Language shapes thought, and healthy behavior.

Language shapes thought, and healthy behavior.
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
Wogan’s book arrived: Student Support Teams, Coordinated Care Teams, SARB, Expanded Equity Partnerships, Care Coordination (Case Management) Inter-Agency Collaboration, School/based Mental Health, helping (and learning from) kids.
Amazon Link: Developing Your School’s Student Support Teams: A Practical Guide for K-12 Leaders, Student Services Personnel, and Mental Health Staff https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09Q4MRX8T/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_E9YYAWM485KCMA9DXE86
James Wogan was selected to be a member of CDE’s Student Mental Health Policy Workgroup
(SMHPW). The purpose of the distinguished SMHPW is to assess the mental health needs of
California students and gather evidence to support policy recommendations to the California State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPPI) and the California Legislature. This multi-disciplinary workgroup is comprised of teachers, school counselors, school social workers, school psychologists, school nurses, and school administrators, and state and county mental health professionals.
People say “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” We (school social workers) disagree, we make them thirsty.
K-12 Comprehensive Toolkit for Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention:
Columbia Suicide Risk Assessment / Suicide Severity Rating Scale, Strengths, Risk Factors, Precipitants. From Harvard, ask about access to firearms regardless of means.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lf6fxkk17rrys24/Columbia%20Suicide%20Risk%20Assessment%208%20.pdf?dl=0
Suicide Prevention: Tips for Parents and Educators, NASP
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yprnrxa2wx4qysl/Suicide%20Prevention%20PDF%20NASP.pdf?dl=0
Suicide Prevention: Tips for Parents and Educators, NASP (Spanish)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mkzqp5tw5d9pj9k/NASP%20Suicide%20Prevention%20Tips%20Spanish%20.pdf?dl=0
Postvention Toolkit for School Administrators, Counselors, and School Social Workers
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2g5w13zhydfs0lr/Postvention%20Toolkit%20After%20Suicide%20.pdf?dl=0
Resources:
https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/cg/mh/suicideprevres.asp
For more information: James Wogan, MFT, LCSW
www.nytimes.com/2021/02/08/parenting/improv-comedy-kids.html
You’re the star of your own show. Improv is about speaking truth in the moment, that’s funny.
Normalize racial dialogue. Lead with empathy. Be healthy so we can respond authentically. Growth happens outside of comfort zones.
James Wogan, LCSW, featured speaker (main stage), ACSA Symposium Conference 2021.
Educational leadership. Association California School Administrators (ACSA).
Sometimes nature, sometimes music 🎶, sometimes with friends, sometimes alone.
Developed by high school students for high school students, facilitated by Wogan
www.dropbox.com/s/yf375ywj6rf0ieb/School Based Mental Health Guide Book SBMH.pdf
Recently released School Based Mental Health (SBMH) Guidebook. Authors across disciplines (School Social Work, School Psychology, and School Counseling PPSC) collaborated to develop this manual.
https://www.psychotherapynetworker.org/blog/details/1271/the-addict-in-all-of-us
Check out this interview with Gabor Maté, MD, Canadian Doctor and Addiction Specialist.
I recently helped a father to get sober after years of addiction to opioids and alcohol. He said “it feels SO GOOD to get honest…. um, kinda sorted, well mostly honest, well okay there is some stuff I left out because I’m too ashamed to talk about it.” We all need someone on our side, especially if we need to get honest with ourselves before we get honest with others.
It’s bad ass when clients see articles like this in my waiting room, or online, then come in to therapy appointments ready to face their pain, learn, and change patterns of thinking and behaving.
You might have heard that we “can’t save our ass and save our face at the same time,” (thank you NA), but that sure the hell doesn’t stop brilliant addict brains 🧠 from trying.
We learn the most from the people we serve. Mostly from teenagers, I’ve that we can’t criticize ourselves into positive and lasting change. We can’t criticize ourselves out of criticizing ourselves. The trap of negativity creates the illusion of growth and change.
When I was a younger therapist, I would say things like, “Don’t beat yourself up…give yourself a break….”. Now that I’m a little more um seasoned, I say things like, “You can go ahead and beat yourself up, I can’t stop you, just not all day.”’
In therapy (along with concurrent programs like AA and NA), many clients reduce the negative thinking that comes with addiction by 50% and then, when the time is right, we walk through that fire 🔥 together.
It’s possible. You’re not alone.
🧠 Expert musicologist and friend Michael Emeneu (Montreal, Canada) breaks down the benefits of learning music by ear. Click link above to see concise article on Medium.
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