Mental Health Awareness at Arrowhead: 2020
Mental Health affects the way people live their daily lives, their relationships with others, and their overall view.
A student who has chosen to stay anonymous said, “Every single person at school, teachers, aides, and especially students are stressed at the moment but it feels like there is no end in sight. Everyone needs to learn to respect the time of others, especially at such a stressful time.”
During the pandemic, stress can be high, and mental health can decrease, with constant worry over every little thing happening in the world.
Kevin Lewandowski, a school psychologist at Arrowhead said, “Arrowhead has a lot of resources available to help [with a] student’s mental health. We have six school counselors and two school psychologists. We also have an on-site therapist that students can meet with if they do not have the time or transportation to meet with one outside of school. We provide Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse (AODA) counseling, administer a social-emotional screener to most freshman/junior students, and have detailed community resource guides that we can share with families. Arrowhead also has a variety of clubs and sports so students can pursue their interest areas and make more connections with others.”
If one wants to schedule a visit with a counselor, go to the Arrowhead Webpage, Go to counseling, select whether you are at North or SouthCampus, and your counselor should be there based on last name. After that, send an email to your counselor to set up an appointment.
Arrowhead runs under an Umbrella of Trauma Informed Care according to Adam Bolt, the Director of Student Services at Arrowhead.
Bolt said, “This is a practice that operates under the assumption that you cannot possibly know what everyone is going through or has gone through in their life, but if you approach every situation with other individuals by 1) Listening 2) Co-Planning 3) Building Rapport, you will be supporting all that you interact with.”
At Arrowhead, certain clubs focus on helping others with what they are going through. Peers 4 Peers is a club at Arrowhead that focuses on students making connections with others and helping them with problems that one may go through. While applications for Peers 4 Peers are over for this year, students can still reach out to peers that are willing to talk or adults involved such as Thomas Stuber, a counselor here at Arrowhead.
Lewandowski said, “Students often talk to friends about what is going on and this can be a great resource. If things are not getting better though, they should try to meet with someone who has more experience with these types of things. Friends should also look for warning signs and if they feel like the situation is too much, they should encourage their friend to see their counselor.”
By finding a support system or using Arrowhead’s resources, students can realize they are not alone.
Lewandowski said, “Don’t give up. Working through mental health challenges can be a long, frustrating process where people just want it to go away overnight so they can feel better. Remember that if one thing doesn’t work, there is always a next step or a new thing to try. If you don’t know what that is, use the resources at school because we are happy to help people navigate through these.”
