{"id":70618,"date":"2020-08-11T00:08:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-11T04:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/?post_type=bu-article&#038;p=70618"},"modified":"2024-05-17T10:02:09","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T14:02:09","slug":"help-for-anxious-times","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/magazine\/articles\/2020\/help-for-anxious-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Help for Anxious Times"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin magazine-block-editorial-leadin is-style-default-alt has-media has-media-focus-center-middle\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container-lockup\">\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-leadin-media\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1200\" height=\"300\" src=\"\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/feelings-1.png\" class=\"\" alt=\"emojis with masks on a black background\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/feelings-1.png 1200w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/feelings-1-900x225.png 900w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/feelings-1-768x192.png 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/feelings-1-500x125.png 500w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/feelings-1-992x248.png 992w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/feelings-1-1000x250.png 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin-caption wp-prepress-component-caption\">Photos By Kelly Davidson<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-outer\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-inner\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"head\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHelp for Anxious Times\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"deck\">Faculty offer advice for supporting children\u2019s mental health in a year marked by a pandemic and continued police brutality<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar magazine-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">August 11, 2020<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul data-credit-type=\"By\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/bu-author\/andrew-thurston\/\">Andrew Thurston<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n\n<p>The last time Massachusetts asked its residents to go into lockdown was in the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. As police closed in on the suspects, residents were told to shelter in place. Confined indoors, Jennifer Greif Green and her husband, then a high school teacher, talked about how he should discuss the events\u2014a bomb that killed a child, a suburban gunfight, a tense manhunt, frightened families hiding at home\u2014with his students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s used to being able to prepare for class in advance and has enough experience to have a pretty good idea for how conversations will progress,\u201d says Green, an associate professor of special education and a child clinical psychologist. \u201cBut with something like this, it felt much more uncertain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Green-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Green-450x300.jpg\" alt=\"Jennifer Greif Green posed infront of yellow backdrop\" class=\"wp-image-52260\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Green-450x300.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Green-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Green-1500x1000.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Green-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Green-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Green-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Green-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Green-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Green-992x661.jpg 992w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Green-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Green-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Green-1984x1323.jpg 1984w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Green-600x400.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Green\u2019s husband became a frontline mental health resource for his students. Unlike most of his colleagues, he at least had an expert to go to for advice. Later, Green turned the postmarathon experiences of teachers like her partner into a research project. She found they were attuned to their students\u2019 psychological distress, but that many schools lacked plans to help them do anything about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After a turbulent\u2014often heartbreaking\u20142020, dominated by lockdowns and punctuated by acts of police brutality and racism, children of all ages are experiencing unprecedented levels of trauma and anxiety. In May, an American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California survey found more than half of students may now need mental health support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But as educators grapple with the ongoing crises, many still don\u2019t have the resources\u2014or training\u2014they need to identify and help students in need. The National Association of School Psychologists recommends one psychologist per 500 to 700 students; the national ratio is closer to one per 1,400 and, in some states, one per 5,000. And that was before school budgets\u2014and staff positions\u2014were cut because of the COVID-19 recession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEveryone I\u2019ve talked to in schools feels like the needs of their students outweigh the support they have,\u201d says Green.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She and her colleague Amie Grills, a clinical psychologist and member of BU\u2019s mental health task force, are working on new projects and resources to support teachers dealing with the impacts of a trying year\u2014and to help bring about systemic change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Reaching more kids is highly necessary, and schools are a really good way to do that,\u201d says Grills, a professor of counseling psychology and applied human development who\u2019s also examined how trauma after events like residential fires, extreme violence, hurricanes, mass shootings, and sexual assaults shapes children\u2019s well-being. \u201cIt\u2019s important to break down those barriers to care, to say mental health services are an important part of a bigger public health need; we need to develop strategies to support schools to be part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Help for Today<\/strong><br>The trouble for many teachers\u2014even during a normal year, with regular, in-person classes five days a week\u2014is that anxiety is especially hard to spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s often misunderstood, or people mislabel what\u2019s going on with kids who are anxious,\u201d says Grills. \u201cThe anxiety is causing them such internal distress, but it\u2019s hard to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Grills-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Grills-450x300.jpg\" alt=\"Amie Grills posed infront of a yellow background\" class=\"wp-image-52261\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Grills-450x300.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Grills-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Grills-1500x1000.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Grills-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Grills-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Grills-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Grills-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Grills-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Grills-992x661.jpg 992w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Grills-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Grills-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Grills-1984x1323.jpg 1984w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2020\/12\/Grills-600x400.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite its hidden nature, anxiety can often explain sagging classroom performance, faulty emotional regulation, or inattentiveness. Green advises teachers who see unusual behavior to consider mental health issues as a possible cause. At the height of the first rush of COVID-19 lockdowns, she developed an online stress education program to help teachers already dealing with a spike in student anxiety. Created in partnership with the Medway, Mass., Public Schools, which also provided funding, it walks teens through the basics of stress and its symptoms, finishing with a series of coping strategies and other well-being tips. (The free course is available at jenniferggreen.com\/stress.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf there\u2019s a student with their head down on a desk, there are a number of different ways that a teacher might interpret that behavior,\u201d says Green. \u201cIt might be that they\u2019re tired, but it might also be a sign of depression or anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Green says the National Association of School Psychologists (nasponline.org) has lots of mental health resources\u2014for parents, too\u2014including advice for talking about COVID-19, trauma, and loss. Grills recommends anxietycanada.com and the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies website (abct.org), which both have free resources and programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In her research, Grills has built mental health support programs that can be incorporated into normal classroom activities. One is a 10-minute cognitive behavioral intervention for anxiety designed to be delivered daily in a school setting by a teacher. Along with colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin, she\u2019s testing its efficacy among children who might be falling behind their peers in reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf your child is struggling in school and they\u2019re having difficulty learning to read, does that make them anxious or is it the kids who are really anxious who are preoccupied by that and can\u2019t focus?\u201d says Grills. \u201cWe found it\u2019s actually both\u2014a chicken or the egg situation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her program integrates \u201cevidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy skills and self-efficacy building strategies\u201d into small group reading lessons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOne of the critical aspects of this program is that it is brief and integrated in this way,\u201d she says. \u201cIf a kid is struggling with learning, the last thing a school wants to do is pull them out of instruction time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Help for Tomorrow<\/strong><br>Unlike many past traumatic events\u2014a hurricane that tears through a town, a bombing in a city\u2014COVID-19 didn\u2019t spare any states. The need for more student mental health support is universal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because of the scope of the problem, many changes have to come at the state level, says Green. She recommends states update their licensure requirements to include mental health education for all new teachers. At the moment, although BU Wheelock offers classes on emotional and behavioral disorders, there\u2019s no obligation in Massachusetts or most other states for preservice teachers to understand the basics of supporting students with mental health issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe state licensure issue is one we need a lot of advocacy around,\u201d says Green. \u201cStudies show up to 40 percent of adolescents will have a mental health problem at some point, yet our teachers who are spending the most time with students are not being prepared to support them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With Melissa K. Holt and Kathleen Corriveau, both BU Wheelock associate professors, Green recently began an evaluation of online avatar programs that aim to give preservice teachers more experience spotting mental health issues. The programs, from health simulation company Kognito, replicate conversations with students and coach participants on specific strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been looking to see if it could help teachers before they even start teaching to feel more confident and prepared to address the mental health needs of their students,\u201d says Green, whose study is funded by the Spencer Foundation. BU already offers a higher education\u2013tailored Kognito program to its faculty and staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Grills wants states to hire mental health experts, too\u2014people schools and districts can turn to for advice about problems and potential solutions. \u201cDistricts don\u2019t know which programs are good versus those that are not,\u201d she says. She gives the example of off-the-shelf mental health curricula. Sold by companies through slick websites and glossy brochures, they can seem like a compelling, prepackaged solution. But Grills says many aren\u2019t supported by evidence; in fact, she says, some may do more harm than good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhat we see is schools and teachers struggling and not having a deep bench background in mental health,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Racial discrimination is also a factor in the provision of care. In April 2020, Green and Elizabeth Bettini, a BU Wheelock assistant professor of special education, were coauthors on a study that found Black and Latinx students were much more likely than their white peers to be removed from their classes\u2014even their schools\u2014and placed in settings serving students with emotional and behavioral disorders. Green has also started a new project, funded by BU\u2019s Center for Innovation in Social Work &amp; Health, to examine the role of police in responding to mental health crises, such as when a child\u2019s behavior escalates or if they fight with a teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf the school had sufficient mental health providers on-site, that would be a time to get a school psychologist or counselor involved who might be able to help with de-escalation or change the direction of the situation,\u201d says Green. \u201cWhen schools have limited resources, they will often call on the police.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both Green and Grills hope the crises of 2020 help raise the importance of evidence-based mental health provision in schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s making me want to redouble my efforts to support student mental health and well-being,\u201d says Green, \u201cand focus on social and emotional development and how to move that from the sidelines of schools into their central mission and permanent structure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The last time Massachusetts asked its residents to go into lockdown was in the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. As police closed in on the suspects, residents were told to shelter in place. Confined indoors, Jennifer Greif Green and her husband, then a high school teacher, talked about how he should discuss the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20791,"featured_media":52294,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[],"bu-publication":[6613],"magazine-article-category":[],"magazine-topic":[],"news-article-category":[],"news-topic":[],"bu_edition":[6630],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/70618"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20791"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70618"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/70618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70623,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/70618\/revisions\/70623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70618"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=70618"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-article-category?post=70618"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-topic?post=70618"},{"taxonomy":"news-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article-category?post=70618"},{"taxonomy":"news-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topic?post=70618"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=70618"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=70618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}