Critical Mental Health Challenges in School
The numbers for suicide among students continue to trend upward – to the point that many states and districts now require teachers and other educators to be trained in suicide awareness. 2017’s vastly popular NetFlix series, 13 Reasons Why, served to increase the discussion about suicide but also increased online searches on how to commit suicide by 26 percent. At the same time, non-suicidal self-injury, including cutting, has increased at an alarming rate over the past decade.
Do You Know Students Who Have...
– Resistance or refusal to participate in normal school activities?
– Persistent moodiness?
– Chosen social isolation?
– Sudden declines in school performance?
– Constant worries or anxieties?
– Extreme involvement with social media and/or digital games?
– Depression, sadness or irritability?
– Self-destructive behaviors?
– Symptoms of substance abuse?
– Indifference to others’ feelings?
Overview
Overlooking emotional problems in the school can lead to grave consequences for students, parents and educators. Many students experience emotional or mental health issues at some point in their academic careers. For some students, these issues can escalate into severe behaviors – behaviors that are harmful to the student and/or to others.
Kim Johancen will provide straightforward insights, innovative strategies and “how-to-handle” tips for real cases in classrooms and schools. Interpreting mental health behaviors according to intensity, frequency, duration and impact will also be addressed – including what to do when a student has moved into a crisis phase. Participants will develop an understanding of critical mental health issues in a way that will help both educators and students in their classrooms and schools.
See What "Critical Mental Health Challenges in Schools" Attendees Have to Say
FAQ
– Classroom Teachers
– Principals
– Special Education Personnel
– School Counselors & Psychologists
– Other Administrators
– Social Workers (all levels)
– Law Enforcement/SRO
– Counselors & Therapists in Agencies & Private Practice
– Media Specialists
8:00-8:30 | Registration | |
8:30-10:15 | Overview and Objectives The Signs and Symptoms of Trauma PTSD: Symptoms, Behaviors and Interventions How to Talk to Students Who Have Experienced Trauma Mental Health Priorities and Trauma Myths Overview of the Ten Trauma Truths | |
10:15-10:30 | Break | |
10:30-12:00 | Trauma Truths 1 – 5 Anxiety: Symptoms, Behaviors and Interventions Depression: Symptoms, Behaviors and Interventions | |
12:00-1:00 | Lunch (on your own) | |
1:00-2:15 | Trauma Truths 6 – 10
Self-Injury: Symptoms, Behaviors and Interventions
Eating Disorders: Symptoms, Behaviors and Interventions
Suicide: Symptoms, Behaviors and Interventions |
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2:15-2:30 | Break | |
2:30-3:30 |
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3:45-4:15 | Questions and Answers |
Certificates of Completion for this seminar, which indicate 6 contact hours of Continuing Education, will be available at the end of the seminar upon completion of a course evaluation. In many cases, depending on your Profession and Jurisdiction, this Certificate of Completion is sufficient for tracking your Continuing Education and Professional Development efforts. We suggest that you contact your local Board or Governing Agency to see exactly what steps are necessary for approval in your particular discipline. Please note that Developmental Resources is also an approved Provider for the following National and Regional Accrediting Agencies.
Developmental Resources has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 5602. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified.
AccuTrain Corporation, #1053, is approved as a provider for social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) www.aswb.org through the Approved Continuing Education (ACE) Program. AccuTrain maintains responsibility for the program. ASWB Approval Period: (8/13/2019 – 8/13/2022). Social workers should contact their regulatory board to determine course approval for continuing education credits. Social workers participating in this course will receive 6 Clinical Social Work continuing education clock hours.
Critical Mental Health Challenges in Schools Presenter
Kim Johancen, M.A., LPC

*In case of an emergency, another qualified presenter will substitute
Kim Johancen, M.A., LPC is a Denver-based author and therapist who has developed specialties that include working with people at risk of suicide, survivors of suicide loss, and individuals struggling with self-injury. She has worked extensively with both adolescent and adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Her ability to work with people who have experienced grief and loss extends throughout her career and she remains committed to helping people resolve their post-trauma symptoms along with the events that fuel them. Over the last several years she has developed a passion for working with families through divorce. She utilizes a variety of approaches including Internal Family Systems, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy.
Kim is at heart a strengths-based therapist. She has presented her work on self-injury at Harvard University and her work with suicidal patients at Stony Brook University in New York. She recently co-authored a book for educators entitled Traumatized Students: School-Based Interventions for Reaching Under the Surface. She has also published Coping Cards: Featuring The Planet Pals – a card deck for elementary school-aged children to help build resilience.
Questions? Let us know!
Critical Mental Health Resources
Mean Girls: 101 1/2 Creative Strategies and Actives for Working with Relational Aggression with CD
by Kaye Randall & Allyson Bowen
The strategies in this book are designed to increase awareness of Relational Aggression(RA), encourage empathy and tolerance, and improve self control and coping skills. It explores the underlying causes of RA, particularly in girls and provides professionals with 101 1/2 resources, insights, strategies and reproducible worksheets for working with girls who are Relationally Aggressive and those who have been victimized by this type of bullying.
Includes CD.
See My Pain
by Susan Bowman & Kaye Randall
This book provides a collection of strategies and activities to help children and adolescents who deliberately self-injure. A variety of hands-on creative arts approaches are featured that can be used in private practice and school settings. When working with youth who self-injure it is helpful to have a variety of creative approaches at your fingertips. The approaches and activities in this book can be used with individuals or with a small group. The activities help children/adolescents to express their feelings, understand why they self-injure, engage in a healing process, explore new methods of coping and prevention, and find new meaning and purpose in their lives. The book provides a description of self-injury in young people and its underlying causes. Then, an overview of therapeutic approaches is presented along with suggestions for the professional counselor/social worker/psychologist, teachers and parents. Sample assessment questions and activities are included.
131 Creative Strategies for Reaching Children with Anger Problems
by Tom Carr
This practical guide is full of insight, techniques and activities for managing and helping chronically angry children. It provides teachers, counselors, parents and other professionals with numerous helpful strategies for dealing with the challenges they face when attempting to reach and help these children.
Aggressive and Violent Students
by Robert Bowman, Jo Lynn Johnson, Mike Paget and Mary Thomas Williams
Aggressive and Violent Students, created originally for the nationally acclaimed seminar, presents the School-Wide-Risk Inventory for Violence along with a collection of practical strategies and programs that have been shown to be effective in working with aggressive, hostile and/or violent students.
102 Creative Strategies for Working with Depressed Children and Adolescents
by Donna Strom, Kaye Randall & Susan Bowman
Depression can have many harmful and even devastating effects on the lives of children and adolescents. It can derail school performance and lead to social and family troubles. It can also have harmful effects on a young person’s physical health. This book is a practical resource that includes a variety of strategies (including reproducible worksheets) designed to use with elementary, middle and high school youth. An at-a-glance chart is included to help you quickly locate strategies suitable for particular age groups.
Other sections include information for parents, youth, teachers and counselors. This is a practical resource guide that will help any professional effectively identify and help young people in school, family or private practice setting.
Mind Designs: Encouraging Self-Disclosure through Coloring Therapy with CD
by Angela Troppa
This book and CD will provide you with a unique, powerful tool that will help facilitate deeper personal conversations with young people. The reproducible worksheets have been field-tested with children and adolescents who are experiencing trauma and/or young people with mild to severe social/emotional/behavioral challenges.