The Pandemic's Toll on Mental Health
Helping students virtually, the Wellness Center hopes to expand to provide more aid in upcoming years.
By Selena Ganguly
Helping students virtually, the Wellness Center hopes to expand to provide more aid in upcoming years.
By Selena Ganguly
There has been a lot of time during the pandemic allowing for self reflection, yet so much time living in isolation that it has affected some people’s well being.
The Wellness Center has been supporting students virtually to help them through distance learning, allowing them to express their worries by using a variety of coping strategies through the services they have provided.
Head of the Wellness Center, Amy Hernandez has a WebEx open for anyone to join and will be available to provide students support with what they need.
“The Wellness Center is a safe, comfortable and calm space for students to come and get support and encouragement, while learning how to best take care of themselves. We welcome and invite all students to come and experience this support available to them,” Hernandez said. “Students can meet with me on WebEx as well as get connected to a counselor. I have used a virtual calming room, various coping strategies and tried to offer a lot of encouragement.”
Alina Galata, 10, has used some of the services offered by the Wellness Center before but wishes that it was easier to confidentially receive help.
“I have used some of the resources that don’t involve people and I really liked them, but I have found it hard to actually get to the counselors in it because it can be stressful to ask teachers if you can go,” Galata said.
Others have found it difficult to access the Wellness Center online. Nicole Espinoza, 11, suggests that teachers should show their students how to directly access the services provided.
“Have teachers give direct instructions about the Wellness Center and how to get there. It’s unclear what you're supposed to do, and there's no way to get to the actual Wellness Center that I could easily find,” Espinoza said.
The Wellness Center is planning to expand their program even further by providing more emotional support classes and potentially move to a new area before the fall.
“We applied for a grant to fund the center for next year. We present to the grant committee on May 20. If we receive the grant we will open in a new location next year and be fully operating by the first day of school next year. Our hope is to continue learning how to best support students' mental health,” Hernandez said. “(We) also hope to do more social emotional learning lessons in classrooms. This allows us to bring healthy strategies to the students rather than them having to come to us.”
Outside of the Wellness Center students have been incorporating coping mechanisms into their daily life. Galata has accepted their personal struggles which has helped them to focus on their mental health.
“I think the most important thing I did was realize that my mental health struggles were never going to go away, but I could learn how to work with it rather than be controlled by it. After that realization, I was able to develop techniques that helped me with my mental health, like grounding and self care,” Galata said. “Journaling can be very helpful for me, even though it sounds cliché. Grounding- which is focusing on your five senses to get yourself out of your head while you’re having a panic attack, has also been really helpful.”
As mental health is discussed more, it has gone unnoticed of how the pandemic has affected students mentally. Normalizing the discussion of mental health not only for depression and anxiety, but many other mental illnesses can help teenagers to open up about their own experiences.
“Such a huge part of teenagers’ development is the social aspect and being able to branch away from family. When that was taken away it leaves a lot of teenagers feeling empty and fall into a depressive episode, which can sometimes lead to self-harm, suicide attempts and some successful suicides,” said Katie Scripoch, 10. “I think being able to break the stigma and provide more help to those that need it would be able to help address the issue. I also think that speaking up about the issue of mental health and addressing all mental health disorders, not just depression and anxiety, would help students that struggle or battle these mental illnesses will help them realize they aren’t alone.”
Students also want their teachers to be more considerate of their situation regardless of their academic performance.
“Try to be understanding and actually take into consideration how students feel. It often seems teachers will think that ‘everyone is having a hard time,’ or ‘just go for a walk,’ but it isn't that simple. To understand and accommodate issues as they come up is the best solution,” Espinoza said. “Whether schools will admit it or not, the people who ‘exceed’ the most in school, are those who put academics and extracurriculars above their health.”
Though it has been a difficult year for many to adjust to distance learning, Hernandez and the rest of Pioneer recognizes the students for being resilient through the year despite the many hardships they’ve faced.
“Pioneer is so proud of the resilience students have demonstrated. It is okay to struggle, this has been a tough year and we have all faced many challenges. But, we are so proud of how hard students worked, how they didn't give up, but instead so many asked for help,” Hernandez said. “We are inspired by our students at Pioneer and here to support them in any way we can.”
The Wellness Center has been supporting students virtually to help them through distance learning, allowing them to express their worries by using a variety of coping strategies through the services they have provided.
Head of the Wellness Center, Amy Hernandez has a WebEx open for anyone to join and will be available to provide students support with what they need.
“The Wellness Center is a safe, comfortable and calm space for students to come and get support and encouragement, while learning how to best take care of themselves. We welcome and invite all students to come and experience this support available to them,” Hernandez said. “Students can meet with me on WebEx as well as get connected to a counselor. I have used a virtual calming room, various coping strategies and tried to offer a lot of encouragement.”
Alina Galata, 10, has used some of the services offered by the Wellness Center before but wishes that it was easier to confidentially receive help.
“I have used some of the resources that don’t involve people and I really liked them, but I have found it hard to actually get to the counselors in it because it can be stressful to ask teachers if you can go,” Galata said.
Others have found it difficult to access the Wellness Center online. Nicole Espinoza, 11, suggests that teachers should show their students how to directly access the services provided.
“Have teachers give direct instructions about the Wellness Center and how to get there. It’s unclear what you're supposed to do, and there's no way to get to the actual Wellness Center that I could easily find,” Espinoza said.
The Wellness Center is planning to expand their program even further by providing more emotional support classes and potentially move to a new area before the fall.
“We applied for a grant to fund the center for next year. We present to the grant committee on May 20. If we receive the grant we will open in a new location next year and be fully operating by the first day of school next year. Our hope is to continue learning how to best support students' mental health,” Hernandez said. “(We) also hope to do more social emotional learning lessons in classrooms. This allows us to bring healthy strategies to the students rather than them having to come to us.”
Outside of the Wellness Center students have been incorporating coping mechanisms into their daily life. Galata has accepted their personal struggles which has helped them to focus on their mental health.
“I think the most important thing I did was realize that my mental health struggles were never going to go away, but I could learn how to work with it rather than be controlled by it. After that realization, I was able to develop techniques that helped me with my mental health, like grounding and self care,” Galata said. “Journaling can be very helpful for me, even though it sounds cliché. Grounding- which is focusing on your five senses to get yourself out of your head while you’re having a panic attack, has also been really helpful.”
As mental health is discussed more, it has gone unnoticed of how the pandemic has affected students mentally. Normalizing the discussion of mental health not only for depression and anxiety, but many other mental illnesses can help teenagers to open up about their own experiences.
“Such a huge part of teenagers’ development is the social aspect and being able to branch away from family. When that was taken away it leaves a lot of teenagers feeling empty and fall into a depressive episode, which can sometimes lead to self-harm, suicide attempts and some successful suicides,” said Katie Scripoch, 10. “I think being able to break the stigma and provide more help to those that need it would be able to help address the issue. I also think that speaking up about the issue of mental health and addressing all mental health disorders, not just depression and anxiety, would help students that struggle or battle these mental illnesses will help them realize they aren’t alone.”
Students also want their teachers to be more considerate of their situation regardless of their academic performance.
“Try to be understanding and actually take into consideration how students feel. It often seems teachers will think that ‘everyone is having a hard time,’ or ‘just go for a walk,’ but it isn't that simple. To understand and accommodate issues as they come up is the best solution,” Espinoza said. “Whether schools will admit it or not, the people who ‘exceed’ the most in school, are those who put academics and extracurriculars above their health.”
Though it has been a difficult year for many to adjust to distance learning, Hernandez and the rest of Pioneer recognizes the students for being resilient through the year despite the many hardships they’ve faced.
“Pioneer is so proud of the resilience students have demonstrated. It is okay to struggle, this has been a tough year and we have all faced many challenges. But, we are so proud of how hard students worked, how they didn't give up, but instead so many asked for help,” Hernandez said. “We are inspired by our students at Pioneer and here to support them in any way we can.”