Responding to trauma
Mental health support: Schools team will deal quickly with crisis Region model: Initiative can be example across county districts
LANSDALE >> A specialized team is now up and running in the North Penn School District that could serve as an example across the county and beyond.
Their purpose? Be there, anywhere in the district, when something traumatic happens and students and staff need help.
“Really, this team came out of a sense of urgency, as we see and continue to see the number of mental health cases with our students increase,” said Penndale Middle School Principal Kyle Hassler.
“We needed something inhouse, to give more support when these students are in crisis,” he said.
“We”, in this case, is the district’s newly formed Traumatic Event Response Team, and Hassler presented along with high school assistant principal Jim Galante, supervisor of special education Ann Marie Lucas, and Northbridge school mental health counselor Trish Pike on their efforts so far. Team members across all schools had noticed a problem when students are experiencing a mental health crisis, Hassler told the school board’s safe schools committee Tuesday night: relying on Montgomery County specialists, who might not be available for hours at times when minutes matter.
“Those teams are overused, and it would be one, two, sometimes three hours for them to respond,” Hassler said.
When county staff did arrive at a crisis situation, sometimes students had calmed enough to remove an immediate need for services, and that could lead to cases where the county could not recommend those services, Hassler told the committee. How to solve that problem? Build that capacity in-house, among district staff, based in different schools and available if an emergency happens at any.
“Through this team, we were able to build the capacity within our staff, to have those services in house, so there can be an immediate response. And as the
“We needed something in-house, to give more support when these students are in crisis.” — Penndale Middle School Principal Kyle Hassler
“What does the team provide? Shortterm counseling support to students and staff, from all-North Penn counselors and team members, so people feel more open to working with them.” — Ann Marie Lucas, special education supervisor
crisis grows, then we have a partnership with the county teams, that can come in” and add services if necessary, Hassler said.
The local team uses training based on frameworks developed nationally after the Columbine and Sandy Hook school shootings, Pike added, and team members can act as liaisons between staff of the school where the trauma took place, and parents, county agencies, and the public.
“We were kind of thinking about how can we make this work for North Penn. We got to teaming, and saying ‘Well, if we had more people trained, we could create our own teams, and not always need outside services to come in and help,’” Pike said.
Early rounds of response team training were delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and related school shutdowns, but should expand once the 2021-22 school year starts this fall, she said. Team members include school counselors, administrators, and psychologists, those who already have mental health training, and so far the district has two teams, one for the elementary and one for the secondary level, with ten staff on each, according to Lucas.
“What does the team provide? Short-term counseling support to students and staff, from all-NorthPenn counselors and team members, so people feel more open to working with them,” Lucas said.
At the elementary level, team members could act in roles similar to the high school’s assistant principals, taking over some day-to-day functions while school staff handle the immediate crisis, she said, or provide coverage once the immediate need has passed.
“We’ve found sometimes that staff need a break, in the moment, from teaching, and our counselors can be on hand to give support, especially at a time when substitute (teachers) are at a premium,” Lucas said.
Galante said the team has already deployed a handful of times this school year, citing a recent stabbing at Oak Park Elementary as an example, and said the county agencies the team works with have already started to take notice.
“They’re willing, and wanting, to work with our group, as kind of a pilot for other schools. They’re very interested in what we’re doing,” he said.
Committee chairman Jonathan Kassa said he thought the team tied in to other district efforts to increase student safety, like the “Safe2Say” reporting system, climate surveys, and more.
“We really need to have all these cylinders firing, for the most comprehensive approach for the community. Thanks for helping to advance that, and build out our capacity with the team we already have,” he said.
Board member Wanda Lewis-Campbell asked how team members are chosen, and if they serve set terms or depart the group. Lucas said the team initially started as a volunteer effort, built around those who had already undergone crisis response training.
“We kind of got the word out and said ‘Who would like to be a part of it?’” she said.
Pike added that she sees future training in two phases, one for administrators to assist during the crisis itself, then for the mental health specialists to follow up, longer-term if needed.
“It could be school psychologists, a nurse, a counselor, those that have some background already” dealing with student mental health, Pike said.
North Penn’s school board next meets at 7 p.m. on April 6 and the safe schools committee next meets at 6 p.m. on April 26; for more information visit www.NPenn.org.