Mental Health Challenges
Positive mental wellness is essential to a child’s healthy development. School and community mental health services can improve academics, provide access to building social skills, promote leadership, increase self-awareness, and help children make caring connections in school and the community.
Students of military families often experience multiple stressors before and during their parent’s deployment and when they come home. Without appropriate mental health support systems, children of military personnel may be at a significant disadvantage compared with their peers in non-military families. Military students are resilient, but there are resources available to help.
Counselors play a crucial role in the school environment:
NMB Counselors participate in everyday school activities and events, providing support related to deployment and reintegration, family dynamics, positive coping mechanisms, staff support and education, parent education, and stress reduction. They facilitate groups and trainings to build leadership skills, manage anger, build self-esteem and confidence, and strengthen communication.
Other responsibilities include individual student academic planning and goal-setting school counseling classroom lessons based on student success standards. Short-term counseling to students, referrals for long-term support, collaboration with families/teachers/administrators/ community for student success, advocacy for students at individual education plan meetings and other student-focused
meetings, data analysis to identify student issues, needs, and challenges, acting as a systems change agent to improve equity and access, achievement, and opportunities for all students.
Do counselors keep records about students and families?
Services provided by counselors are private and confidential, except for mandatory federal and military reporting requirements (i.e., child abuse, domestic violence, and other life-threatening situations). No counseling records are maintained.
Other Resources:
Military One Source Military and Family Life Counseling (View Website)
M-DCPS has mental health coordinators to support students in our schools. It has also contracted with community mental health agencies, where students receive additional support to meet their specific needs. These services include screenings and assessments, individual and group counseling, family counseling, substance abuse intervention, and parent-school-agency consultation.
For more information, contact your child’s school, the Parent Assistance Line at (305) 995-7100 or visit https://mentalhealthservices.dadeschools.net.