Ep 21 | Mental Wellness Matters

SPEAKER_01 0:00

It works. And the thinking there is if they're you know not achieving what they're able to achieve because of an emotional obstacle, it'd be better for them to leave the classroom and sort it out with somebody so they can come back and be successful.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every student in Escambia County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. Since the COVID pandemic, everyone has been more conscious of the importance of mental health. A good thing. Counselors' offices are booked up. A good thing. No available counselors to offer your child quality support in the window when they're actually willing to talk to someone. My next guest is working to remove that barrier of access for kids in Escambia County. He's the coordinator of mental health services for Escambia County Public Schools. And today he's going to share why mental health matters for kids, how quality care can boost their academic success, and what streamlined support may be available for them. From Ohio to Florida, supporting mental health wholeness, Silvio Fina. Thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Thank you for inviting me. It's good to be here.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

I uh I think people talk about mental health a lot in the way that some people talk about behaviors. He has behaviors. Well, yeah, we all have behaviors, right? But what they're talking about is bad behaviors. And when we talk about mental health, we're usually talking about mental unhealth, right? Isn't that funny the way that we word those things in English? But what does mental healthiness look like?

SPEAKER_01 2:06

I think mental wellness looks like a person who strives to live a flexible mindset. Like I don't prefer it, but I can handle it. That person can strike a balance between choosing to create what they want and accepting the limits of the gibbons, those things out of their control, the circumstances, the choices other people make. I think mental wellness looks like a person who has an overall mindset where they see the world as against a white backdrop with dark gray specs as opposed to the opposite. You know, like a a positive the world's good, it's beautiful. People are good and beautiful, and that's most of what's there. So um they also are able to form trusting relationships, have compassion with themselves. Some people um summarize it as live, love, laugh, and learn. You know, um the ability to love and be loved. If you had to choose one of those, it's not a religious tenet. It's at the heart of all psychology is you know, to will the good of the other as the other. Um that that good redounds to their benefit, not how it reflects on you. So that entails that feelings can be all over the place, but you know, because we don't have complete control over those. But if you're loving somebody, you're willing they're good, and you're able to forgive and let go and move on. And so you know, also mental wellness looks like you feel like you're successful.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Oh, I never thought of it like that.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Yeah, you have a purpose and like you belong.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Because when you feel successful, belonging is kind of part of that, which all goes back to your point about giving and receiving love. That's interesting. I never really put love at the center of all that, and that's saying something because I'm pretty hippy-dippy. So for me to not say love is at the center of it all, yeah, that's a huge misstep on my part.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Yeah, it really is. And if you had to choose one of the two, extending yourself, self-forgetfulness, self-emptying, the love versus receiving love, the one that's you know, in the first place would be loving. You know, that's what that's how you find yourself by giving yourself away. So you have to have all the building blocks in order before you can do that. And it's all gr a gradual process of discovering who you are and then having a firm sense of identity and extending yourself and giving, you know, it's just it's uh paradox revolves, everything revolves around that.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

And it all sounds very utopian, you know. Uh I think there's something definitely uh upside down with our society when the basis of healthy functioning sounds utopian and we're so dysfunctional that we even use dysfunction to entertain ourselves with reality television and Twitter fights. You know what I mean? That's so sad. So talk to me about ACE. If our baseline, right, is broken, if that's what we're used to, why is it important for kids to get mental health support?

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Over the last 10 years or so, there's things called adverse childhood experiences that have been discovered in a study, and I don't know it well enough to quote chapter and verse of where it came from, but it's been um validated many times over, and it's the gold standard now, and we've been implementing it in as Scambia County Public Schools for probably five to ten years. Our teachers are trained in it and and such. But it's the concept that uh the body remembers, the body keeps scores score, excuse me, and uh one adult, one caring adult outside the family can make a difference. So there's been this concerted intentional push to connect with the students, understand where they are, form a relationship with them, so you can help them overcome trauma. So ACE for example, there are ten ACE categories. There's physical abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect, emotional neglect, mother treated violently, substance misuse within the household, household mental illness, parental separation or divorce, incarcerated household member, or if you've been a victim of sexual abuse. So, regardless of how young you are, when that occurs, the body remembers. And the psyche, it's like something slams into the consciousness, into like wet sand, and then the handprint is gone. But the mind is interpreting that handprint, the remnant, the image that's been stored as the event itself. The meaning you're ascribing to it, the triggers in your environment make you feel or the person feel like um they have to be on constant high alert status and scan the room and their environment for danger, and they they don't have what we call you know felt safety. So if you don't have felt safety, you're not gonna care about getting back on task and and learning. So we've discovered over these years that you have to address that. You have to help them get to their end of their story, help them feel safe.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

And so it sounds like the purpose of helping kids get through whatever capital T or little T trauma is so that their lizard brain, I'm just gonna call it lizard brain. The back of their brain that they're not consciously aware of isn't trying to solve for that equation in in like a unhelpful way. Is that right?

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Perfect. Very well said. Yeah, the brain's trying to keep them safe.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

And we all know what mental health or mental illness, mental illness sounds so extreme, right? But we mental health is just part of our body, right? So when I say mental illness, I don't want a listener to think like uh girl interrupted. Like mental illness is something that we all experience from time to time, just like the flu. It's you know, I just I feel like I have to remove stigma. Like I've just seen the facial expression of a listener listening, going, oh, mental illness, that's not us, right? But we all experience that and how much more now since the COVID pandemic, right? And we are familiar with how it shows up for us as adults, especially in the workplace. How does mental illness show up for kids at school? What does that look like?

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Right. So to your point. Mental health challenge, you know, in some of the audiences I address, everyone can accept that. That's palatable. We all have mental health challenges. I mean, and so you gotta really take some time to get your mind right at the beginning of the day. And I think we've all experienced that and can admit it since the um pandemic. Um but what mental what a mental challenge, mental health challenge might look like in a school is, and you keep in mind that everything's very gradual. It it slowly builds on itself. And then one day, say, for example, a teacher notices, because this is what we train them to do, the teachers in youth mental health first aid, is to, you know, are they not them usual are they not their usual selves in uh frequency, intensity, and duration. So let's say you have a seventh grade young lady, and she used to participate, now she's disengaged, she used to um care a lot about her her appearance, now she's been she's been letting that go, she's wearing dark colors, she's um not as joyful, she's shut down, she doesn't finish her assignments. So you know the teacher could approach her and say, you know, I've noticed you're not your usual self. Is there something bothering you on your mind? And um, you know, if the student wants to discuss it there, they can. If not, they get referred to the school counselor. School counselor either tries to resolve the issue or refers to another level of mental health care because we're in the schools. And so, you know, that situation that could lead to that girl eventually, and this is why I'm I just I guess still do this, is that if that process is not interrupted, it gets worse. It doesn't stop on its own, it doesn't head the other direction, it just gradually gets worse. It could lead to cutting, because the thought behind cutting is you know, it has to do with relationships and connections, it's all related to trauma. If I can bring pain to my body, I can access my emotions. If I can access my emotions, I can connect with someone. Because there's some pillars that we want to look out for for all of us, and this is probably answering your question with students is you know, students come to the wrong conclusions about things. Um they're good observers, but they're terrible interpreters through no fault of their own. And so they think things mean about things about them that they don't, and they'll feel abandoned, rejected, isolated, alone, it's my fault. They're small, they're aware of their powerlessness. And you know, I think power is at the heart of recovery too, because what we try to assist teachers in doing is making that connection, having some understanding, giving restoring power to the student. Here's a choice: do you want to take a timeout in Miss Johnson's room? Do you want to go to the calming corner and use your stress ball? Do you want to go get a drink of water? I can see you're upset, or do you want to take this folder to Miss Handover, whatever her name is, right? So um interesting.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

I didn't really equate uh student mental health with the feeling of being powerless times 10, you know. Um, but that that is an interesting, unique aspect. And we all have felt powerless at times, but how much more children who don't have autonomy agency over their lives really until much later? You mentioned access too. Um, can you talk more about that? How how students and parents can access mental health without tipping over the already full cup, right? The average parent, I think, is mentally at capacity. Their schedule is at capacity. The idea of taking their child to counseling once a week when that child may not even be wanting to participate in that, it just might send them over the edge. And I could see where it would be tempting for a parent to go, you know what, they'll grow out of it. So talk to me about what Escambia County Public is doing to help parents and students get easier access to mental health resources.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

So I think that leads into we're all in, you know, our new slogan, which I like very much. I also like that we're calling it Escambia County Public Schools because it's a badge of honor to solve to serve the entire spectrum of our community. And that's exciting and um heartbreaking at the same time. But we really are to the person everybody I run into in the schools, are we're all in united for every student to succeed. And this might be the quintessential example of that is what we've done and were able to do with the mental health asset allocation money that came after the tragedy of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas. Um we keep getting increasing amounts of money from the state. First year in 2018 we got 75 million, second year 100 million, uh last the year before this year 120 million, this year 140 million. So our r our share of that is roughly 1.8 million dollars. So we rolled out into the school a hybrid approach to mental health counseling where we bring that clinical counseling on site. So here's the collaborative effort. We collaborate with 14 counselors from Lakeview Center. They cover 32 elementary schools. Most of them have counselors there at least two days a week. We contract with Children's Home Society, they have 10 counselors, uh, they cover the charter schools, the middle schools, um, and the alternative schools. We have nine direct hires at Pine Forest, Escambia, Booker T, Washington, Pensacola High School, Tate, West Florida High School, and Ferry Pass. We have we contract with uh a counselor who covers the ESE Self-Contained Access Points curriculum classrooms. We contract with uh another counselor designated to rotate through the five middle schools and run social skills groups. She covers Bailey, Bellevue, Beulah, Ransom, and Workman. Um shout out to Ernest Ward in Warrington. We still love you. And you know, there's um you know future possibilities there. But they runs she runs social groups to work on conflict resolution, psychoeducational resilience, decision making. Um we partner with Gulf Coast Kids House. They do our K-5 human trafficking. It's just really an entire community collaborative effort.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

And so for the counselors, you're saying on-site. Is it on-site on all those schools that you just listed?

SPEAKER_01 16:19

All of our schools.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

So what does that look like? A student goes to school. I'm so out of touch with this. What is it like 8 30 to 4? I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Middle school. It's close enough. Middle school starts at like nine now, but oh, interesting.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

Okay. Um, so when in that course of that day would the student get to visit with the counselor? Would it be before or after? Is it something during? Because like how I'm thinking, okay, I'm a parent, right? So I'm pretending I'm a parent, and they normally get the bus home. So if they have to stay after school, does that mean I have to arrange for transportation to get them home because they can't take the bus because they are seeing a counselor? Paint a picture for me.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: It's not before school, it's not after school, it's during school, and the um counselors have access one way or another to the student schedule and they try to pull from their electives. So and rotate that because you know obviously teachers don't want students out of their class the same time every week. So it works. And the thinking there is if they're um you know not achieving what they're able to achieve because of an emotional obstacle, it'd be better for them to leave the classroom and sort it out with somebody so they can come back and be successful.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

Oh yeah, completely. Um that's really interesting. So and there's no cost associated with that?

SPEAKER_01 17:46

No cost.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

And the counselors create actual treatment plans?

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Treatment plans by Florida statute.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

Work on things like anger management, depression, adjustment.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

Grief?

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Grief. Well, uh complicated grief. It's not considered something that you have to go to counseling unless it's causing dysfunction for longer than six months. But normally we pick the kids up who have this that tragic loss uh before that time.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

And can you think of uh an example of uh any particular student that counseling offered like a pr really amazing turnaround for them academically or otherwise?

SPEAKER_01 18:27

I alluded to the group of those who do the non-suicidal self-interest behavior. And that's where the student has been keeping things to herself for a long period of time. They're having trouble communicating how they're feeling, putting their feelings into words, and um maybe the adults in their life are not as tuned in to what's bothering the young person as they could be, and the young person doesn't want to be a bother so they think they can handle it, and then adolescents you know sets in and it's off to the races. So if they're beginning to self-injure, you know, that has a very dramatic uh impact. I loved being the first person to talk to a somebody who was self-injuring because they're like, you mean I'm not crazy? I'm like, no, you're not crazy. We just need to find words. And so, you know, I would ask them, so are the adults in your life making decisions that really aren't prioritizing how you feel? For example, and you know, I say this with all love in my heart, people get themselves into very difficult situations where they have to survive. But in your divorced households where the students grow up and they have to go over to one of the parents' homes because the judge has said you have to go here because legally you have to, and there's money involved, and if you don't go, I'm going back to court and child support and all that. Well okay. So you have a compliance student, and that gets old around sixth, seventh grade, when the young lady um says, You know, I don't like it over there. I don't like my step brothers, I don't like uh my dad's girlfriend, I don't like how it feels. I'm missing out on this, and so yeah, those feelings have to go somewhere and they gotta sort it out. Um what usually works is the disclosure, you know. So disclosure solves a lot where we bring the parents in and we ask or we assist the student and just lay it out there. Your parents love you more than you love yourself. Just lay it out there, they can handle it. Because the student, you know, they think, no, they can't handle it, I don't want to make their lives harder. I say promise you they can handle it. And without exception, it has a good outcome. So but back to my point a few minutes ago, had that not been interrupted, it doesn't go anywhere, it doesn't get any better. They start listening to their peers.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

And that's usually never good.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Well, you know, they don't have fully developed brains. So sorry about that. It's true. It's so true. So when is the right time for a child to establish a relationship with a counselor? Because um, you know, as an adult, uh a lot of people in my peer-ish group have found it helpful to establish that relationship prior to crisis, ideally, so that they have a person, they're established with, you know, who they are, who the counselor is, there's chemistry there, they don't have to date around, you know, and find a counselor. Is there a right time for a student to establish care or establish a relationship with a counselor, or in this scenario, do they need to wait until something is wrong?

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Good question. So we operate on a tiered approach. So tier one, we have, for example, the bullying camp anti-bullying campaign, um you know, uh psychoeducational drug uh avoidance and alcohol abuse. Tier two is the school counselor, and tier two is less formal. So if a parent is concerned with their student not adjusting well or not fitting in or feeling like they're feeling bad about failing, and um then your the first way to access the whole tiered system is to tell the the school guidance counselor, you'd shoot them an email, give them a call, could you check on Susie? Uh I'm worried that you know she's not been her usual self. She's been irritable and angry and seems depressed, and she won't talk to me, she doesn't think I know anything. And um so then the school counselor will call him in and try to resolve it. Nine times out of ten she can and then refer if she can't. So there's you know pre- no pre-established relationship with the counselor. They get I think students would get too attached and feeling.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

Oh, sure. But that's interesting that, you know, along the theme of being unified for every student's success, that there is that tiered approach. It maybe start with a parent noticing, reaching out. The parent needs support for the student that involves the teacher, which might involve a counselor on site, which might then be referred to another one of these community counselors. So that's actually kind of a neat approach because it doesn't all ride on one relationship, which is pretty cool. So if a parent is listening to this and wants to maybe start that chain reaction, right? Is there a first step to do, like you said, to reach out to their school counselor, or is there some other steps that they should take?

SPEAKER_01 24:19

You could start with your classroom teacher or the school counselor. They all work together so closely and they communicate all the time. So either one of those would set the dominoes in motion.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. This was a really uh important conversation.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

You're welcome. Thanks for inviting.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of Escambi County Public Schools.