Mental health specialists help address needs at schools

By RENEE WEBB
Content and Design Coordinator

School days can bring laughter in the hallways, new insight through classroom instruction and a sense of belonging through sports and other activities.

For some students, however, attending school can ignite fear and feelings of loneliness due to social anxiety or extreme stress out of the desire to be the best not only with academics but with involvement in various activities.

Gehlen Catholic School of Le Mars hired its first full-time mental health specialist, Katie Arkema, to serve prek-12 students and staff. Arkema obtained her bachelor’s degree in family services from the University of Northern Iowa and a masters in family and consumer sciences specializing in marriage and family therapy from Iowa State University.

The idea for this new position came from Jessica Brady, prek-6 school counselor, and Kristin Hausmann, 7-12 guidance counselor at Gehlen as they were visiting during a weekly department meeting last October.

“Kristin had reflected on this idea after a very busy start to the school year with various student needs,” said Brady, who noted from there they continued to discuss the possibility of a new hire focused on mental health. “We presented the idea to our administrators and after being given their full support, we hit the ground running.”

The two were aware that Bishop Heelan High School in Sioux City had a similar position, so they met with their counseling team to gather ideas. 
Chris Bork, principal of Bishop Heelan High School, said the school has had a counselor focused on mental and social health for more than 10 years. “We were one of the first schools in Iowa to go this route,” he recalled. “We actually presented at conferences about our offering and why we did it. We were on the cutting edge of this.”

He pointed out several years ago when one of three academic and career counselors retired, they opted to hire a counselor focused on mental and social health because they were having more and more students struggling with mental health issues. If they were approached by a student with suicidal thoughts, no one at the school really had the background to know what to do.

“We had Catholic Charities contracted and they would come in, but it seems like these things were popping up regularly. We needed services more regularly and at our disposal,” said the principal, who noted the counselor has remained busy because there is such need.

Bishop Heelan High School students 

In addition to speaking with Bishop Heelan, the Gehlen guidance duo did additional research and pulled together various data in support of the need for this position.
“Then last January we presented our research and ideas to our school board and had full support across the board,” said Brady. “The decision was unanimous.”

Hausmann pointed out that she and Brady both felt there was a growing need for student mental health support and once they started doing their research, they discovered the data backed them up.

“The research shows that nationally, statewide and even within Plymouth County, rates of youth experiencing persistent sadness and hopelessness as well as suicidal thoughts have risen dramatically the past 10 years,” said Hausmann. “We also identified multiple barriers that students and families face when wanting to access mental health care.”

She cited insurance, transportation, wait lists and scheduling conflicts among the barriers to receiving mental health care.

“With Katie working right within our building, these barriers are eliminated,” said Hausmann.
The new mental health specialist agreed that by being located directly on the school campus, the accessibility for students will be a big plus.

“Students will hopefully have a safe environment to work on prioritizing their mental health and understanding how to use resources they have within them to deal with school and day-to-day life,” said Arkema.

She has 15 years of experience in the mental health care field, working with individuals from 3 years old to adults. Arkema has specialized training in EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) and working with trauma.

In this new position, the mental health specialist’s main duty will use her clinical training/experience to provide social, emotional, behavioral and mental health support to students. 

“Katie will work individually with students who may be in crisis or who may benefit from regular scheduled visits with her,” said Brady. “However, we also look forward to having her expertise in other areas like school-wide mental health screening, professional development for our staff and even classroom instruction for classes/grade who benefit from specific mental health skills.”

The type of services and duration of service will be determined on an individual basis. When necessary, the mental health specialist will refer students to other community resources.

Those in school settings can testify to the increased need for mental health services to students.

Bork mentioned this position, which typically is staffed by those with a clinical counseling background, is called a school success counselor. This year, the position is held by a new hire, Mary Kate Blanner, who has a background in occupational therapy.

“Mostly, what we offer is low-level counseling and then referral,” noted Bork.

The Bishop Heelan principal said students today are under an immense amount of stress, which is he attributed in part to social media that enables accessibility 24 hours a day. For someone being picked on, whether real or perceived, he said cell phones and social media can make the problem bigger.

“It’s hard to be a kid these days,” he said.

In addition, the Bishop Heelan principal has seen added stress on students as a result of crisis situations in families.

The need for mental health services in schools is growing.

“After the job description for the new position was posted, we had multiple schools reach out to us and express interest in wanting a similar position at their school,” said Hausmann.
In addition to these two full-time positions in diocesan schools, many rural elementary schools have partnered with Catholic Catholics to have counselors come to the school on a regularly scheduled basis. 

Thanks in part to a grant from the Catholic School Foundation, seven Catholic Charities therapists serve the following schools: Algon Bishop Garrigan, Boone Sacred Heart, Danbury Catholic, Denison St. Rose of Lima, Emmetsburg Catholic, Pocahontas Catholic, Remsen St. Mary, Sioux City Holy Cross, Sheldon St. Patrick, Spencer Sacred Heart and Storm Lake St. Mary.