School Counseling & Mental Health
Before you read anything else, please know that the Lakeland School Counselors are here to help any student with any need. Issues at home, with peers, with significant others, in the classroom, and anything else can always be brought to your School Counselors. With that in mind, keep reading to learn more about the relationship between School Counseling and Student Mental Health.
Student mental health & social/emotional development make up one of the three domains of school counseling that the profession focuses on. The American School Counselor Association guides its school counselors to work equally in the three domains of academic support, career/college exploration, and social/emotional development, acknowledging that success or failure in one domain can impact the success or failure within another.
The social/emotional domain is composed of standards to help students manage emotions and learn and apply interpersonal skills. School counselors serve as a first line of defense in identifying and addressing student social/emotional needs within the school setting. School counselors have unique training in helping students with social/emotional issues that may become barriers to academic success. Within the context of a school counseling program school counselors develop school counseling curriculum, deliver small-group counseling and provide appraisal and advisement directed at improving students’ social/ emotional well being.
Students’ unmet mental health needs can be a significant obstacle to student academic, career and social/emotional development and even compromise school safety. With that in mind, School Counselors provide short-term counseling and crisis intervention focused on mental health or situational concerns such as grief or difficult transitions. Through this short-term counseling, they also provide referrals to school and community resources that treat mental health issues (suicidal ideation, violence, abuse, depression) with the intent of removing barriers to learning and helping the student return to the classroom.
To learn more about the School Counselor's role in student mental health, click on the links below.
Student mental health & social/emotional development make up one of the three domains of school counseling that the profession focuses on. The American School Counselor Association guides its school counselors to work equally in the three domains of academic support, career/college exploration, and social/emotional development, acknowledging that success or failure in one domain can impact the success or failure within another.
The social/emotional domain is composed of standards to help students manage emotions and learn and apply interpersonal skills. School counselors serve as a first line of defense in identifying and addressing student social/emotional needs within the school setting. School counselors have unique training in helping students with social/emotional issues that may become barriers to academic success. Within the context of a school counseling program school counselors develop school counseling curriculum, deliver small-group counseling and provide appraisal and advisement directed at improving students’ social/ emotional well being.
Students’ unmet mental health needs can be a significant obstacle to student academic, career and social/emotional development and even compromise school safety. With that in mind, School Counselors provide short-term counseling and crisis intervention focused on mental health or situational concerns such as grief or difficult transitions. Through this short-term counseling, they also provide referrals to school and community resources that treat mental health issues (suicidal ideation, violence, abuse, depression) with the intent of removing barriers to learning and helping the student return to the classroom.
To learn more about the School Counselor's role in student mental health, click on the links below.
Mental Health Referrals
Lakeland Jr./Sr. High School partners with both Scranton Counseling and the Friendship House to be able to provide long-term, outpatient mental health services within the school building. Qualifying students receiving mental health services through Scranton Counseling will meet regularly with Debbie McDermott while those students receiving mental health services through the Friendship House will meet regularly with Ernie Laskosky. Medical insurance is the primary factor when determining which services a student qualifies for. You can access the forms for each of these services below, but should contact your counselor to discuss which service is right for you.
Additional Resources
If the above options do not work, please consider the links below. The first is a list of local mental health providers that may be right for your situation. This list is not comprehensive, but offers a good start towards seeking services. The second links back to our Student Assistant Program (SAP) page. If you don't know where to start for a particular situation, making a SAP referral is a good place to begin. From there, our team will work to find the best interventions for the student in need.
