A Collaborative Approach to Strengthening Behavioral Strategies in the Arcadia School District
Arndt, Mallory J - Check to see if others listed are presenters?
Abstract
The School District of Arcadia is lacking mental health resources due to budget cuts from state and federal levels. Mental health needs have become a rising concern in recent years. With that, the guidance counselors, who traditionally supported students' emotional regulation and behavioral needs, became increasingly occupied with Academic and Career Planning requirements, leaving them with limited time to address students' mental health needs. To help address this need, Winona State University nursing students partnered with the district's guidance counselors to develop supplemental emotional management and decision-making skills-building videos that counselors could use during busy periods to support students' coping skills and emotional awareness. The WSU nursing students made recorded video presentations breaking down Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills in Schools Training for Emotional Problem Solving for Adolescents (DBT-STEPS-A). The videos are intended to increase the students' knowledge of these emotional problem-solving strategies through guided exposure and skill demonstration. The data is currently being processed from the pre- and post-test surveys to assess students' knowledge of the skills before and after watching the videos. In the future, recommended opportunities for Arcadia High School students include the application of skills in a safe setting, such as a classroom, filling out topic-related worksheets, talking through real-life examples, or creating a written outline to implement in challenging situations. These efforts would continue to support the ever-needed services of emotional management and decision-making in adolescents.
A Collaborative Approach to Strengthening Behavioral Strategies in the Arcadia School District
The School District of Arcadia is lacking mental health resources due to budget cuts from state and federal levels. Mental health needs have become a rising concern in recent years. With that, the guidance counselors, who traditionally supported students' emotional regulation and behavioral needs, became increasingly occupied with Academic and Career Planning requirements, leaving them with limited time to address students' mental health needs. To help address this need, Winona State University nursing students partnered with the district's guidance counselors to develop supplemental emotional management and decision-making skills-building videos that counselors could use during busy periods to support students' coping skills and emotional awareness. The WSU nursing students made recorded video presentations breaking down Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills in Schools Training for Emotional Problem Solving for Adolescents (DBT-STEPS-A). The videos are intended to increase the students' knowledge of these emotional problem-solving strategies through guided exposure and skill demonstration. The data is currently being processed from the pre- and post-test surveys to assess students' knowledge of the skills before and after watching the videos. In the future, recommended opportunities for Arcadia High School students include the application of skills in a safe setting, such as a classroom, filling out topic-related worksheets, talking through real-life examples, or creating a written outline to implement in challenging situations. These efforts would continue to support the ever-needed services of emotional management and decision-making in adolescents.
