鈥楽o much need鈥�: How one group is helping teachers with mental health
In March, a student at a Denver high school shot and wounded two staff members. He died by suicide later that day.
When Cary Pew arrived at the high school to teach a trauma workshop to the faculty and staff, the most common thing he heard was that they didn鈥檛 have the capacity to deal with the events. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have time to think and feel about this. We鈥檝e got standardized tests that we need to get done. We鈥檙e just trying to get to the summer,鈥� the teachers told him.
Mr. Pew, who is聽working toward clinical licensure, would offer validation 鈥� and a new perspective.
Why We Wrote This
What鈥檚 the best way to show support and respect for educators? For one group in Colorado, the answer is to provide free mental health care that empowers teachers.
鈥淚 often make the reflection of: 鈥榊es. On the one hand, you can鈥檛 feel those feelings because you need to survive,鈥欌�� he says. 鈥溾�楢nd on the other hand, you鈥檙e numbing yourself. And there may be some negative consequences to that.鈥欌��
Mr. Pew is part of , a team of students and professors at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora providing free mental health support to teachers and school staff in the state.聽
The group works to fill gaps in traditional mental health services and to offer tailor-made help. Teachers saw their skills and capacity stretched after weeks and months of online lessons during the pandemic 鈥� and they are still recovering. For many, access to a sympathetic ear is a key support.
The medical school-to-teachers approach 鈥渕ay not be a traditional way of providing mental health support, but it鈥檚 working and easing that burden of access for so many educators,鈥� says Amie Baca-Oehlert, president of Colorado Education Association (CEA), one of the state鈥檚 teacher聽unions.
K-12 staff members, especially teachers, have the highest of all U.S. professions. Stressors include low pay, high workload, school violence, pandemic disruptions, and the recent culture wars.聽A 2022 by the Rand Corporation found that more than a quarter of teachers had experienced symptoms of depression. Between February 2020 and May 2022, some 300,000 public school teachers and staff the field. In Colorado, public schools are 鈥渄angerously and unsustainably understaffed,鈥� according to a recent by CEA.聽
Getting help can be difficult. 鈥淭here鈥檚 such stigma around mental health. And especially as educators, we鈥檙e in front of students; there鈥檚 sort of this expectation that you鈥檙e a perfect person,鈥� says Ms. Baca-Oehlert, a former school counselor who helped get funding from the state for Colorado Educator Support.
The barriers aren鈥檛 only psychological, she says. 鈥淔or most teachers, the only available resource is the health care plan through their employer. Some people have to wait two to three months to get treatment. That鈥檚 not ideal. Your mental health concerns can鈥檛 wait two to three months oftentimes.鈥�
Colorado Educator Support gets most of its clients into their first individual therapy session within a week, says Amy Lopez, the team鈥檚 director and an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. The 3-year-old program serves hundreds of teachers every year through individual sessions, group workshops, and mental health hotline, according to the program鈥檚 annual reports. It is funded through the 2023-2024 school year.聽
Tim Neubert, executive director of the American Association for Employment in Education, finds Colorado Educator Support 鈥渋ncredibly innovative.鈥�
鈥淚 would love to see more universities, more people in the medical community, take an interest in this space,鈥� he says.聽
鈥淪o much need鈥�
This effort in Colorado is part of a rethinking in recent years around ways mental health support is provided.聽
About 30% of U.S. either offered or were planning to offer on-site counseling or therapy in 2022, for example, up from 25% at the start of the pandemic.
Colorado Educator Support grew out of the lockdowns. In March 2020, the University of Colorado School of Medicine started a student-operated mental health hotline for the state鈥檚 medical workers. By June, however, 鈥渉ealth care workers had found their rhythm a little bit, and they weren鈥檛 using our hotline in the same way,鈥� says Dr. Lopez, who was then supervising the hotline.
She proposed that the program serve teachers instead.聽
鈥淭here was just so much need,鈥� she says. 鈥淏eing the parent of a child who was trying to do remote learning, I could hear what was happening. I could hear that everyone, teachers and kids, were struggling.鈥�
Dr. Lopez鈥檚 superior and the groups funding the hotline then 鈥� the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Colorado鈥檚 Department of Public Health 鈥� instantly embraced her idea.
鈥淲ithin the first week, we had more calls than we had in the previous month,鈥� she聽says.聽
But it turned out that a hotline alone was not enough. Many callers said they needed longer, repeated conversations. So in 2021, the program expanded its services with new funding from the state government. The team 鈥� seven to eight graduate students guided by Dr. Lopez and other professionals 鈥� began to offer up to five therapy sessions to any teacher who needed them. The weekly, hourlong sessions are scheduled outside of teachers鈥� work hours, so they don鈥檛 need to take time off and find substitutes.聽And because Colorado Educator Support does not deal with insurance, it鈥檚 able to schedule sessions much faster than in typical scenarios, says Dr. Lopez.
In a 2021-2022 client survey by Colorado Educator Support, 85% of respondents reported that they would recommend the therapy sessions to others. 鈥淭he counselor I worked with was a wonderful listener,鈥� one wrote. 鈥淭hank you for these services, they came to me at a perfect time in my life,鈥� wrote another.聽
It鈥檚 a 鈥渨in-win situation鈥� for the teachers and the psychiatry students, who need to fulfill clinical work hours to obtain licensure, says Mr. Pew, who provided support sessions for 18 months.聽
While student therapists may have less experience than professionals, most teachers do not present severe issues, Dr. Lopez says. And for educators who do need prolonged treatment, the five support sessions can serve as a bridge to fill the wait time for traditional therapy.聽
Not struggling alone
One benefit of a program that targets teachers specifically is that the staff gets better at validating their clients鈥� experiences 鈥� a key aspect of therapy, according to Mr. Pew.聽聽
鈥淭he more I work with educators, the more certain themes develop that a lot of them are struggling with,鈥� says Eleanor Todd, who has a master鈥檚 degree in social work and has been with Colorado Educator Support for two years. 鈥淎nd I think it鈥檚 really powerful to be able to validate to them that they are not alone in that struggle.鈥�
Given the limited number of therapy sessions allotted to a teacher, the support work is often solution-focused. Instead of 鈥渉anding [teachers] a tool,鈥� the goal, says Mr. Pew, is to 鈥渉ave teachers search through their own toolbox and find the tools they want to use.鈥�
One of the most common comments he gets from teachers is that they have low energy, he says. 鈥淥ur first approach is to validate that: 鈥極f course, it makes sense that you feel that way.鈥� After that, you ask the solution-focused question: 鈥楬ow are you managing to cope with that to the degree that you are?鈥欌��
鈥淚t鈥檚 really a strength-based approach,鈥� says Ms. Todd. For her, it鈥檚 crucial to go into her work 鈥渨ith as much respect as possible.鈥�
鈥淧eople really have the right and the expertise to guide their lives,鈥� she adds.聽
She felt the effect she had when a teacher who struggled with anxiety thanked her. 鈥淚 still see the bait that anxiety dangles for me,鈥澛燤s. Todd recalls her saying.聽鈥滲ut I鈥檝e learned that I don鈥檛 have to take the bait.鈥澛�
