3 key parts of this district’s student mental health support

The information is obvious: Our college students are within the midst of a mental health disaster. A survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered that one in three highschool college students skilled poor mental health through the pandemic, and almost half of all college students felt persistently hopeless.

We’re now seeing the ripple results of three years of schooling disruptions and seismic shifts in studying buildings, which underscore the important significance of caring for the entire student. Our college students’ difficulties mirror the rising nervousness, despair, and suicidal ideation that teenagers nationwide are experiencing. Over the previous two years, Tempe Union High School District has centered its concentrate on prioritizing student mental health. Here’s how we did it–and what we’ve realized.

Leveraging the ability of student voices

When we returned to in-person studying, we noticed that our college students wanted much more support than we imagined. We didn’t hesitate when it got here to getting them the sources they wanted, as a result of timing is crucial for mental health challenges.

We requested our student representatives what social-emotional support they and their fellow college students wanted. That dialog developed right into a districtwide complete mental health coverage adopted by Tempe Union’s governing board in 2021. Cementing a decision round social-emotional wellness into our insurance policies signaled to our college students and neighborhood that holistic health is a serious precedence for Tempe Union.