Conversations About Student Mental Health

In this episode, Chris Leonard talks with a parent of a student who struggled with school avoidance. This is an increasingly common problem faced by students, families, and school districts, and one that’s challenging to overcome. Laura describes her daughter Kelly’s battle with school avoidance and shares the intervention strategies that ultimately helped Kelly get back to school.

Highlights include:

• How school avoidance is different from truancy.
• The warning signs that a student may be on the path to school refusal.
• The most common underlying causes of school avoidance.
• What doesn’t work with students suffering from school avoidance.
• Specific things parents and schools can do to help the student return to school.

In this episode, Chris Leonard talks with Robert Ferullo (Principal of Weehawken High School and former Special Education Supervisor) about the proactive steps schools can take to prevent tragedies such as shootings and suicides. This can be a sensitive issue — one that we may prefer not to think about. But school administrators list preventing school tragedies among their top concerns.

Highlights include:

• What happens when schools ignore students' emotional needs
• Why a "softer" approach is recommended by experts as a more effective way to make schools safer
• How schools can create a school culture of trust and open communication
• The three levels of mental health support schools need to prevent tragedies and improve outcomes
• How school-based mental health intervention can actually save the district money

This first episode sets the stage for Conversations About Student Mental Health. Chris Leonard, clinical social worker shares some advice about the role of the school in addressing student mental health. Discussing such topics as:

• What is the schools responsibility when it comes to student mental health
• How can schools student mental health and perform their primary responsibilities of educating the student body
• How to address the stigma associated with mental health issues
• What kind of support schools may need to properly handle student mental health issues
• How to partner and implement programs that support school staff and administrators
• Taking a proactive approach vs. reacting to a tragedy
• What the monetary picture looks like