How The Foundling Works to Spot and Support Students in Crisis
How can teachers and school administrators support their students who are undergoing trauma or a crisis? Last week, our very own Bonnie Loughner, Assistant Vice President of our School & Community Impact Program, lent her expertise to a panel discussion dedicated to the topic.
Spotting and Supporting Kids in Crisis, hosted by the Robertson Center at Success Academy on February 27, brought together experts in the behavioral health field to speak about how school personnel can identify children and adolescents that are experiencing trauma, employ strategies to address these challenges, and ultimately build a school community that is supportive, caring, and welcoming to all students.
The Foundling does this in a variety of ways: our School-Based Mental Health program works within New York City’s public schools to provide behavioral health services in-school for students that need it, our School Response Teams in Staten Island and Brooklyn provide effective mental health training to school staff, and our on-site mental health clinics increase access to vital care.
This work has real impact – the number of crises in the schools we serve has gone down by approximately 40% in the past three years!
At the panel, Ms. Loughner was joined by Jacob Ham of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Stephen Powell of the National CARES Mentoring Movement, and Peter Brown of Success Academy. The panelists spoke about effective methods of spotting and supporting struggling children, as well as how educators can find and access resources for outside help to promote the best outcomes for their students.
As Ms. Loughner discussed in her recent guest post on The Incredible Years® Blog, parents and teachers are often unaware of the signs of mental health issues and how best to respond to them, which can prevent children and adolescents from getting the help that they need. As children spend over 943 hours a year in school, providing teachers with effective methods to provide support can be transformational.
Thanks to the efforts of Ms. Loughner and the rest of our Health & Behavioral Health team, we are supporting children and adolescents in building the groundwork for a lifetime of good health, wellbeing, and self-determination. We are excited to continue to provide this important support, training, and assistance to educators and students across New York City.
