Quarterly RMHC Corner
Spring 2021 Issue
The Regional Mental Health Coordinator team and leadership are excited to bring you our Spring 2021 newsletter. We begin our newsletter with our Mental Health Happenings section which provides a peek into some of the work our district partners have accomplished to support mental health initiatives. The Wellness Moment section of our newsletter focuses on providing an overview of Affect Regulation to help guide conversations on managing our emotions and behaviors. After, the Reinforcing Resilience section takes a deep dive into tools that can be referenced when developing plans to support transitions back into school campuses. In our Seasonal Strategies section, we curated a list of resources that can be reviewed when considering how to adapt rituals and activities school communities look forward to. Next, the OC Connections section offers several links to upcoming virtual and in-person events to allow for moments of enrichment. Finally, the Resources section provides a vast list of resources school communities can access during Summer break.
We look forward to continue receiving your feedback and insights regarding the content we provide.
Stay safe and well,
The Regional Mental Health Coordinator Team
(Orange County MHSSA Grant Program)
Mental Health Happenings
In an unprecedented school year that was riddled with uncertainty and doubt, school based mental health teams across the county rose to the challenge and excelled in their ability to continue providing exceptional mental health services and resources to staff, students, and their families. Through staff, community, and county collaborative efforts, these districts were able to provide virtual presentations, workshops, wellness kits, and training in areas such as grief sensitivity, staff wellness, mental health challenges during quarantine, and social emotional learning strategies. We are incredibly grateful to each district for the hard work that they put in to ensure that their school communities' mental health needs were continuously met and are very happy to share a snapshot of the wonderful work being done with all of you. We look forward to being able to provide more highlights in our future newsletters and are hopeful that these practices will spark conversations amongst all districts for additional collaborative opportunities!
Anaheim Union High School District
Like most communities, Anaheim Union High School District found themselves looking for additional resources to support grieving students and families during the past year. At the beginning of the OC MHSSA Grant Partnership, Dr. Adela Cruz, LCSW Coordinator of Student Mental Health at AUHSD identified securing grief resources as a priority. In coordination with the Region 1 Mental Health Coordinator from OCDE, Adela met with the New York Life Foundation Grief-Sensitive Schools Initiative (GSSI), Vice President Maria Collins. During the meeting a plan was developed to have each AUHSD school become Grief Sensitive. The plan includes the following components:
Increase awareness of this grief and resources by:
· Sharing information with school community about grievingstudents.org.
· Reviewing relevant school policies and practices.
· Providing specific professional learning opportunities.
· Posting the “Grief-Sensitive School” decal in school buildings.
· Utilizing the $500 grant to support school community in their efforts.
AUHSD plans to leverage this resource that will provide School Social Workers professional learning and resources to incorporate into the district's staff development plan and build on interventions to address grief and loss. Dr. Cruz shared that establishing partnerships like the one with GSSI has assisted AUHSD in securing resources to meet student mental health needs.
Cypress School District
Cypress School District continues to work towards a more robust system of tiered supports to meet student’s mental health needs. This year they have been able to provide educationally related mental health services to qualifying students as well as supplemental short-term counseling when needed to students both virtually and in person. Through the support of the Orange County Department of Education Regional Mental Health Coordinator, Giuliana Valdovinos, they have also been able to refer students to coordination of care services, consult regarding students re-entering school after a mental health crisis, address the impact of vicarious trauma among staff, introduce curriculum targeted to improve student’s social-emotional skills to relevant staff, obtain valuable resources to support students, and begin to systematize and improve their threat and risk assessment procedures.
Fullerton Joint Union High School District in Collaboration with Buena Park, Fullerton, and La Habra City School Districts
Fullerton Joint Union High School District (FJUHSD) hosted a feeder school district articulation meeting to establish a system to coordinate social emotional support for incoming high school students. School site administrative representatives from Buena Park School , La Habra City, and Fullerton School Districts including district mental health leads Dr. Cammie Nguyen (LHC), Dr. Elsie Simonovski and Dr. Yvette Cantu (BPSD), and Ms. Jody Goodrich (FSD) met with fellow FJUHSD leads Mr. Carlos Alcantara and Mr. Scott Huffman to discuss current social emotional supports across districts and explore the comprehensive MTSS interventions centered on social emotional learning and supports available at Fullerton Joint Union High School District. A system to establish early and targeted interventions was established. Thank you so much for including Ms. Karen Leal Region 2 OC MHSSA Coordinator in the immensely informative and collaborative meeting.
Garden Grove Unified School District
Proving once again that they are invested in the emotional wellness of their staff and students, GGUSD hosted several events that promoted mental health awareness and self-care strategies. In March, the district hosted a Virtual Choose Wellness Event with workshops facilitated by community partners such as CHOC, OCAPICA, Didi Hirsch, Illumination Foundation, OCDE, LGBTQ Center of Orange County and the OC Human Relations Commission. Workshop topics included: Anxiety, Depression, and the Impact of Covid-19, Building Relationships for Resilience and Wellness, Building Resiliency in Youth during a Pandemic, Multicultural Emotional Awareness, and Youth Suicide Prevention and Stress Reduction for Parents among others. Student workshops focused on The effects of Social Media on Mental Health and Be an Upstander: Challenging Biased Behavior. The Choose Wellness Event was attended by over 450 individuals! Additionally, GGUSD kicked off their Staff Wellness Series in conjunction with the Illumination Institute and CHOC. All district staff were invited to attend virtual weekly workshops beginning in March and running through the end of the school year with new content weekly in the areas of Stress Reduction and Self-Care. The series was initiated with a workshop by Western Youth Services focused on the importance of mindfulness and self-care.
Huntington Beach City School District
HBCSD continued to place significant importance on the mental health and social-emotional development of every student. The 2019-2020 school year marked the inaugural year of adding school counselors to the district mental health continuum of supports. Over the course of the year, the counselors developed and facilitated parent and staff trainings. Additionally, they created classroom guidance lessons targeting coping strategies to reduce stress and anxiety as well as student study skills to increase engagement and academic performance. The counselors provide short-term school-based individual and small group counseling and serve as trusted staff members to ensure student safety during crisis moments. This year, in spite of the unique challenges and in response to the growing mental health needs of students, families, and staff resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the counselors expanded their reach to our elementary school students. They developed monthly social-emotional lessons, activities and resources for all elementary school and middle school students through the Canvas Learning Management System. Teachers were encouraged to integrate the SEL lessons into their classroom lesson plans and provided them with easy to access resources for their students. Looking ahead to the 2021-2022 school year, HBCSD is developing a school psychologist and school counselor intern program, which will provide professional development opportunities for the interns that serve and support the mental wellness of our students and community.
Newport-Mesa Unified School District
During the pandemic, Newport-Mesa Unified began piloting The Well-Being Index as part of an overall wellness model, which includes a teacher referral and multidisciplinary team that reviews students. The Well-Being Index, a free new tool from Turnaround for Children helps educators assess student well-being in a quick, direct way in order to provide timely, individualized support to each student, in person or virtually. Initially, Newport-Mesa started at one school with 3rd and 4th grade as a part of the wellness team model and then grew that one school to 5th and 6th grades and finally expanded to grades K-2nd. The Well-Being Index then began being used at the other schools that were piloting the wellness model. Word quickly spread about the effectiveness of the tool and more schools quickly wanted to utilize this tool. The plan is to integrate the tool into Newport-Mesa’s platform and have all schools running a wellness team meeting model at the elementary level and pilot it at two or three secondary schools in conjunction with our wellness model that serves as a pre-referral student review. Some of the features of The Well-Being Index include: it is free for use, collects holistic data (physical, social, psychological, emotional well-being), increases student voice to create data driven decisions. More information can be found at https://turnaroundusa.org/.
OCDE - ACCESS
The clinical team has kicked off a series of School-Based Mental Health Trainings for all ACCESS staff. The clinicians developed a 3-part series that begins with School Based Mental Health 101, followed by LGBTQ+ Affirmative Training for Educators, and finalizes with Trauma Informed Practices in Schools. Additionally, some ACCESS Clinicians completed OneLove's Educator Certification Program over spring break and have begun to implement classroom workshops utilizing the new OneLove curriculums. ACCESS Clinicians are also in the process of finalizing and implementing suicide prevention protocol and assessment trainings for ACCESS school psychologists, counselors, and nurses.
Orange Unified School District
OUSD found itself adjusting to hybrid learning and in turn having to identify innovative practices to continue to promote SEL. OUSD has successfully integrated the use of Nearpod to support SEL lessons and has found it to be monumentally beneficial since entering a hybrid model in September. Nearpod allows in-class students to interact and participate simultaneously with virtual learners. Elementary counselors have organized all of the Nearpod SEL lessons into Google Classrooms at each site. They have organized each lesson by grade level and have followed OUSD’s district-wide SEL calendar of CASEL Competencies throughout the year. At the middle school level, Nearpod SEL lessons are used in PE classes on “Wellness Wednesdays.” The SEL lessons are integrated with nutrition, general wellness and healthy living practices.
Saddleback Valley Unified School District
SVUSD continued to stay the course and focus on student health and well-being. Ensuring that they meet the needs of their school community, SVUSD has enhanced their website with Distance Learning and Covid 19 specific resources for students as well as caregivers, and ensured that wellness toolkits and community resources are always available. At the beginning of this school year, the district promoted their support of Mental Health Awareness with the message that “It’s Ok to not be Ok.”
This year, in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month in May, SVUSD has expanded their efforts by partnering with Orange County Department of Education (OCDE) MHSSA Program/Regional Mental Health Coordinator to bring in community partners: Western Youth Services, Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC), OCAPICA, and other community service providers to hold a Virtual Mental Health Awareness Month Event and Fair for students and families on May 5th, 2021. Led by Coordinator Michelle O’Neill, El Toro High School Counselor Carlyn Morones, the RMHC and a fearless team of high school counselors, this year’s theme, Be Kind 2 Your Mind will feature a districtwide art contest for students allowing them to showcase their creativity in support of student wellness. Workshops for students will include Understanding Mental Health, Strategies for Coping, Mindfulness Practices, Stress Management and Relaxation Techniques. Parents and caregivers will have the opportunity to attend a virtual Resource Fair where community providers will showcase their low and no cost services available to the community. A workshop on Understanding Depression and Anxiety, especially during Covid, will also be offered to parents/caregivers to increase their understanding and efforts in support of their child.
Santa Ana Unified School District
The district established the We Care. Get Help Campaign in 2015-2016 to create suicide awareness in K-12 school sites through universal district-wide efforts focusing on Messaging, Training, and Outreach. SAUSD has also established a Mental Health Collaborative that meets quarterly to identify gaps, trends and enhance resources and services to address the needs of students, families and school community. Santa Ana Unified School District continues to work towards enhancing the mental health well-being of SAUSD students, families, and the community. In collaboration with the We Care Task Force and Mental Health Collaborative, SAUSD is launching a May Mental Health Awareness campaign that includes student, parent, and family events throughout the month as well as the launch of a We Care mental health website. Students will soon have the opportunity to participate in multiple virtual events promoting mental health well-being through keynote speakers, read alouds, and fun and active hangouts promoting healthy coping skills. In addition, there will be family nights and parent mental health education series. SAUSD is also expanding their Wellness Coordinated Care Initiative to increase support staff and include wellness teams at all school sites. Additionally, SAUSD will be enhancing their program efforts by training all staff in trauma informed practices this summer with the goal of becoming a trauma informed district in the fall.
Tustin Unified School District
Building Resilience is a written collection of informative articles related to mental health written by Tustin USD Mental Health Services Team’s (MHS) licensed professionals. The newsletter offers tips for parents, teachers, and students on emotional regulation, coping skills, and mindfulness. The goal of the MHS team was to reach a broader audience through this newsletter by providing pertinent articles, book reviews, and videos on mental health and its effect on students, families, and teachers. The newsletter also provides families with coping strategies to manage the stressful challenges brought on by the pandemic successfully.
Each month, the team selects a topic and writes an article about the theme selected. The newsletter is distributed monthly to TUSD families through their school site's mailer. The Building Resilience newsletter has received positive feedback by TUSD parents, teachers, and staff.
For instance, “I wanted you to know that although you might not know the impact of the Smore- even if a few dozen or even more read the Smore- your effort, time, and heart pay off. I am raising two biological girls of my own and two bonus girls- and yes- I NEED my oxygen mask AT ALL TIMES! I loved the book recommendations, and the article linked from the Washington Post (my oldest is starting MS next year- eek! Thank you for all you do! I value your work.” —Parent and staff member at TUSD.
The tips and techniques offered in the newsletter have helped families, teachers and students adapt to the ever-changing reality presented to so many because of the pandemic. The Building Resilience newsletter has helped so many families perceive a negative situation like the pandemic and navigate through the experience with growth, grit and of course, resilience.
Westminster School District
Westminster School District recognizes the importance of supporting families and students’ mental health especially during these unprecedented times. Darek Jaronczyk, Executive Director of Student Services and Rita Neumann, Lead Counselor, identified supporting parents/caregivers as one of their priorities. In coordination with Region 4 mental health Coordinator, Westminster School District partnered with the Child Guidance Center to offer parents a bilingual workshop “Parenting: Challenges and strategies to Use During Quarantine”, where parents/caregivers learned about different strategies to manage difficult behaviors and maintain wellbeing in the parenting role. Westminster School District strongly supports the professional development of their mental health staff in efforts to more effectively meet the mental health needs of students, parents and community. Their mental health team completed the Critical Incident stress Management Training that prepares staff to respond to a crisis that impacts their school community. Furthermore, Westminster School District, mental health team enthusiastically completed the Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Training where staff learned evidence based practices for mitigating threats on their school sites, and responding to threats through a trauma informed lens.
Wellness Moment
What is Affect Regulation?
In simple terms, affect regulation refers to the ability to appropriately manage our emotions and behaviors; particularly when faced with a stressful event. Engaging in affect regulation means we are able to stay in control of our emotions and behaviors when feeling distressed. This might look like taking a few deep breaths and going for a walk instead of shouting because your computer shut off before you could save the proposal you worked on for the last three hours. Or it might be practicing mindfulness when feeling overwhelmed by demands at work.
Affect regulation occurs when we are able to exercise our ability to keep our emotions from hijacking us in a moment of stress. In other words, we are able to resist responding in a highly reactive (and often nonproductive) manner and we remain calm when a curveball is thrown at us. So where do we start in learning how to identify if we are engaging in appropriate affect regulation? Well, we can start with learning how to recognize our responses to stress. One way of doing this is by understanding our Window of Tolerance. A concept developed by Dr. Dan Siegel, M.D., Window of Tolerance refers to the understanding of the effects stress has on our mind and body. This concept centers on the belief that we all have an optimal level of arousal in which we can effectively function due to our ability to process and integrate our experiences in a nonstressful manner. However, at times we experience stressful situations that move us away from our optimal levels and into either a hyperarousal (e.g., anxiety, anger, hypervigilance) or hypoarousal (e.g., numbness, withdrawal and isolation, depressed) state.
Developing awareness and understanding of our own personal Window of Tolerance is a great place to start as we work towards broadening our window so that we are better able to effectively respond to stressors we experience. Please check out the following articles to learn more about affect regulation and how to expand your Window of Tolerance as well as affect regulation techniques to help you return to your window of tolerance when necessary.
The Window of Tolerance: Supporting the Wellbeing of Children and Young People
The Role of Emotion Co-Regulation in Discipline
How to Support Self-Regulation Difficulties in Children
How Can We Help Kids With Self-Regulation?
Live Within Your Window of Tolerance
Reinforcing Resilience
“Challenging” seems to have been the theme for the last year. Since last March we have been navigating difficult and potentially painful situations, all while adapting to our “new normal” and providing support directly to students experiencing the same. As we transition from this school year into next school year, we can take the time to reflect on what worked to get us through this challenging time. We can reflect on what helped us to build our own resilience and how we fostered resilience in our students. As you develop your plan for next year, the following are some resources to help you be intentional about building your own resilience and that of your students.
Students
A 4-Step Process for Building Student Resilience By Michele Lew in Edutopia
Building Resiliency: Helping Children Learn to Weather Tough Times By The National Association of School Psychologists
10 Simple Ways To Build Resilience in Students in These Difficult Times By Kelly Burch in Edutopia
Resilience guide for parents and teachers By The American Psychological Association
School Wide Methods for fostering Resiliency By The American Psychological Association
8 Strategies for Building with students and families virtually By Panorama Ed
Resources for Nurturing Resilience By Edutopia
Curriculums
Overcoming Obstacles: Overcoming Obstacles is a free, award-winning, and research-based K-12 curriculum that provides you with the tools to teach your students life skills. With hundreds of activity-based lessons covering more than 30 critical social and emotional skills, students learn how to communicate effectively. They learn how to make informed decisions. They learn how to set and achieve goals, resolve conflicts, solve problems, respect one another, and more.
Classroom Mental Health: Making your classroom “mental health-friendly” takes a deliberate effort. However, you may be surprised to learn how simple and straightforward the building blocks of a healthy classroom can be. Encouraging healthy communication, promoting student wellness, counteracting stigma and learning stress-reduction. Connections between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to help students unpack the complex mix of emotions they experience each day and understand the connection between situations, thoughts, feelings and behaviors.
Podcasts
NASP: The Power of Relationships in building hope and resilience in children
ASCA: Don’t Stress
Harvard University Center on the Developing Child: The Brain Architects Podcast: COVID-19 Special Edition: Self-Care Isn’t Selfish
Ted Talks
Mindfulness and Neural Integration by Daniel Siegel- on Exploring Relationships and Reflection in the Cultivation of Well-Being
Mindfulness in Education, Learning from the Inside Out: by Amy Burke
How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime by Dr. Nadine Burke Harris
Adult SEL
Adult SEL Strategies from Panorama Education’s Playbook: In this resource, you’ll gain access to four strategies from Panorama’s Playbook focused on educator SEL, well-being, and self-care.
3 Activities to Practice Modeling SEL: Supporting students’ social-emotional learning (SEL) starts with adults. The three activities in this resource kit are designed to help adults practice modeling the same SEL skills they seek to promote in students. These activities are easy to implement in any staff meeting and can help adults understand and develop critical SEL skills such as emotion regulation, social awareness, and self-management.
Videos
Healthy Habits of Mind Film: 42 min in length
Healthy Habits of Mind focuses on the value of mindfulness in the education system. Learn about the neuroscience, observe educator training, and watch the beauty of children practicing mindful breathing, listening, eating, movement, and heartfulness.
5 Keys to Social and Emotional Learning Success: Studies show that sustained and well-integrated social and emotional learning (SEL) programs can help schools engage their students and improve achievement. By Edutopia.
Teaching Mindfulness in the Classroom
Dos and Don'ts When Teaching Mindfulness: If you are considering whether or not to use mindfulness in your classroom, here is some advice from the Huffington Post.
Five Things That Need to Happen to Bring Mindfulness Into Education: Researcher Patricia Jennings discusses the challenges of schoolwide implementation, including the politics that can be involved when implementing a mindfulness program.
Seasonal Strategies
As we look towards the end of the school year we celebrate this year’s accomplishments. In celebrating the end of the school year there is an acknowledgement of endings and new beginnings. Transition and change is normal and supporting transitions for students and school communities with certain rituals and activities can help in saying goodbye and embracing what is ahead of us. Termination rituals can provide an opportunity for reflection, closure and gratitude providing a sense of achievement. Below you will find resources for aiding students transition at the end of this school year. In addition as we look towards celebrating this year’s graduates please review some guidelines below for safe social gatherings.
Articles
CDC Personal & Social activities
Personal and Social Activities | COVID-19
CDC Hosting gatherings & Cookout
Personal and Social Activities | COVID-19
How Predictable Routines can Help Students this Summer
By Lori Desautels in Edutopia
By Mentally Healthy Schools (Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families)
30 Ways to Celebrate the End of the School Year from a Distance
By Common Sense Education
Ending the School Year with Distance Learning
Kristen Vincent, Responsive Classroom Consulting Teacher
Videos
NPR News Report
OC Connections
Spring has sprung and the summer is near...and what a year it has been! As the 2020-2021 school year comes to a close with re-openings all around us, we continue to encourage all to follow the recommendations of our local health care agencies in wearing a face covering and social distance in public places. No matter your comfort level, below is a listing of fun virtual AND in person experiences for you and your loved ones that will refresh your mind, heart and soul. Now is a great time to focus on your wellness so take of yourself and others, be safe and have some fun!
Mental Health Awareness Month Links
CHOC Mental Health Check-In Challenge
California Each Mind Matters Campaign Tools and Resources
Providence Promise to Talk Campaign Tools and Resources
OCHCA Mental Health Awareness Month Calendar of Events for May 2021
OCDE Crisis Response Network Events/Information
Latino Health Access Hangouts
LHA Study Jams K-12 Tutoring (Wednesday 6pm - 7:30pm)
LHA Teens Next Door Virtual Hangout (Ages 10-13 and 14-18)
OCAPICA Mental Health and Wellness Events and Information
For Educators
Environment Nature Center - Teachers Night Out (No cost to Title 1 Schools)
For Parents
Help Me Grow Weekly Parent Series on Early Childhood Topics
For Fun
Mother’s Day Inspired Free Family Art Workshop on May 8th 4pm-5:30pm
1st Friday of the Month STEAM Event - Free supplies and Facebook Live Event (Placentia)
Free Spring and Summer Family Events (Movies & Workshops) at The Great Park (Irvine)
Free Virtual Storytime and Science Workshops
Free Virtual Event: Heartbeat of Mexico Mariachi Fest - May 15 at 1pm
Free Virtual Event: Grammy Nominated Black Violin Performance - May 12 at 6pm
Free Bike Rodeo - April 30 4pm-7:30pm in Anaheim
Free 1st Saturday Hike to the Redwoods in Brea
Summer Movies/Events in the Park
Summer Camp Listings
Enjoy OC Summer Camp Directory
OrangeCounty.Net Summer Camp Listings
Kids Guide Summer Camp Listings
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Events/Information
OC Human Relations Commission Calendar
Summer Wellness
OCHCA Live Virtual Mental Health Resource Fair
HOAG Suicide Prevention for Adolescents Virtual Workshop May 12 4pm to 5pm
HOAG Virtual Teen Coping Skills Workshop May 27 4pm to 5:30pm
Resources
Below is a list of available resources and supports that continue to be accessible to students, staff, and families during Summer break.
Summer Mental Health Resources
Access to Mental Health Services
855-877-3885
TTY: 800-735-2929
Orange County Medi-cal Recipients: For screening and referral to mental health services available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Mild to Moderate refer to a in-network service provider and moderate to severe they will link to OCHCA.
Orange County Health Care Agency (OCHCA)
(855) OC-LINKS
TDD Number: 714-834-2332
Online Chat Available
Provides telephone and online support for anyone seeking information or linkage to any of the OCHCA/Behavioral Health Services. These services include children and adult mental health, alcohol and drug inpatient and outpatient, crisis programs, and prevention and early intervention services. Callers can be potential participants, family members, friends or anyone seeking out resources, or providers seeking information about Behavioral Health programs and services. Trained Navigators provide information, referral, and linkage directly to programs that meet the needs of callers.
Private Insurance: Refer to insurance subscriber's card for the behavioral health line to request services that are in network.
Support
OC Warmline & Family Supportive Services (NAMI OC):
Call or Text (714) 991-6412
Online Chat Available
24/7 - Call, text, or chat anytime!
The OC WarmLine is a free and confidential telephone service providing emotional support and resources to Orange County residents, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you, a family member, or a loved one are experiencing mental health concerns, substance abuse, loneliness or are in need of community resources, The OC WarmLine is for you!
Nami National Alliance on Mental Illness
NAMI OC Peer Connector Mentoring
(714)544-8488
Compassionate, Effective Phone Support for Families. Peer Connectors are adults (Peer Mentors), who have successfully navigated both the public and private mental health and social services systems.
1-800-852-8336
TEXT TEEN to 839863
Call 6-10 PM
Text 6-9 PM
Emotional support to youth
Peer based education and support before problems become a crisis, using a national hotline, community outreach and online support.
California Parent and Youth Hotline
1 (888) 373-7888
Call, text or chat us to connect with one of our trained and compassionate Helpline Counselors for free.
Parents and caregivers can join a free weekly online support group to explore their underlying emotions and build resiliency to strengthen their family by filling out this form. Each Parents Anonymous® Group has a trained group facilitator and parent group leader.