ROLES
Thanks to 5A, Jeffco has had the welcomed challenge of integrating a variety of mental health roles and efforts across the district to better meet the needs of our students, schools, and communities. Mental health professionals in these varied roles, and across grade levels and schools, have begun meeting in articulation areas with one driving purpose; to provide a continuum of collaborative services and support to increase student’s mental health, wellness, and academic success. While there will always be some overlap of efforts among their roles, the responsibilities of these mental health professionals all look a little different.
Nurses
While School Nurses do not provide direct, clinical support in the terms of mental health therapy, they do provide social emotional wellness support. Nurses, especially the 8 site-based high school nurses, are engaged in coaching students and providing students with tools to assist in making healthy decisions. All high school nurses provide support for students who struggle with substance abuse by assessing risk and connecting the student and family with community resources. All Jeffco nurses have a mental health educational background and are a great resource for connecting students and families with district and/or community resources.
SELS
Social Emotional Learning Specialists generally focus on overall school culture and climate and facilitate the explicit teaching of social emotional competencies to all students within a school. They also provide direct supports to individuals and groups of students that demonstrate a need for a little more help in the areas of behavior and social emotional skills.
SELCs
Social Emotional Learning Counselors generally support the academic, social emotional, and career development for gifted students in a GT center school through classroom guidance lessons, small groups and individual student meetings. SELCs collaborate with all stakeholders including teachers, school mental health providers, administrators, parents to provide quality support for gifted learners. They provide classroom instruction, small group interventions, and brief individual counseling support. SELCs are also available for consultation with any school needing advisement in serving GT populations.
School Counselors
Counselors lead, advocate, collaborate and create systemic change throughout their school by leveraging a data-driven comprehensive school counseling program. They support the academic, career and social/emotional development for all students through classroom guidance lessons, small groups, and individual student meetings.
Psychologists and Social Workers
Psychologists and Social Workers generally work with students with more specifically defined academic and/or social/emotional/behavioral needs as identified in their Individualized Education Plan (IEP) as determined by the school’s Special Education team. These needs are typically addressed in smaller group settings and/or with individual students.
We believe that we are stronger together. The more that people, families, schools, organizations, and communities work together to support positive mental health, coping skills, resiliency, and openness around discussing mental health, the better the result for everyone!