Broadcast Prepares Schools for Trauma Response

(April, 2002) In an effort to better prepare U.S. schools to deal with sudden, traumatic events—either those that occur on the world scene or which touch students' lives directly—EDC has joined with the U.S. Department of Education, Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program; the Harvard School of Public Health; and the Prevention Institute to present a three-hour training seminar on school response and readiness to be transmitted via satellite broadcast to numerous locations around the country.

Led by nationally recognized mental health experts, the broadcast, "The Three R's for Dealing with Trauma in Schools: Readiness, Response & Recovery," will air April 23, 2002, from

"The tragic events of September 11 undoubtedly highlight the need to help schools prepare for and respond to trauma, but, unfortunately, there are other events—car crashes, school or domestic violence, natural disasters—that profoundly affect the lives of students, faculty, and community members," says Edward deVos, who directs the Center for Violence and Injury Prevention within EDC's Health and Human Development Programs (HHD). In addition to playing a role in organizing the event and working with the on-site facilitators, De Vos and his HHD colleagues are managing the evaluation component of the broadcast, and will gather feedback from the local facilitators and participants.

The project is led by Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith, director and professor of the Division of Public Health Practice at the Harvard School of Public Health, and Larry Cohen, executive director of the Prevention Institute in Oakland, California, both of whom are nationally recognized experts in violence prevention.

The broadcast will feature in-studio discussions with Marleen Wong, director of mental health services for Los Angeles Unified School District; Dr. Mark Weist, director of the Center for School Mental Health Assistance and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine; Dr. Robin Gurwitch, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center; and Dr. Robert Pynoos, director of the Trauma Psychiatry Program at the University of California, Los Angeles. The broadcast will also contain footage highlighting model school mental health programs, and will feature practitioners, community members, parents, and youth.

Viewers will have a chance to call, fax, or e-mail the participants with questions during interactive segments of the broadcast.

The telecast will focus on the impact of trauma on children and adults, and discuss how trauma is processed differently, depending on one's proximity to the event, whether one has a family history of traumatic events, and the availability of social support. The objective of the training is to enable viewers—particularly mental health professionals, guidance counselors, and school administrators-to:

• Understand the importance and impact of trauma-related, multi-level mental health approaches and services in schools.
  
• Articulate a strategy to incorporate the mental health needs of students and staff into school safety plans.
  
• Identify the types of mental health services available for students, staff, and communities.
  
• Illustrate promising school-based models for readiness, response, and recovery and describe elements of effective mental health models that help schools prevent and respond to trauma.

Some of the participants will discuss the nuts and bolts of developing school safety plans, such as: identifying the types of disasters that could occur given the geographic location of a school; methods of physical self-protection during an earthquake or tornado, for example; identifying alternate escape routes in the event of a terrorist attack or hostage situation; and developing well-rehearsed evacuation protocols, procedures for telephone use, and for tracking the location of students.

Other participants will discuss the principles of "psychological first aid," which include: immediate intervention with students to restore equilibrium as quickly as possible; providing accurate information; giving a sense of hope, but also remaining truthful and realistic; providing emotional support through a buddy system; and providing constructive activities for students that give them a sense of self-reliance and mastery.

Still others will discuss the misconception, they say, that focusing on mental health in schools takes time and money away from academics. Participants will discuss ways to address mental health needs that are integrated into the school curriculum, and will review potential funding sources such as the federal Safe Schools, Healthy Students initiative, state programs such as the National Assembly on School-Based Healthcare, and partnerships with community agencies.

"One of the primary messages participants hope to get across is that mental health is not just about the absence of illness, but about how a person feels and acts when faced with difficulties," says EDC's DeVos. "School mental health services can often bolster students enough so they don't get to a point where they need more costly referrals or intensive therapy, but can learn skills of resilience that can better enable them to handle adversity."