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Overcast Central District makes student wellness a priority
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Bellmore-Merrick middle and high schools will open school counseling and wellness centers for the 2018-2019 school year, giving students who may be struggling a new after-school resource.
The centers at the high schools will open in October for one day a week from 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m; the middle school centers will open in February.
Central District Superintendent John DeTommaso said last week that if there is a high success rate at the high schools, officials have the budget to open the shelters a second day each week, starting in January.
The concept of wellness centers first came up in an administrative meeting last September, DeTommaso said, and voters OK’d the proposal as part of the May 15 budget vote.
“It was really a discussion within our own group, and how we could best take care of kids and families in the Bellmores and Merricks,” DeTommaso said in a phone interview.
The 2018-19 budget outlined the goals of the wellness center, and discussions at recent Board of Education meetings clarified details with staffing and purposes of the center.
DeTommaso, at the June 18 Board of Education meeting, said that the mission of the centers is “to increase student connectedness and belongingness to the school community, and promote wellness.”
“They plan on doing parent workshops during those time periods and meeting with groups for kids who have similar likes, dislikes, issues, concerns so that’s why it runs the gamut,” DeTommaso said. “We’re just hoping to be a place where kids and families can come to handle lots of issues, and a place to point people in the right direction that may be more helpful and equipped to handle the issues.”
At the June 6 Board of Education meeting, one parent thanked the board for the increased attention the district is paying to mental health and resources.
“We have over the years trained and had workshops for teachers on what to look for,” DeTommaso said about the everyday vigilance of the school staff. He also said that the teachers keep an eye out for changed behaviors – drops in grades or differences in appearance.
DeTommaso said that their School Counseling and Wellness centers are not modeled after any other programs.
But, in response to recent violence in schools and communities, as well as growing mental health concerns, other schools have started to emphasize mental health.
New York City schools have already implemented mental health programs, with screenings for at-risk students and on-site mental health clinics, according to the New York City Department of Education website.
“The opening of a wellness center at the secondary school level is incredibly important, crucial and necessary for all of the trevails of adolescents in today’s environment,” said psychologist and Nassau Community College professor Dr. Bernard Katz. “Kids who have mental health issues, anxiety, depression, and self esteem issues are bombarded by all kinds of things and messages from the internet.
Both Katz and DeTommaso said that the stigma around mental health issues no longer exists, and that society is becoming more accepting.
“The idea of ‘mental health’ and ‘mental illness’ — those words have stigma,” Katz said. He said that if it is phrased as a universal issue where “everybody has concerns, anxieties and crises in their life,” they feel more comfortable talking about it.
Statistics suggest youth mental health is worsening. According to Mental Health America, a non-profit dedicated to addressing mental illness in America, Rates of youth with severe depression increased from 5.9 percent in 2012 to 8.2 percent in 2015.
DeTommaso said that the centers will not be crisis centers, but they will aid struggling students and families in the community.
The centers are there “to work with them on the simplest issues to things that may be more complicated,” DeTommaso said. “We think its game-changing, and we absolutely think this is something that is going to make a big difference.”
