when we talk about, for example, my own family, you know, we deal with our issues at home, and you might also have that with a lot of the families that we deal with. “No, mom is going to take this child to the grandparents and they will be better then, right? » Well, Grandma may not have the secret ingredient to healing your child where you might need something else. So it’s about educating this aspect and removing the stigma related to mental health. That’s the most important thing, I guess the most important thing, I hope it’s parents who are culturally different and who speak a different language than us, we will understand, because opening that door is, could be the door that, you know. , children need to get help.
TSM: However, you probably have to find yourself in places where sometimes what I would call is talking to a wall.
AR: Yes. And sometimes it’s about embarrassment. All right. I’m embarrassed that an adult would talk to me about my child and I had no idea. So they defend themselves by being very abrupt.
WDJ: How about calling another person who works for the district and working with their child’s teacher, that could be very difficult. It’s difficult too. So we’re trying to lower the defenses, because now we’re at another level of embarrassment.
AR: Or a parent who is a nurse, for example. This is how we can have these very difficult conversations.
TSM: And sometimes I feel like it’s embarrassing to just talk about a lot of stigma because you think it’s okay, it might ruin my way into college. And that’s a common theme in my athletic scholarship, because I met with the counselor, I met with the social worker, I got help. Is this something students should be concerned about?
AR: The student must worry about staying alive. That’s right. This is what they should be worried about. You know, I tell the students who are speaking, “I’m not going to be able to, you know, get a scholarship for football.” Well, you won’t get a scholarship if you kill yourself, you won’t get a scholarship or you’ll lose a scholarship if they see you hurting yourself in the locker room. And if they see that you’re doing this or that, you know, then we have a lot of very honest, honest conversations. And I also do it with the parents. I told my parents that I would have preferred to have a living child under treatment rather than a dead child.
TSM: How, throughout your career, have we come close, do we think, to losing students? How many students do you think you saved?
Both: Wow. You know, we’ve never been asked this question.
AR: I have a moment. It became very close. I think every student who needs mental health services and is able to connect because I made a connection is a child who has been saved.
WDJ: Yes I agree.
AR: Did a student lose his life? Under my watch? No.
WDJ: Have we received any close calls? Yes.
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