Support for Required Trainings
Elevate Mobile Crisis Response team runs 24/7/365. (flyer).
Educators, parents, healthcare workers, and citizens of Iowa who experience a mental health crisis are encouraged to contact their county’s mobile crisis provider for assistance within 60 minutes. Please see the Mobile Crisis Response map for more details.
RESOURCES FOR CHECKOUT from Keystone AEA
We offer many resources in our lending library. to support social, emotional, behavior, and mental health.
Virtual Calming Room
Take a few minutes for yourself to explore the sounds and sights of a virtual calming room.
Self-Care Tips for Educators
Educators tend to put others’ needs before their own. They are born helpers, providers, supporters, and nurturers. Being there for others, for their students, is often a number one priority. We have some tips to share with you. Self-care Tips for Educators
This site provides resources for the multi-tiered system of supports for social, emotional, behavioral health – sometimes referred to as safe, supporting, and sensitive schools.
Please select a mental health topic from the list below to access strategies, resources for check-out, and additional online tools.
Anxiety
Anxiety
Anxiety is an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes like increased blood pressure.
People with anxiety disorders usually have recurring intrusive thoughts or concerns. They may avoid certain situations out of worry. They may also have physical symptoms such as sweating, trembling, dizziness or a rapid heartbeat. (Adapted from the Encyclopedia of Psychology)
Common anxiety signs and symptoms include:
- Feeling nervous, restless or tense
- Having a sense of impending danger, panic or doom
- Having an increased heart rate
- Breathing rapidly (hyperventilation)
- Sweating
- Trembling
- Feeling weak or tired
- Trouble concentrating or thinking about anything other than the present worry
- Having trouble sleeping
- Experiencing gastrointestinal (GI) problems
- Having difficulty controlling worry
- Having the urge to avoid things that trigger anxiety
Several types of anxiety disorders exist:
- Agoraphobia (ag-uh-ruh-FOE-be-uh) is a type of anxiety disorder in which you fear and often avoid places or situations that might cause you to panic and make you feel trapped, helpless or embarrassed.
- Anxiety disorder due to a medical condition includes symptoms of intense anxiety or panic that are directly caused by a physical health problem.
- Generalized anxiety disorder includes persistent and excessive anxiety and worry about activities or events — even ordinary, routine issues. The worry is out of proportion to the actual circumstance, is difficult to control and affects how you feel physically. It often occurs along with other anxiety disorders or depression.
- Panic disorder involves repeated episodes of sudden feelings of intense anxiety and fear or terror that reach a peak within minutes (panic attacks). You may have feelings of impending doom, shortness of breath, chest pain, or a rapid, fluttering or pounding heart (heart palpitations). These panic attacks may lead to worrying about them happening again or avoiding situations in which they’ve occurred.
- Selective mutism is a consistent failure of children to speak in certain situations, such as school, even when they can speak in other situations, such as at home with close family members. This can interfere with school, work and social functioning.
- Separation anxiety disorder is a childhood disorder characterized by anxiety that’s excessive for the child’s developmental level and related to separation from parents or others who have parental roles.
- Social anxiety disorder (social phobia) involves high levels of anxiety, fear and avoidance of social situations due to feelings of embarrassment, self-consciousness and concern about being judged or viewed negatively by others.
- Specific phobias are characterized by major anxiety when you’re exposed to a specific object or situation and a desire to avoid it. Phobias provoke panic attacks in some people.
- Substance-induced anxiety disorder is characterized by symptoms of intense anxiety or panic that are a direct result of abusing drugs, taking medications, being exposed to a toxic substance or withdrawal from drugs.
Other specified anxiety disorder and unspecified anxiety disorder are terms for anxiety or phobias that don’t meet the exact criteria for any other anxiety disorders but are significant enough to be distressing and disruptive.
Behavior Management
Behavior management promotes positive behavior and reduces opportunities for poor behavior. Each mental health disorder has its own set of emotional and behavioral symptoms. By understanding the behavior, then developing and using a set of intervention strategies on a regular basis, emotions and behavior can be effectively managed and changed in the classroom.
Characteristics
- Many students with mental health challenges have difficulty regulating their emotions and behaviors, often becoming inflexible and oppositional, disengaged or disruptive.
- Students with anxiety or other mental health challenges may demonstrate inconsistent performance and behavior, which may fluctuate with their emotional state.
- Most students with mental health challenges exhibit small behavior changes (wiggling in their seats, speaking loudly, or putting their heads down) before they become overwhelmed, act inappropriately, or stop working.
Depression
Depression
Depression is a disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. It is more than just a bout of the blues, it isn’t a weakness that can be simply “snapped out of”. With depression a child may have trouble doing normal day-to-day activities, and sometimes you may feel as if life isn’t worth living. Depression may require long-term treatment but most people feel better with help.
Characteristics
Although depression may occur only one time during your life, usually people have multiple episodes of depression. During these episodes, symptoms occur most of the day, nearly every day and may include:
- Feelings of sadness, tearfulness, emptiness or hopelessness
- Angry outbursts, irritability or frustration, even over small matters
- Loss of interest or pleasure in most or all normal activities, such as hobbies or sports
- Sleep disturbances, including insomnia or sleeping too much
- Tiredness and lack of energy, so even small tasks take extra effort
- Changes in appetite — often reduced appetite and weight loss, but increased cravings for food and weight gain in some people
- Anxiety, agitation or restlessness
- Slowed thinking, speaking or body movements
- Feelings of worthlessness or guilt, fixating on past failures or blaming yourself for things that aren’t your responsibility
- Trouble thinking, concentrating, making decisions and remembering things
- Frequent or recurrent thoughts of death, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts or suicide
- Unexplained physical problems, such as back pain or headaches
For many people with depression, symptoms usually are severe enough to cause noticeable problems in day-to-day activities, such as work, school, social activities or relationships with others. Other people may feel generally miserable or unhappy without really knowing why.
Depression symptoms in children and teens:
Common signs and symptoms of depression in children and teenagers are similar to those of adults, but there can be some differences.
- In younger children, symptoms of depression may include sadness, irritability, clinginess, worry, aches and pains, refusing to go to school, or being underweight.
- In teens, symptoms may include sadness, irritability, feeling negative and worthless, anger, poor performance or poor attendance at school, feeling misunderstood and extremely sensitive, using drugs or alcohol, eating or sleeping too much, self-harm, loss of interest in normal activities, and avoidance of social interaction.
From Mayoclinic.org
Executive Function
Executive Function
Executive functioning skills are generally described as deficits that impact an individual’s ability to organize and act on information. The eight common sets of skills are: impulse control, emotional control, flexibility, working memory, self-monitoring, planning and prioritizing, task initiation, and organization. We often see these deficits in our students through their struggles with initiating tasks, using class time appropriately, difficulty making decisions, and task completion.
Characteristics
Formal Definition
“The executive functions are a set of processes that all have to do with managing oneself and one’s resources in order to achieve a goal. It is an umbrella term for the neurologically-based skills involving mental control and self-regulation.”
Primary Executive Functioning Skills
- Organization
- The ability to keep track of things physically or mentally.
- Individuals who struggle with this aspect of executive functioning can often lose their train of thought, lose items, or lack the ability to impose order.
- Impulse Control
- The ability to think before acting.
- People who have poor impulse control are often impulsive which may take the form of blurting out inappropriate things or at inappropriate times. This may also take the shape of engaging in risky behavior (i.e. not considering consequences).
- Emotional Control
- This ability to regulate one’s emotions or keep them “in check”.
- Individuals who struggle to control their emotions may overreact or have difficulties accepting criticism or disappointment.
- Flexible Thinking
- Being able to adjust to the unexpected.
- People who struggle with flexible thinking are often rigid in their thought processes. This can be seen through an individual’s struggle to “roll with the punches” or problem solve.
- Working Memory
- The capacity to retrieve needed information from one’s memory.
- Working memory deficits can take the form of an individual’s difficulties with remembering directions or accessing information that has been taught previously.
- Self-Monitoring
- The ability to evaluate oneself.
- Individuals who have a hard time with self-monitoring may be surprised when given a grade or feedback because it might not match up to their perceived performance.
- Planning and Prioritizing
- The ability to decide on a goal and make a plan to meet that goal.
- Students who struggle with planning and prioritizing often do not know where to start a project or how to choose which aspects may be the most important.
- Task Initiation
- The ability to begin a task or activity.
- People who have weak task initiation skills often don’t know where to start on a task. Once one step is done they may not recognize the need to move on to the next step or to follow plans through to completion.
These 8 primary executive functioning skills help individuals lead productive lives and deficits in any of these areas may have an impact that varies from minimal to extreme. Some individuals may struggle in only one skill area while others may have needs in many; however, it is important to note that executive functioning can be improved through the targeted instruction and practice of specific strategies.
From understood.org.
Grief
Grief Resources to Support Children
Suicide / Self Injury
Suicide/Self Injury
Suicide, taking your own life, is a tragic reaction to stressful life situations — and all the more tragic because suicide can be prevented. Whether you’re considering suicide or know someone who feels suicidal, learn suicide warning signs and how to reach out for immediate help and professional treatment. You may save a life — your own or someone else’s.
It may seem like there’s no way to solve your problems and that suicide is the only way to end the pain. But you can take steps to stay safe — and start enjoying your life again.
(Taken from Mayo Clinic Symptoms and Causes)
Suicide warning signs or suicidal thoughts include:
- Talking about suicide — for example, making statements such as “I’m going to kill myself,” “I wish I were dead” or “I wish I hadn’t been born”
- Getting the means to take your own life, such as buying a gun or stockpiling pills
- Withdrawing from social contact and wanting to be left alone
- Having mood swings, such as being emotionally high one day and deeply discouraged the next
- Being preoccupied with death, dying or violence
- Feeling trapped or hopeless about a situation
- Increasing use of alcohol or drugs
- Changing normal routine, including eating or sleeping patterns
- Doing risky or self-destructive things, such as using drugs or driving recklessly
- Giving away belongings or getting affairs in order when there’s no other logical explanation for doing this
- Saying goodbye to people as if they won’t be seen again
- Developing personality changes or being severely anxious or agitated, particularly when experiencing some of the warning signs listed above
Warning signs aren’t always obvious, and they may vary from person to person. Some people make their intentions clear, while others keep suicidal thoughts and feelings secret.
When to see a doctor:
If you’re feeling suicidal, but you aren’t immediately thinking of hurting yourself:
- Reach out to a close friend or loved one — even though it may be hard to talk about your feelings
- Contact a minister, spiritual leader or someone in your faith community
- Call a suicide hotline
- Make an appointment with your doctor, other health care provider or mental health provider
Suicidal thinking doesn’t get better on its own — so get help.
For immediate help
If you think you may attempt suicide, get help now:
- Call 911 or your local emergency number immediately.
- Call a suicide hotline number. In the U.S., call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (800-273-8255). Use that same number and press “1” to reach the Veterans Crisis Line.
School Printable Resources
- Suicide Risk Assessment (English)
- Warning Signs Suicide (English)
- Warning Signs Suicide (Spanish)
- Community Cards for Teens
Teen suicide: What parents need to know
Helping Children and Youth Who Are Feeling Suicidal
Trauma Sensitive Schools (TSS)
Trauma Sensitive Schools
Children and adolescents vary in the nature of their responses to traumatic experiences. The reactions of individual youths may be influenced by their developmental level, ethnicity/cultural factors, previous trauma exposure, available resources, and preexisting child and family problems. However, nearly all children and adolescents express some kind of distress or behavioral change in the acute phase of recovery from a traumatic event.
Mindfulness
Characteristics
Many of the reactions displayed by children and adolescents who have been exposed to traumatic events are similar or identical to behaviors that mental health professionals see on a daily basis in their practice.
American Psychological Association
These include:
- the development of new fears
- separation anxiety (particularly in young children)
- sleep disturbance, nightmares
- sadness
- loss of interest in normal activities
- reduced concentration
- decline in schoolwork
- anger
- somatic complaints
- irritability
Complex Trauma: Facts for Educators
Seven Ingredients of Resilience for Parents