Rather than watch students present mid-year projects, 20 New Haven educators and school staffers stood at the front of the ​“class” to present their own research to their peers about what to look out for when it comes to student wellbeing and mental health.

They did so on Monday as part of New Haven Public Schools’ (NHPS) fourth mental health and first aid training session for school district staff. 

A group of 20 teachers, counselors, and administrators attended that session in Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School’s library on Kimberly Avenue in the Hill. The school district partnered with the local behavioral health nonprofit BHcare to host the voluntary training.

NHPS Social-Emotional Learning Coordinator Monica Abbott said the district offers the training several times a year for student-facing staff to get up-to-date guidance for wellbeing practices for students. ​“The intention [is to] ensure staff understand the health challenges and conditions our students may face,” she said. 

Staffers from Brennan Rogers, Worthington Hooker, Cross, Career, Betsy Ross, Hill Central, Celentano, BOMUS, Jepson, FAME, Davis, Co-op, Clemente, and the district’s drop-out prevention team joined the Monday training. 

Educators learned about a variety of mental health conditions that students could be struggling with — including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, psychosis, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and substance abuse. As non-experts in the realm of mental health, participants aimed to recognize some common signs of these conditions and to develop strategies that could help them to connect students and families to resources.

Before, during, and after the Covid pandemic, Abbott said there have been steady increases in K‑12 students’ needs for mental-health supports. In 2020, the district began having the conversation about how to better equip staff with strategies for students needs with the goal of helping kids feel a deeper sense of belonging in school buildings on a daily basis. 

“School is a place where you can come to get the help you need,” she said. 

Abbott recalled taking the course two years ago and immediately using strategies learned a week later both at work and home. She recalled a list of questions the training taught her to go through with an individual when trying to determine if that person dealing with a mental health crisis should be left alone or not for their own safety. She used this strategy in the past when dealing with overwhelmed staff and with her own teenager. She learned to give her children space when necessary during intense moments. 

Monday’s training ran from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., with an afternoon lunch break. The program already has a waitlist for its next fall session offering, Abbott said.

She concluded that the training builds capacity for staff to learn facts about mental-health challenges rather than relying on assumptions and stigmas placed on certain disorders. She said the training will continue to be a priority investment the district makes for staff and students. 

At around 11 a.m., staff worked in small groups after being assigned a mental health disorder or challenge to research and present on. 

The teams defined the disorders as they read about them in their workbooks, noted down what crisis responses are typically associated with each disorder, looked up new facts, and listed a support or resource that can help. 

While groups presented their findings, the training’s co-facilitator from BHcare, Lorrie McFarland, pointed out connections between the different disorders, like how depression worsens with substance abuse. 

One group notes that recent studies found that 2 percent of preschool-aged youth have been found to be depressed.

BRAMS math teacher Kimberley Steele pointed out common crisis responses when it comes to depression can look like students not engaging in class discussions or fighting with their peers. 

Another group focused on learning about anxiety. They noted on a poster paper that crisis responses may look like panic attacks and suicidal thoughts. 

Edgewood School Assistant Principal Angela Brunson wrote on her group’s poster that those with anxiety may ​“overestimate the threat from situations they fear” or underestimate their ability to handle situations. 

Another group looking into substance abuse noted down that 60 percent of 12 to 13 year olds have tried alcohol. 

McFarland followed up to explain that in recent years, alcohol remains a common substance on which youth are educated. There’s less education, however, about vaping and cannabis usage.

“Is vaping still the biggest issue for you guys in school?” she asked Monday’s group. Several of the staffers nodded yes. 

“There is so much self-medication going on with adolescence. And this is usually a part of things like this,” she said. ​“A lot of people do so because they can’t afford professional help or if you’re a child, you don’t want to say things to their parents because they don’t want them to have to get another job to afford it.” 

Worthington Hooker kindergarten teacher Laura Tortora noted that stereotypes also play a role for why disorders can sometimes go overlooked. She used depression as an example, sharing that many times depression is labeled as ​“just being sad or a moody teen.” McFarland agreed, noting that if signs of depression continue for longer than two weeks, it typically is not ​“just a phase.”

One staffer asked the group Monday how she should tackle conversations with parents when their students are struggling in school but the parents’ only response is, ​“But they have nothing to be depressed about.” Several in the group agreed that it is a difficult conversation to have when families have their own stigmas around mental health. McFarland suggested conversations be focused on addressing that ​“it’s not about a thing, or something they don’t have. It’s about their mental and thoughts.”

Tortora said that Monday’s training will be helpful for her work and personal life. Her goal is to help support her kindergartners’ families by being able to steer them to get help when needed. 

She said despite being in elementary school, her students can experience the loss of family members or friends. Because they’re so young, they might not yet know how to verbalize their feelings or the reasons for their behaviors. 

She saw firsthand her entire class of students in the past deal with the trauma of losing a classmate to a fatal disease. 

She added that after the Covid-19 pandemic, she hoped to equip herself with as many strategies as possible to support students in moments of distress. 

“I want to promote self-regulation while they’re young,” she concluded. ​“It’s my job more times than not to help them navigate their big feelings.” 

She suggested that everyone in the school district be required to complete Monday’s training. 

Co-op social worker Dana Marston took Monday’s training for the second time. She did so to refresh her knowledge because ​“oftentimes students are just seen as being defiant, but that could just be a sign that there are serious troubles.” 

Marston said another issue is that when some parents hear disorder terminology, they see it as a ​“life sentence.” The training, Marston said, gives staff the skills to understand and see students as whole humans who may also struggle with trauma and mental health impacts. 

“If their mental health is not in check, nothing’s in check,” she concluded. 

Brennan Rogers Principal Kimberly Daniley said she has noticed that each year schools must support more youth who have experienced trauma. Monday’s training only helped heighten that awareness.

“I want to have as much info as possible to meet their needs and help them thrive,” she said. 

She described a ​“pandemic effect” — that is, the trauma felt by many young people after the socialization limitations during Covid. She hopes to work toward helping to ​“rebalance” students after such a mass traumatic event.

She concluded that she is hopeful more workshops will be offered to help provide staff with tools to address present-day challenges. 

“I believe in equipping general education teachers with tools to meet the needs of all,” Daniley said. ​“I believe it should have never just resided with special education.”