Format

Individual Presentation

First Presenter's Institution

Brantley County Schools

First Presenter’s Email Address

kiersten.morgan@brantley.k12.ga.us

First Presenter's Brief Biography

Kiersten Morgan completed both undergraduate and graduate studies at Georgia Southern University. She obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology with a minor in child and family development in 2018, and received her Master’s Degree in Counselor Education through Georgia Southern’s CACREP accredited Counseling Program in 2020. Kiersten is currently employed by the Brantley County Board of Education as a School Counselor for Nahunta Elementary School.

Second Presenter's Institution

Brantley County Schools

Second Presenter’s Email Address

erin.thrift@brantley.k12.ga.us

Second Presenter's Brief Biography

Erin Thrift is a LPC with the State of Georgia. She has 14 years of experience in clinical mental health counseling working for a rural SE Ga CSB providing services to adults and children. She is currently in her 5th year working for the Brantley County Board of Education as their school based Mental Health Counselor.

Third Presenter's Institution

Brantley County Schools

Third Presenter’s Email Address

teri.hendrix@brantley.k12.ga.us

Third Presenter's Brief Biography

Teri attended Valdosta State University to earn her Master's Degree in Social Work. She continued her education at Georgia Southern University earning a Education Specialist Degree in Counselor Education. She has over 25 years of experience in the field of social work. Teri is currently employed with the Brantley County Board of Education as their Student Services Coordinator.

Fourth Presenter's Institution

Brantley County Schools

Fourth Presenter’s Email Address

shannon.murray@brantley.k12.ga.us

Fourth Presenter's Brief Biography

Shannon earned her Master’s Degree in Social Work from Valdosta State University and continued her education through Argosy University, where she earned an Education Specialist Degree in School Counseling. She has over 20 years experience in social work and 5 years experience in school counseling. Shannon is currently employed as a School Social Worker with the Brantley County Board of Education.

Location

Session Four

Strand #1

Health: Mental & Physical Health

Strand #2

Heart: Social & Emotional Skills

Relevance

Health - Promoting the mental and physical health of all children and youth

Heart - Strengthening the development of social and emotional skills of all children and youth

Brief Program Description

Our school system has experienced an increase in the number of students with significant mental health related issues. Interactions with these students were occuring on a crisis by crisis basis. Through a series of trial and error we developed Helping All Herons - A School Based Mental Health Team initiative. The team has regular contact with students, parents, outside counseling agencies and staffings to ensure that the needs of the students are being met. This team encourages a more proactive approach to student mental health compared to a reactive one.

Summary

We will begin with statistics on youth suicide, mental health, and stress related factors for students. We want to give an understanding of why it is so important to acknowledge and address mental health issues that students are having while they are in school. We will share with the audience some of the research and articles that we have reviewed discussing mental health and teens. Then we want to share what we were seeing in our rural school system. The trends and outcomes associated with our students experiencing mental health related issues. We will share that our students experiencing significant mental health issues were not making progress with basic school counseling or in the area of academics. Through a series of trial and error we developed Helping All Herons - A School Based Mental Health Team initiative. This team consists of a Licensed Professional Counselor, a school counselor and two school social workers. Students referred to this team are students who have been hospitalized

for mental health treatment, had suicidal ideations, a suicide attempt or been through our risk assessment process. The team has regular contact with these students, parents, outside counseling agencies and hold regular staffings to ensure that the needs of the students are being met. We can share some of our referral processes, the type of assessments that we use and how we monitor our students. The development of this team initiative also led to more professional development for staff in the area of mental health and youth. We can share some of the PD that our teachers have had and their response to what they have learned.

Format: Interactive Lecture with slides, Questions and Answer Session

Learning Objective 1

Participants will be able to identify several ways to support students experiencing mental health issues.

Learning Objective 2

Participants will be able to develop a treatment team based on our model.

Learning Objective 3

Participants will be able to understand what fostering student success looks like through a counseling perspective.

Keyword Descriptors

Students Mental health School Suicide prevention Coordination of care Case management Outside agencies Graduation Counseling School based services

Presentation Year

2024

Start Date

3-5-2024 8:30 AM

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Mar 5th, 8:30 AM

Helping All Herons - A School Based Mental Health Team Initiative

Session Four

Our school system has experienced an increase in the number of students with significant mental health related issues. Interactions with these students were occuring on a crisis by crisis basis. Through a series of trial and error we developed Helping All Herons - A School Based Mental Health Team initiative. The team has regular contact with students, parents, outside counseling agencies and staffings to ensure that the needs of the students are being met. This team encourages a more proactive approach to student mental health compared to a reactive one.