Coronavirus Aftermath (A Mental Health Crisis)

Isolation, Uncertainty, Boredom, Grief, Anxiety, Stress, Fear......

TRAUMA

This week, we learned that our students will not return to our school building this year.  Instead, we will finish the year through virtual learning.  They didn't get to say goodbye to their friends or teachers.  We didn't get to have our end of the year awards ceremony, kindergarten or 5th grade graduation, field day, and so many other annual traditions.  It's heartbreaking for our school family (kids, parents, teachers) and we are all grieving and grief is a process (more on that in another entry).  Right now, everyone is very focused on the present (and we need to be), but as a school counselor and the only full-time staff member at my school that works with students' mental health, I have to be planning for the day we return and the impact of current events on the mental health of my students.

In the fall (or whenever we return), I will have 400+ young people returning to the home away from home that they have missed so much and the mental health needs will be greater than ever before.  This is a traumatic event in all of our lives.  It happened suddenly.  It was unpredictable.  It lasted longer than we expected.  We felt isolated at times, even though we tried to find creative ways to connect with others.  We were bored and possibly made some bad decisions while bored.  We grieved the loss of our old life, our routines. We were anxious about the uncertainty of the future.  And, even though we will get through this, we will also have to recover from it.

The 2020-21 school year will likely begin with a honeymoon period unlike all of the years before.  I expect that it will last longer than the normal first 4-6 weeks of school.  Kids will appreciate school, their teachers, their friends more than they ever did.  But, the honeymoon period always comes to an end.  It may last longer than usual, but there will be triggers.  When we have a snow day and have NTI, there will be students that will meltdown thinking they will be away again for months at a time.  When someone gets sick, they will worry that they may have the coronavirus and be afraid of it spreading again.  Flu and cold season will take on a new meaning.  The way we do school will change.  How?  I don't know exactly, but I am certain that some parts of "social distancing" will remain in place.  We will have kids washing their hands until they bleed (this was already an issue before this leave).  We will have kids who want more space from others and I will need to do my lesson on personal space early on.

For my students that already have germ/sickness anxiety, this virus has confirmed some of their worst fears and now they will be even more fearful.  For my students that struggle with behavior, they will have to get used to routines again and we will have to adjust our behavior interventions that were working before our extended leave from school.  There will also be students that enjoyed being "homeschooled" and will not want to come back to school.  They will have meltdowns at the bus stop or in the car rider line in the mornings and some days parents won't want to fight that battle and their attendance will suffer.   For students with poor attendance before, they may now see recent events as proof that they don't really need to come to the school building.  There are children that have sensory needs that have not been met during this time.  They are missing their occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech therapy.  Even though, all of these important staff members are doing the best they can to provide these services virtually, it's just not the same as in person.  There are children that need those daily hugs and "I love yous" from their teachers and to go this long without that, is emotionally damaging.  Even though our cafeteria staff and others have gone out of their way to provide meals that can be picked up at school or delivered to your home, there are families that won't come get them or request they be delivered.  There are children with food insecurities whose needs are not being met.  They will come back to school and demonstrate behaviors such as hoarding food, hiding food in their cubbies and desks, or stealing from others out of desperation and fear of going without for long periods of time.  They will be extra "clingy" to teachers and will be triggered more than ever when they have an unfamiliar sub or when there are changes in the routine.  Parents, while trying to work from home, are relying more than ever on technology to entertain their children and some of them will return to school with an addiction to that screen time.  The long term effects of extended use of screens is well documented to result in more sensory needs.  Those sensory needs will appear as "behavior problems" like not being able to sit still and focus or being impulsive.  Those behaviors look like ADHD and often end up medicated.  Their sleep patterns and daily schedules have likely been inconsistent and all over the place.  They will have trouble adjusting to a school schedule again.  Add worry to the mix, and many will have trouble sleeping at night.  They'll likely be used to eating all throughout the day and when we restrict eating to breakfast, lunch, and snack time, well, they will complain that they are "starving" and those that were actually going hungry will eat so much that they will get sick.  Many have been listening to or reading the news and have been hearing the adults int heir lives talk about death rates and unemployment.  Others will have learned that it was all just a hoax or that we have overreacted.  Sadly, this has become a political hotspot and when adults are debating politics around children, they form their opinions based on those they live with and bring those strong political opinions (that they don't understand) with them to school.  There will be students that at the end of the day, they will cry or refuse to leave the school building to go home because they don't know if they'll get to come back the next day and our reassurances that they will get to, will fall on dead ears.

There will be children that experienced abuse at a higher level as their caregivers were under high stress and anxiety and may have turned to their children to take out their anger and frustration after the loss of a job or being home for longer periods of time.  Students that would "get through" or "survive" the weekend at home with an abusive parent have now had to live that life non-stop for months.  The Cabinet of Family & Health Services will have a high volume of cases to follow-up on as students begin to share with adults (including me) about their experiences while they were away.  I often see an increase in calls just before a break and when returning from a break and I believe this will be even more evident now.  There will be an increased need for foster homes to take in children in need, but there will not be more certified foster homes because they have shut down that training and certification process as state statute requires it take place in person (at this time, they have not changed that to allow online training).   That means that children who may need to be removed from a home won't be because group homes will be full and there will be no place for them to go.  The case workers will have to prioritize whose abuse is the worst.

How will I respond as a school counselor?  How will I meet the needs of 400+ students plus staff members that have just been through a traumatic event?  The American School Counseling Association recommends case loads of 250 students per counselor, even though that is a rare situation across our country.  It was difficult to juggle in our old "normal", but what about the new "normal"?   Every single one of my students have experienced a traumatic event and for many, there will be lasting effects on their emotional state.  For starters, I won't do it alone. Our students will have a whole team of teachers, administration, and support staff that will be eager to meet their needs.

When students return at some point, the first thing they will want to do is run to their old classroom, their old teacher, and their old classmates.  Teachers, as much as they will be excited to meet their new students, will have that same desire to close out the previous year, first.  It's what we know.  Closure is a necessary part of grieving and healing.  When we find out that official "first day of the 2020-21 school year," we'll need to back up and find a way to have a "last day of 2019-20." What will that look like?  I am not the one in charge of all of the decisions to be made, but I am brainstorming ideas to be part of the conversation.  Maybe it's a field day.  Maybe we get to have the in person graduations and awards ceremonies that were missed in August or September.  Maybe we do a full on "last day of school" like we would have.

Even though, we have missed a significant amount of academic instruction and need to catch up on standards not taught the previous year, we still need to begin the year tending to the social-emotional needs of students, not the academic needs.  Our focus should not be on benchmark testing, common core standards, or preparing for state testing.  It should instead be on relationship building, creating a safe environment, and teaching self awareness and self management. Academics need to still take a backseat as we meet the needs at the bottom of Maslow's Hierarchy pyramid first.  

I anticipate a higher enrollment in my "Worry Warriors" groups.  I am planning to spend more time on coping strategies for worry and fear at the very beginning of the year in my classroom counseling lessons. I am putting together calm down kits for classrooms and pulling resources to share with teachers.  I am thankful to work in a district where all of our staff have already spent the last year with a professional development focus on trauma.  It's as if we knew this was coming and our teachers and staff were being trained for it. Without a doubt, I believe our teachers are better prepared for the return from this crisis because of the training they have had this last year. I'm reading, collaborating with peers, and referring to my training as a Trauma and Crisis Specialist.  The most important thing is that I (along with a therapy dog they love) will be there with loving arms (and warm kisses) to help them through it and because of the relationships already established with my students, we will get through this together.  For now, I am providing support virtually and in driveways until I can wrap my arms around other people's children in the future.