Understanding and Responding to Adolescent Mental Health Challenges

Overview

This training teaches school personnel to recognize signs and symptoms of mental health concerns, understand their significance, and learn how to talk with students about these concerns to assist them with getting the help they need. Faculty and staff are well-versed in who their students are and how to teach, coach, and support them to meet their educational goals. They often feel less confident, and unclear about their role, when significant distress and attendant behavioral problems interfere with students’ learning and school participation.

In this session, school personnel will:

• Learn about common mental health and substance misuse concerns in adolescents, including suicide awareness
• Gain appreciation for why it can be hard to directly address mental health concerns, including the role of socialization and stigma
• Understand how self-care plays an essential role in intervention with others in distress
• Learn strategies for effective communication for engaging and assisting students, including how to bridge connections with available health and mental health professionals
• Recognize the value of reaching out and forming relationships with students as a core preventative skill
• Participants will leave the training with readily accessible tips and tools, appropriate for use by anyone in a school setting, for recognizing and assisting students in need.

The Understanding and Responding to Adolescent Mental Health training session may be paired with a subsequent 2-hour interactive session designed for participants to apply the concepts they have been taught in part one. The second session uses a scenario-based role play and discussion format to help participants better learn how to effectively address common adolescent mental health concerns such as depression, anxiety, self-injury, and suicidality. Held with small groups, participants learn through the process of practice and peer feedback guided by an experienced clinical session leader

Details

• Audience: All school staff
• Length: 2.5-4.5 hours
• CEs: Not Available