“Jamés, is there any chance you can take tomorrow off? Do you want to go mountain bike riding in the rain 🌧️ ☔️ ?? It’s really beautiful, and there’s place in Marin where it’s not muddy and we can have a beautiful ride. China Camp in Marin.”
This was my friend Sasan🇮🇷 on phone Wednesday morning. Been storms in the bay area and there’s a lot of hype (and some true loss ie floods in Santa Rosa). Sasan’s call showed me that people can see the world totally differently, different perspective different sense of joy and excitement…
99% of the conversation and news about rain is negative, new weather vocabulary like “bomb cyclone” or “ atmospheric river” has people all anxsty.
Meanwhile Sasan (and a few others) looooove storms 🌧️ ☔️. “What better way to connect w Nature?”
Likewise, one of my clients in therapy said, “Oh the rain is such a good time to go fishing 🎣!” A lot of people are taking day off work bc they want to be out in the rain catching fish; freshwater is stirred up by the rain, the fish go nuts.”

Tag: Equity
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Rain perspectives
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GONA
Was invited to gathering of indigenous teenagers in Marin Headlands retreat center at Point Bonita. Was 4-Day Native community-building wellness retreat called “GONA” for about 20 teenagers from SF.
A indigenous woman shared about the healing properties of feathers,🪶 🪶 and how different feathers can be used medicinally for different circumstances.
She answered questions and shared, for example, that one “might not always want an eagle feather, it depends on the situation.”
For peacefulness, she recommended feathers of a pheasant. One teenager asked about owl 🦉 and she paused … said people from some tribes don’t want to be near owl feathers bc of their meaning and energy.
She had light-hearted way of talking w kids; showed them how to wrap feathers in different ways (see photo) they were into it. touch each feather and notice how tactilely different (and similar) each feather is … brings us closer to nature therefore in community w each other.
The theme for Friday was “generosity.” Some of the kids offer feathers they made as gift to community. They had also done beading and painting in previous days. Gifts are put in community circle and could go to anyone.
Native youth leader Crystal from Oakland painted pine nuts from backyard, made a necklace; this will be her gift to someone in community.
💫 Hope you see some birds (and feathers 🪶 ) soon.
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SJSU Webinar – Student Support Teams (w slide deck and video)
San José State University School of Social Work, in partnership with the California Association of School Social Workers (CASSW), offered a webinar / professional development workshop focused on Student Support Teams. Authors and co-presenters Howard Blonsky and James Wogan focused on the facilitator role of School Social Workers at three (3) types of Student
Support Teams: the School Coordinated Care Team, the Student Success Team (SST), and the Student Attendance Review Team (SART). Link to slide deck and video recording of webinar embedded.
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Evaluating Danger to Others
I’ve confiscated guns from high school students, conducted risk of harm danger-to-others 5150 evaluations, and sent texts to my own family, “If I don’t make it home tonight, just know I love you.” For example, when a student (16) posted on Snapchat with a rifle, another student took a screen shot and shared it; The principal called me and said, “I really don’t know what to do, how soon can you get here?”
We met with student and conducted risk evaluation, (similar to suicide risk assessment), spoke with his family, collected the weapon, and made sure there were no other firearms accessible to children in the house.
I’ve co-led trainings on de-escalation with law enforcement, led trauma-informed practices trainings and professional development for educators, child welfare social workers and interns, and behavioral health professionals.
At each training, we ask ourselves, “what more can we be doing to prevent death by gun violence? What more can I do to prevent another gun-violence-at-school tragedy?
Too often we, mental health professionals, tend not to serve or under serve difficult clients with what’s deemed to be volitional behavior. In schools, initial decisions about whether or not behavior will be addressed as a discipline matter (volitional) vs. a mental health a concern, is made by school administrators. Many educational leaders, however, report that they don’t have the level of training needed to evaluate students with potentially dangerous behaviors.
Additionally, even after students are identified as in need of behavioral health support, school counselors and support staff must engage with students and families to obtain informed consent to participate in services. Counselors are less likely to pursue consent for students who say, “I’m not interested in therapy,” even when their behavior demonstrates a need.
Some parents and guardians are reluctant or outright opposed to “mental health” services for their children. Equity and shared vision guides our work and we must acknowledge that many parents, especially parents of color, had negative experiences when they were in school; it’s important to understand the reasons for their caution and hesitations when it comes to mental health services.
Counseling support is often centered around a student’s school day, social emotional learning, and academic progress. Many school personnel meet and communicate with parents and guardians, but few professionals are trained to improve family relationships and dynamics, a key factor in youth mental health. After a tragic loss in mass shootings by school-age youth, bullying and exclusion is often cited as a reason for violence. It’s difficult to question if family dysfunction played a role in violence that occurred, especially if family members were also victims of gun violence. Sadly, this was the case in mass shooting at Robb Elementary School yesterday in Uvalde, Texas (21 killed) and at Sandy Hook Elementary School (26 killed).
School-based Mental Health Programs: Some innovative programs are making inroads engaging families and extended support networks to provide multi-generational support. Even with recent successes and improvements in mental health and school-based mental health programs, we are serving 1 in 5 students identified as needing support services.
Beyond Co-location: Post pandemic, school personnel and partnership agencies have had success reaching out tenaciously to build trust with students and families.
School social workers offer multi-faceted solutions include 5-component “packages of support” that combine professional services, youth enrichment positive activities, and three other people or programs on each child’s team, based on self-determination and each child’s unique needs. Evaluation and referral, care coordination (case management), helps to link students with specialized services, physicians, and child psychiatrists.
Johns Hopkins, UC Berkeley, and The California Student Mental Health Policy Workgroup at CDE have put forward excellent policy recommendations.
Our job, as practitioners, is to put policy into practice.
James Wogan, LCSW
James Wogan LCSW 