School district teams up with Crossroads

Effort is to weave in mindfulness during pandemic

District teachers have enlisted the help of Crossroads Health counselors to provide class-wide counseling sessions.

Riverside Schools teachers have enlisted the help of Crossroads Health counselors to provide class-wide counseling sessions that teach stress management skills to students during the pandemic.

Crossroads came up with a plan to go into virtual classrooms to teach students mindful techniques, how to manage feelings and to ensure students are aware of how to access mental health supports given the current remote learning situation, according to Cheryl Lanning, executive director of Student Services at Riverside Schools.

“This is a new way of providing support, and we had an overwhelming response from our teachers signing up to have (Crossroads counselors) come in and offer 20- to 30-minute sessions virtually with the students in their classes,” Lanning said.

Crossroads also provides training for teachers on an as-needed basis to help support students that might have mental health and behavioral difficulties in the classroom setting, Lanning explained.

“It’s all populations of students they serve,” she said. “It covers a wide gamut of what they do and how they provide services as well as support to families, not necessarily just because of the pandemic but struggling for other reasons prior to COVID.”

Lanning said their good partnership with Crossroads is much needed in the district because they can build a rapport with students and be someone safe they can talk to.

“One of the goals is to promote the idea that its OK to ask for help,” she said. “Students are not alone in this. There is help out there.”

Crossroads Health is a not-forprofit behavioral health organization that offers integrated recovery and mental health services with five locations throughout Northeast Ohio.

Beyond the resources provided to students in the classroom, Crossroads is reaching out to administrators in school districts with the message of self care for teachers and staff as well, according to Lauren G. Wright, director of community-based services at Crossroads Health.

“The message we are sending to school leaders is the importance of self care within their organization,” Wright said. “We encourage school leaders to build in community care within each grade level and in the district as a whole, making sure each staff member is scheduling time for themselves throughout the day.”

She said she often uses the example of the airplane instructions given by flight attendants that able-bodied adults need to put on their own oxygen mask first before helping children or the disabled, which can be used as a metaphor for those who spend much time taking care of others, like teachers.

“A young person cannot be regulated without the support of a regulated adult,” Wright said. “We absolutely encourage enhancing, modeling and providing opportunity for mindfulness with everyone they come into contact with.”

An example of a mindfulness technique used in regulating emotions is the Microscope & Satellite exercise, she explained.

“Focus on one object in your surroundings,” Wright said. “Then expand your vision to take in everything around it. Shift between the two every three breaths for one minute. You get to choose how much you direct your attention to either the smallest of details or the biggest of perspectives.”

Starting in 2021, Crossroads is making available to all nine public districts across Lake County four, pre-recorded training videos that are about developing a trauma-sensitive school, Wright explained.

These asynchronous training resources are aimed toward teachers and staff helping them define trauma-sensitivity, which is shifting the focus off of a student’s negative behaviors and instead considering the experiences, or trauma, the student may have had that contributed to a behavior, she explained.

“[Trauma] impacts an individuals ability to engage appropriately with peers, to learn, and to self-regulate,” she said. “This is true for adults, too.

These training resources are an effort to revamp some of the policies in place in each district so that everyone is on the same page and includes language like “trauma-sensitive,” Wright explained.

“We encourage teachers to have a lens of curiosity and support,” she said, “and in turn encourage belonging and connection with the students.”