Mental health, an issue that many students go through on a daily basis.
To help ensure that students are receiving the right amount of care, the Eureka City School District (ECS) is already in the process of wellness centers.
Through the vision of the Eureka High S.A.G.E. group or Student Advocates Guiding Engagement, and student leadership; the creation of the wellness center “Calm Space” located at Eureka High School has already been a success.
“Knowing that there is a place to take a time out where they don’t have to talk to anybody when they come in here, ” Mental Health and Crisis Counselor for ECS Sarah Dee Duncan said. “They can just come in and do their thing and go back to class. They can go to someone if they want to but, I think it’s also just a place where they know they can come and kind of be self directed.”
Board of Trustees for Eureka City Schools, Lisa Ollivier, is looking forward to seeing how much these centers can help children throughout the district.
“We really would like to help and especially coming out of all of this COVID business, the need keeps climbing–it was already there but it just keeps growing,” Ollivier said.
Students are allowed to take breaks during class, lunch, in the morning and after school. They are also offered multiple resources and can even get access to community mental health providers.
“So we have four groups that run six weeks at a time, we have a grief and loss group, we have a coping skills group, and then we also have one to one therapy services,” Dee Duncan said. “We have a clinician that comes from Open Door Community Health and then we also have interns from Cal Poly.”
Though the center at eureka high is a pilot, Eureka City Schools are already in the works of expanding them across the district.
“Our plan is to go to the middle schools… and then we also have community school rooms in the elementary schools that are going to get a little overlap,” Dee Duncan said.
The school board has put the wellness centers at the top of the ECS Strategic Plan, which means funding will always be provided toward them.
“We put it as number three, so that puts it at a very high ranking,” Ollivier siad. “Which means that it is guaranteed funding.”
These centers are meant to be a support system that allows school to be a safe space for healing.
“Anything that uplifts our students and helps them have better connectedness is important,” Ollivier said.
“It’s really important that we have student voices in all of this,” Dee Duncan said.
