MBUSD takes part in countywide mental health initiative

By Stacy Cruz
Staff Writer

The Los Angeles County Office of Education Mental Initiative Program is a plan designed to train teachers in early prevention of suicide among students, and it is in its first step of training for the Manhattan Beach Unified School District.

The LACOE spent all of 2013 researching for its Mental Initiative program. It was fully planned this July, while districts and representatives were contacted in September. In October, it became a countywide plan, reaching all of the 80 school districts in the Los Angeles County.

“We’re trying to work with the root of suicidal or self injurious feelings before it becomes a serious problem,” Mira Costa’s psychologist Janet Allen said. “I believe the program is much more beneficial to these types of situations.”

Administrators hope that initiating this program will make students suffering from suicidal thoughts or self-harm more comfortable with the idea of confronting staff members for help.

“Students are so open and tell us a lot of things, and we should have the training to handle it when it happens,” Principal Dr. Ben Dale said.

The program is designed so that two representatives from each school district are educated using a Trainer-to-Trainers model. Then, they train members of the school district and a crisis team, a team that helps with mental health emergencies.

“The hardest thing for a teacher to do when a student begins to disclose information to them is to step out of teacher mode and become a mentor,” Dale said. “We just want to take away as much uncertainty as possible from teachers so that they have more confidence in dealing with these situations.”

Representatives for this program must be trained for a minimum of 65 hours from August 2012 through June 2014. Once they have been taught, they are responsible for passing on what they’ve learned in a series of at least 3 sessions to parents, the school crisis team, and school staff within a year.

“This is a valuable program that we need to help us better service kids who are facing some serious challenges,” Dale said. “It’s something that we need to implement immediately.”