Mental health policies in effect for upcoming year

HAMLET — The Richmond County Board of Education unanimously approved a school-based mental health initiative with a goal of promoting student mental health and assessing the support systems for social-emotional health.

The North Carolina State Board of Education adopted this initiative, Policy SHLT-003, to be in compliance with Session Law 2020-7, which was approved by the North Carolina General Assembly in June of 2020. Effective July 1 of this year, K-12 schools must adopt and implement this plan.

Dr. Wendy Jordan, director of student services for Richmond County Schools, said this initiative has been “bubbling” for a few years. The first element of this plan is the universal promotion of mental and social-emotional wellness and prevention through instruction and environment.

One of the key elements of the new policy is specific training involving youth mental health, suicide prevention, substance abuse, teenage dating violence, child sexual abuse and sex-trafficking prevention for teachers and student instructional support personnel (SISP).

“This is not so everybody’s an expert,” Jordan said. “It’s really an awareness piece — what do you look for, what are the red flags? If something’s happening with a student, that maybe you’ll know that you can connect them to someone in the building.”

Within six months of the adoption of this new policy, teachers and SISP must dedicate six hours to these training modules.

Every year going forward, staff will have training on these topics of two hours.

Jordan listed some of the achievements that RCS has made in order to fulfill another requirement of improving the ratios for SISP: every school in the district now has a counselor as of this year, two part-time social workers have been hired in addition to the current eight full-time social workers, and RCS was able to hire three new nurses using money from the Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief Funds.

“There’s a lots of things that Richmond County Schools is doing that is already in the plan,” Jordan said.

These policies are for everybody, Jordan said. She explained that while some students receive mental health services from outside the school system, the percentage of students who are recommended within the school system is “relatively low” at 5-10%.

Another part of Policy SHLT-003 is standardizing procedures and protocols for students who have been hospitalized for mental concerns and making the transition back into a school setting for those individuals as streamlined as possible.

Jordan expressed optimism in the progress of student mental health since the pandemic began, citing the decline of emails flagged for mental health concerns that administrators are receiving from the school email system. From August 2020 to Jan 11, 2021, there had been an increase of 2,360%.

“We have opened up more and allowed folks to go and do more,” Jordan said. “It’s bolstered the mental health of our children, but when we come back I think it’s going to be an adjustment for some students who have been home for so long. They’re going to come back and it’s going to be the and very regimented structure and routine of school they haven’t been used to for a year or longer.”