OMS School Counseling Newsletter
June 2024
School Counseling Team
For the full AP article click here.
"Many parents stay in touch with their child by texting, but school is a place for focusing on learning and developing independence. Teachers say you can still reach your child if you have a change in plans or a family emergency: Just contact the front office.
If the message is not urgent, it can probably wait.
Think of it this way: “If you came to school and said, ‘Can you pull my child out of calculus so I can tell them something not important?’ we would say no,” central Virginia school counselor Erin Rettig said.
Teachers emphasized: They are not saying parents are to blame for school cellphone battles, just that parents can do more to help. Tell your kids, for example, not to text home unless it is urgent. And if they do, ignore it."
Webinar for Parents and Caregivers: School’s Out!
Cartwheel Care Parent Webinar
Free Webinar for Parents, Caregivers, and School Staff
School’s Out! Supporting Youth & Family Mental Health Over the Summer and Being Ready for Back to School
Wednesday, June 5, 2024, 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. ET (6:00 - 7:00 p.m. CT)
While end-of-school and summer fun bring excitement for many, students of all ages can still struggle and sometimes significantly during the summer months. Summer can also be especially stressful for parents and guardians as they juggle work and caregiving. Join us for our webinar focused on anxiety, mood changes, and different areas of challenge that students and families can experience during the months away from school. We will discuss practical tips and strategies to support kids and teens during the summer months, and how we can help them (and us!) be ready for the transition back to the classroom.
Webinar McLean: Recognizing and Addressing Mental Health Disorders in Teens
June 5, 2024 12 noon
Dr. Perihan Esra Guvenek-Cokol Shares Tips for Spotting the Onset of Adolescent Mental Health Conditions
Being a teenager isn’t easy in today’s fast-paced, demanding world, and neither is being an adult helping a teen navigate the many social and emotional challenges of adolescence. Distinguishing between so-called “typical” teen behavior and signs of emerging mental health disorders can be especially difficult. Yet the experts stress that understanding these distinctions is critical when it comes to guiding teens to effective treatment for mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, substance misuse, and eating disorders.
So how can parents, educators, and other adults learn to identify the symptoms of common mental health disorders in teens? When is the right time to explore professional help? And what are the best treatment approaches for adolescents?
In this previously recorded session, Perihan Esra Guvenek-Cokol, MD, provides an overview of the many anxiety, mood, eating, substance use, and personality disorders that can impact teens, shares tips for recognizing their emergence, and answers audience questions about what to expect from evidence-based treatment.
Can’t join our session live?
Sign up anyway! You’ll receive a recording by email a few days after the webinar.
Webinar McLean: Addressing the Mental Health Needs of Latinx Teens
Wednesday, July 10 @ 12pm ET
Dr. Fairlee Fabrett Shares Ways To Overcome Stigma in Latinx Mental Health Care
The Latinx community in the United States is very diverse and includes people from many different nations and cultures of origin. Despite the uniqueness of so many of the community’s members, many experience similar challenges when trying to handle—and address—mental health.
According to NAMI, more than half of Latinx young adults between 18 and 25 with serious mental illness may not receive treatment, which puts the community in a complex crisis. Culture, language, and stigma can all contribute to why teens aren’t getting the help they need. So how can we help those who need mental health care?
In this previously recorded session, Fairlee C. Fabrett, PhD, discusses the unique factors as to why Latinx teens may not seek mental health help, offers ways to help combat the stigma around mental health in the Latinx community, and answers audience questions about how we can help members of the community be seen, heard, and understood.
Can’t join our session live?
Sign up anyway! You’ll receive a recording by email a few days after the webinar.
Webinar McLean: Decoding and Demystifying Dyslexia
Wednesday, July 24 @ 12pm
Dr. Roberto Olivardia Helps Make Dyslexia Less Overwhelming
Dyslexia is far more common than many realize, affecting nearly 10% of the population. Many folks with the condition may see words or letters differently. But dyslexia doesn’t just impact reading and, if unaddressed, can affect a person’s learning abilities and self-esteem.
So how can we make a complex condition feel less complicated to everyone involved in its management?
In this previously recorded session, Roberto Olivardia, PhD, explains what causes the challenges in learning to read and spell written words, shares ways to recognize the signs of dyslexia, provides tales from personal experience to help with condition management, and answers audience questions about dyslexia.
Can’t join our session live? Sign up anyway!
You’ll receive a recording by email a few days after the webinar.
Let's Talk: Training for parents and caregivers.
LET'S TALK: TRAINING FOR PARENTS AND CAREGIVERS
*Increase comfort with having proactive
*Conversations about substance use
*Increase knowledge of substances
*Role play scenarios that may come up
Massachusetts Partnerships for Youth (MPY) is pleased to announce its new MPY Parenting Solutions Library. The MPY Parenting Solutions Library is offered at no charge, in partnership with Peace At Home Parenting Solutions, a non-profit located in Mansfield, Connecticut. Peace At Home Parenting Solutions is a dynamic hub of trusted knowledge and compassionate support that inspires parents to create positive change for their children, their families and themselves. Through this new partnership, MPY is pleased to offer proven resources to help students’ families thrive.
Peace At Home Parenting Solutions specializes in empowering parents with evidence-based strategies to foster nurturing connections that safeguard their children's mental well-being. The trainings are presented by experts with advanced degrees and the trainings focus on child and adolescent development, including difficulties in school, mental health challenges, neurodiversity, LGBTQ+ identity formation, racism, and grief. These trainings present easy-to-use strategies for long-lasting change
Community Resources
Youth, Media, and Well-Being Research LAb in Wellesley is hosting a free virtual afterschool club for middle school girls about designing healthier social media experiences, hosted by researchers from the Youth, Media & Wellbeing Research Lab and Wellesley College students. The club meetings are drop-in sessions (students can come for just one meeting or attend the entire series!) with our first session on March 14. Any middle school girl is encouraged to apply on a first-come, first-serve basis. We are especially interested in reaching under-resourced girls in the Metrowest area. Interested students can apply using this link (https://bit.ly/DigitalWellbeingClub) up until the day of the club sessions.
Financial assistance for youth sports. (DK4) is committed to helping kids thrive by providing athletic opportunities for children of all ages, skill levels, and diverse backgrounds. We believe that sports can harness the power in kids by building character and confidence, teaching perseverance and teamwork, which ultimately fosters the development of skills needed for responsible citizenship
Financial assistance for Arlington residents living with cancer
Summer camps for grieving children. The Children's room has a good list of camps for middle and high. school students in the community who have suffered the death of a loved one. Participants receive grief education and emotional support combined with fun camp activities. For camp options click here.
Parent Support through PPAL (Parent/Professional Advocacy League) They offer workshops on a range of topics from navigating your child's IEP, to active parenting. The also have a series in Spanish.
Winter Brochures
Arlington Recreation Department
Mental Health Resources
Tufts University Teen & Dog Study
Tufts University Teen & Dog Study
The Teen & Dog Study invites you to participate in a new research project about teenagers and their pet dogs! Your participation will help researchers from Tufts University learn more about how dogs can contribute to positive mental health outcomes for teenagers.
If you are a parent/guardian of a teenager aged 13-17 years old and you have a family dog – you may be eligible to participate in our study. We will ask you and your teenager to complete 15-25 minute surveys every year for four years. Participants will be compensated $20 for each completed survey. Enrolled families may also be asked to participate in other study activities for additional compensation.
To learn more: https://sites.tufts.edu/teendogstudy/about-the-study/faq/
Click here to participate: https://collaborate.tuftsctsi.org/redcap/surveys/?s=7MJWXPE94FMM4YNH
Mental Health and Parent Supports
APS does not endorse any of these practices specifically and we are sharing things as resources for Arlington families.
Association for Autism and Neurodiversity (AANE) - has immediate openings for Parent Coaching. Click Here for the link to AANE Parent Coaching.
The Concord Center is excited to announce that they are now running an Accelerated Outpatient Program (AOP) for adolescents with moderate to severe anxiety disorders and/or obsessive compulsive disorders. For more information, please use this link.
McLean Hospital Child and Adolescent Outpatient Supports. Their Group and Bridge services are insurance based, while their Anxiety Mastery Program and DBT Program are hybrid insurance and fee for service
Looking for child psychiatric services? This practice is new in Lexington and accepting new patients. They are out of network for most insurance carriers. ReThink Minds
Ottoson School Counseling- many great resources are linked here, including previous newsletters.
Massachusetts Launched a new Community Behavioral Health Centers (CBHCs) to serve as an entry point for timely, high-quality and evidence-based treatment for mental health conditions and substance use disorders, including routine appointments, urgent visits, and 24/7 community-based crisis intervention as an alternative to hospital emergency departments. CBHCs receive enhanced state funding through alternative payment models to support flexible, person-centered treatment.
Community Supports (Food, Mental Health, Housing, etc.)
Greater Massachusetts Special Needs Events
Services are available to all Arlington Public Schools students and families.
Services are virtual and include short-term individual and group therapy, parent/caregiver
consultation. Following an initial session, additional services may include medication evaluation
and prescription, and longer-term outpatient referral support.
Referrals to Cartwheel Care go through your student’s school counselor
Parent Support Groups are offered through Child Therapy Boston.
Their therapists understand the unique position that parents are in. Parenting kids with anxiety, dysregulation, ADHD, Mood Disorders, and challenges with school or peer relationships can be hard. Traditional advice, books, and parenting “methods” don’t always apply to the unique situations you might find yourselves in.