Mental Health Programs for High School Faculty & Staff
As an educator, you can make a lasting difference in the life of a student
Designed specifically for high-school students, these programs will help increase awareness for a variety of mental health issues that commonly affect high-school aged students. By increasing education and awareness, students will be empowered to recognize signs in themselves, or their friends, and be able to give or find strategies for seeking help.
Sources of Strength
Audience: Elementary, Middle and High School Students (K-12)
Description: Strives to provide the highest-quality, evidence-based prevention for suicide, violence, bullying, and substance abuse by training, supporting, and empowering both peer leaders and caring adults to impact the world through the power of connection, hope, help and strength. The driving vision behind the program is to give voice and elevate the various strengths people have to offer and affect communities positively. There must be two to five adult advisors, who mentor a peer leader team.
These advisors can hold a variety of roles including: teachers, counselors, spiritual leaders, community adults, etc. Advisors lead peer teams, often between 10-50 students in size. The initial peer leader training is provided by a certified Sources of Strength trainer in a three to four hour, highly interactive training process. It is mandatory that the local adult advisors participate in the peer leader training.
After the initial training, the peer leaders and adult advisors begin a three to six month series of conversations with other trusted adults and their five to ten closest friends, as well as, create a wide range of Hope, Help, Strength messaging activities targeting a wider and diverse peer group.
Sources of Strength provides a recommended step by step guide of peer leader activities, but teams are able to adjust based on their readiness level and perception of what will work best in their setting. Sources of Strength templates and resources assist with peers connecting with adults and their friendship groups. These templates include examples of local faces posters, local voices audio, videos, presentations, skits, text forwarding, and internet social networking message. Peer teams are encouraged and expected to share their creative efforts with other teams across the country via Sources of Strength webpages, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Sources of Strength staff provides monthly teleconference support and planning materials and resources for each step of the way.
Cost: In Ohio and Kentucky, this program is fully funded by state grants. Others can contact 1N5 for funding options (info@1n5clone.wfcstaging.com).
Lap Around the Wellness Wheel
Audience: K-12
Description: An interactive lap around the Sources of Strength wellness wheel. Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on the people, places, and practices that help support their mental health and wellbeing and learn new ways to build wellness into their lives. This is a high-energy session of sharing, learning, and FUN!
Cost: Contact 1N5 for funding options (info@1n5clone.wfcstaging.com)
SEL Programming
Audience: K-12
Description: Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, make responsible decisions.
Cost: Varies
Classroom Mental Health
Audience: High School Students
Description: Classroom Mental Health provides a toolkit for teachers and other school professionals to help them improve communication, promote wellness, and reduce stigma regarding mental health. The website was developed by experts at the University of Michigan Depression Center in partnership with teachers. The goal of the website is to provide high school administrators and personnel with access to strategies which can be utilized with students to help support wellness and mental health. The website provides referral resources and classroom strategies to promote positive mental health and positive coping skills for students.
Cost: Free
Break Free from Depression
Audience: High School Students
Description: Developed with Boston Children’s Hospital Department of Psychiatry, this a 4-module curriculum focused on increasing awareness about adolescent depression and designed for use in high school classrooms. The goals are to increase adolescents’ awareness about depression, teach them how to recognize it in themselves and in their friends, and give them strategies for finding help.
Cost: This curriculum is now available online for free
Adapt for Life–Surviving the Teens
Audience: Middle School, High School Students
Description: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center created this program to provide in-school mental health education. This program is the most comprehensive, and it remains broadly used in the community. Plans are in place to not only revamp the program, making it more current and diversify the materials and delivery method, but also to expand its availability to approximately 75 schools in 2018.The program consists of a weeklong inoculation of middle and high school students on the signs and symptoms of mental health issues and available resources for not only themselves but others as well.
Cost: CCHMC works with other private entities to cover costs and make the program free of charge to schools
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Division of Psychiatry:
Stacey Hoffman
513-802-8630
stacey.hoffman@cchmc.org
Signs of Suicide Prevention Program (SOS)
Audience: Middle School, High School Students
Description: The Signs of Suicide Prevention Program (SOS) is a universal, school-based depression awareness and suicide prevention program designed for middle school (ages 11–13) or high-school (ages 13–17) students.The goals are to (1) decrease suicide and suicide attempts by increasing student knowledge and adaptive attitudes about depression, (2) encourage personal help-seeking and/or help-seeking on behalf of a friend, (3) reduce the stigma of mental illness and acknowledge the importance of seeking help or treatment, (4) engage parents and school staff as partners in prevention through gatekeeper education, and (5) encourage schools to develop community-based partnerships to support student mental health.Both the middle and high school programs provide age-appropriate, educational DVDs for school staff to play for students. The middle school video, Time to ACT, and the high school video, Friends for Life, inform students how to ACT® (Acknowledge, Care and Tell), demonstrate the right and wrong ways to help, and show a student talking with a school counselor. The program includes an optional student screening that assesses for depression and suicide risk and identifies students to refer for professional help as indicated. The program also includes a video, Training Trusted Adults, to engage staff, parents, or community members in the program’s objectives and prevention efforts.
Cost: $495
Classroom Mental Health
Audience: High School Students
Description: Classroom Mental Health provides a toolkit for teachers and other school professionals to help them improve communication, promote wellness, and reduce stigma regarding mental health. The website was developed by experts at the University of Michigan Depression Center in partnership with teachers. The goal of the website is to provide high school administrators and personnel with access to strategies which can be utilized with students to help support wellness and mental health. The website provides referral resources and classroom strategies to promote positive mental health and positive coping skills for students.
Cost: Free
QPR
Audience: Faculty, Staff and Parents
Description: An emergency mental health intervention modeled after CPR education: early recognition and early intervention yields successful outcomes. QPR seeks to educate the general public about warning signs of suicide crisis and how to respond appropriately. Lasting approximately one hour, training is conducted either in person or online and includes: techniques to help someone who is suicidal, how to help prevent suicide, common causes of suicidal behavior, warning signs, and resources to help someone in crisis. QPR is the most widespread gatekeeper training in the nation.
Cost: Contact 1N5 for pricing (info@1n5clone.wfcstaging.com)
More Than Sad
Audience: High School Student and Parents
Description: This program created by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is available in three downloadable version: student, parent and teachers. It teaches how to recognize the signs of depression in themselves and others, challenges the stigma surrounding depression, and demystifies the treatment process.
Cost: Free
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Cincinnati:
Heather Conroy, 513-582-6143, cincinnati@asfp.org
afsp.org/our-work/education/more-than-sad/
Jason Foundation
Audience: Faculty/Staff
Description: A series of online Staff Development Training Modules provide information on the awareness and prevention of youth suicide. These training modules are suitable for teachers, coaches, other school personnel, youth workers, first responders, foster parents and any adult who works with or interacts with young people or wants to learn more about youth suicide. This series of programs introduces the scope and magnitude of the problem of youth suicide, the signs of concern, risk factors, how to recognize young people who may be struggling, and how to approach the student and help an at-risk youth find resources for assistance.
Cost: Free
jasonfoundation.com/get-involved/educator-youth-worker-coach/professional-development-series/
Kognito
Audience: PK – 12 Faculty
Description: A suite of products to educate PK-12 educators about mental health and suicide prevention which supports improved student wellness and school safety. Kognito role-play simulations enable organizations to rapidly build the capacity of educators and students to lead real-life conversations that change lives.
ohio.kognito.com to access the training
For questions call 614-429-1528 or go to ohiospf.org