A student at Lakewood Elementary School in Cecilia, Ky., uses her laptop to participate in an emotional check-in at the start of the school day. Schools across the country are using technology to screen students’ state of mind. Other schools are expanding counseling programs or have opened wellness centers for students and staff.
A student at Lakewood Elementary School in Cecilia, Ky., uses her laptop to participate in an emotional check-in at the start of the school day. Schools across the country are using technology to screen students’ state of mind. Other schools are expanding counseling programs or have opened wellness centers for students and staff.
School wellness centers can help improve mental and behavioral health for students and staff, according to a new analysis by Brigham Young University.
They just require proper investments, institutional and community support and staffing to be able to offer students and teachers a productive oasis from everyday and societal stresses.
“It’s a place where kids can come and get nourished physically, emotionally and socially,” said BYU education professor Paul Caldarella, co-author of the report. “And if we’re not addressing students’ social, emotional, and behavioral struggles in school, then they’re not going to do well academically, either.”
BYU researchers zeroed in on the establishment of a wellness room staffed with counselors at Westlake High School in Saratoga Springs, near Provo, Utah.
Westlake High School’s wellness room was launched in 2020 after two student suicides and to help at-risk children. It is staffed with a counselor and offers students 20-minute respites from classes.
The BYU study found more than 750 students, parents and staff surveyed about its impacts, were supportive.
“Wellness centers can sometimes sound ‘granola’ or ‘hippie,’ but it’s interesting that, even at a school that’s about 80% white, we saw that diverse populations felt comfortable taking advantage of the center,” said BYU school psychology graduate student Malka Moya, lead author of the paper, which was published in Education and Treatment of Children.
Caldarella said faculty and administration buy-in is crucial to wellness centers receiving the support and staffing needed to help distressed students. That means not only having the room staffed with a counselor and relaxing spaces but also teachers and principals willing to trust students when they need a short mental health break.
“We expect students to manage their own emotional health but don’t teach them how or give them the space they need to do so,” said Jennifer Bitton, who helped found the wellness center as assistant principal at Westlake and co-authored the BYU report. “The wellness center has normalized discussions surrounding mental health. Students are no longer going home, hiding in bathrooms or hallways when they need a break — they understand that everyone has bad days, and the wellness center is there for them to use.”
Bitton said tthe suicides of two Westlake students in 2019 sparked the effort to engage more students who might be struggling.
“We were looking for a solution,” said Bitton, who is now an assistant principal at Lehi High School in the same Alpine School District as Westlake.
“It’s very calming, very sensory driven,” Paul Feyereisen, chief impact officer with the Utah-based IM Foundation, said of the space.
The Westlake wellness center was initially funded via $10,000 in seed money from IM, a group focused on wellness and mental health balance for students and others, to help outfit a converted classroom.
Feyereisen said the start-up money consisted of donations from local businesses and the local school district’s foundation.
He said the initial funding from the foundation and other community sources helped show school districts and local communities the need for such trusting spaces. Now, the Westlake center is funded through the school district and its community foundation.
The center is also staffed with a licensed mental health counselor who is paid approximately $50,000 per year.
Feyereisen said the Westlake center has another $5,000 in annual operating costs — including snacks and drinks.
Bitton said 15 to 25 students use the wellness center each day and there are passes available in classrooms. Stressors that draw them there can range from troubles and trauma at home, worries about social and political turmoil and breakups with boyfriends and girlfriends to much deeper anxiety and thoughts of suicide and self harm.
Bitton said students don’t have to formally ask to go, they just have to make sure classroom teachers see they are utilizing a wellness pass.
“Kids use it to start their day. It’s just buzzing in the morning,” she said. The high school center was also open during the summer in case students wanted to stop by.
Feyereisen said he’s been approached by a handful of students who told him the center and its dedicated counselor helped dissuade them from thoughts of committing suicide.
“That’s the ultimate testament,” he said.
Caldarella said most schools don’t have wellness centers and if they do they are more relaxation and escape rooms. He said the focus on mental health needs increased amid coronavirus pandemic school shutdowns, and amid anxieties over mass shootings at schools.
Calderella also noted the bulk of wellness efforts are in California, and most are professional staffed by mental health experts. “They usually don’t have a counselor there,”he said.
Feyereisen wants that to change and said he hopes the Westlake center will provide a positive impetus for other districts, school boards and state legislatures nationwide
“We are also talking to schools across the country,” he said, pointing to conversations with schools in California, Florida and the Philadelphia area.
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