GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Grand Rapids Public Schools is internet hosting a collection of workshops geared toward facilitating open conversations about psychological well being between children and their mother and father or caregivers.

The subsequent workshop, titled Suicide and Self-Harm Prevention, is scheduled for Wednesday, May 10. The occasion is from 5-6:30 p.m. at City Middle High School, situated at 1720 Plainfield Ave.

May is Mental Health Awareness month, and GRPS is partnering with Network 180, Kent County’s neighborhood psychological well being authority, this month to supply interactive studying periods the place households can be taught extra about tackle complicated psychological well being points amongst children and teenagers.

Katie Joseph, GRPS household and neighborhood engagement coordinator, mentioned the district’s hope is to equip households at these occasions with the instruments they should discuss robust subjects like suicide, substance abuse and extra.

“Mental health is one of those things where it’s all hands on deck, especially with the way that it’s just a hard time to be a kid,” mentioned Katie Joseph, GRPS household and neighborhood engagement coordinator.

“Our thought is that if we wrap our arms around our children from all angles, from the school, to the community, and in the homes themselves by equipping parents and caregivers with that same information, then we’re working together as a team to raise our children.”

This is the second 12 months GRPS has partnered with Network 180 on this initiative, Joseph mentioned. This 12 months, the district honed in on a number of the subjects that oldsters final 12 months mentioned they wished to dig deeper on.

On May 3, the district held a workshop titled Talking to Your Child About Mental Health at Dickinson Academy.

The third workshop on Substance Use and Abuse can have two separate occasions in English and Spanish. The Spanish-only occasion will happen from 9:30-11 a.m. Tuesday, May 16 at Southwest Middle High School – Academia Bilingue, at 327 Rumsey St.

The English occasion shall be from 3:30-5 p.m. Wednesday, May 17 at Westwood Middle School, at 1525 Mt Mercy Dr.

Childcare, dinner and interpretive companies shall be out there at the entire occasions.

GRPS has seen an increase in psychological well being issues reported by college students in the previous couple of years, Joseph mentioned.

Three years after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many college students are nonetheless coping with psychological well being challenges that stemmed from the isolation of distant studying and the uncertainty of a world pandemic, educators say.

GRPS stepped up its mental health efforts heading into this faculty 12 months, hiring extra psychological well being therapists, faculty counselors and psychologists, and launching a pilot program to coach academics in skilled improvement associated to social and emotional studying (SEL).

RELATED: Mental health a priority for Grand Rapids Public Schools as students return

The improve in psychological well being efforts was partly on account of a districtwide survey carried out in March 2022, which discovered that lower than one-third of scholars surveyed mentioned they felt a way of belonging or a connection to the adults of their faculty.

Joseph mentioned she’s hoping the psychological well being workshops will join households to the various enhanced assets supplied by Network 180, the Kent County Community Mental Health Authority.

“Our idea here was to answer the need that a lot of parents were bringing up, and to bring these topics around with the kind of the specialists at Network 180 who are going to be able to answer the need,” she mentioned.

All three psychological well being workshops shall be livestreamed on Facebook on the Network 180 and GRPS Parents pages, and in addition broadcasted on GRTV.

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