Mental Health Resources for Students in School

It’s easy for an adult to identify a child’s physical needs. However, a child’s mental and emotional needs may not be as obvious. Good mental health allows children to think clearly, develop socially make good decisions and learn new skills. We spoke with a local Northeast Middle School Counselor, Casey Neece on ways, the school systems help to ensure students’ mental health needs are being taken care of.

“Mental Health is a huge component to our students here at school. It's also a huge part of the reason why we do what we do as school counselors. We want to make sure that our students not only have the academic success that they strive for, and we thrive for them to have, but we also want to make sure that they are taken care of socially and emotionally,” said Neece.

According to the C.D.C., more than one in five 12- to 17-year-olds experienced a major depressive episode following THE COVID-19 Pandemic. Neece says she has seen a huge increase in students visiting her office.

Neece stated,” Our students. Social-emotional problems have probably doubled since the pandemic because of that isolation, that stress, that uncertainty. It has definitely played a pivotal role in our kids feeling all those negative pressures of life.”

Besides the Counselor's office, the school also has another resource for students to help with their mental health which is the Weems.

“The Weems mental health is it is a resource that we use. It provides therapy in different, different ways for the therapist there to reach out to our students,” said Neece.

Neece also had some advice for parents to use to make sure their child's mental health needs are being addressed.

“Pay attention to your kids. Listen to your kids. Talk to your kids on a daily basis. Ask them how their day is. Ask them if there's anything that they need and just be there for your kids. And if you see a change in your child, please reach out. Reach out to the school counselor at the school, or you can reach out to your community resources if you know who they are, like Weems or Alliance,” said Neece.