San Diego educators discuss children’s mental health

San Diego County school staff will be participating in student mental health awareness training sessions starting this week. The San Diego County Department of Education prepared the series after launching it during the pandemic three years ago.

School staff will attend classes on youth depression and anxiety, building strong relationships, eating disorders and the links between vaping, cannabis and mental health.

Nemour said that school staff often don’t get enough training in early identification of mental health problems in students, and one of the aims of the series is to help reduce stigma.

“We want to increase mental health literacy for all campus staff so that all those caring eyes and ears are on the students,” said Heather Nemour, Student Welfare and School Culture Coordinator at the San Diego County Board of Education. “(So) everyone has a common knowledge, a common understanding of what warning signs are — what to look out for.”

For the first time, a mental health webinar series for parents and caregivers is being held. Classes are delivered in partnership with experts from Scripps Health and Rady Children’s Hospital.

Sessions for parents and guardians

All sessions are held from 18:00 to 19:00 with translation into Spanish.

“We are seeing mental health numbers just go up and up, and teachers in our schools are at the forefront of this crisis,” said Willow Jenkins, Medical Director of Emergency Medicine and Psychiatry at Ready Children’s Hospital.

Jenkins will lead the discussion on the links between cannabis, vaping and mental health.

“Nicotine withdrawal can cause anxiety, (it) can cause irritability, depression, and if parents and teachers don’t know their students are using these things, they may not know what’s going on,” Jenkins said.

There is also a focus on eating disorders, which are on the rise. She said one of the biggest misconceptions about eating disorders is that people living with them are always underweight.

“You can’t look and see and tell if someone has an eating disorder,” Jenkins said.

During the pandemic, Rady’s has seen an increase in eating disorders among young people, due in part to the lockdown, Jenkins said. She added that people with an eating disorder may also have depression or anxiety.

“Depending on your family — your stress — you use food as a way to control or deal with major types of stressors or problems,” Jenkins said. “It’s a bit of an oversimplification, but that’s why eating disorders are considered a mental health disorder.”

On February 28, there will be a webinar for parents and guardians on childhood drug use and mental health. On March 21, there is a session on depression and anxiety, and on April 25, the focus is on the importance of healthy relationships. The webinar series is free and Spanish translations will be available.

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