The Alhambra Unified School district is addressing school safety in part by focusing on students’ mental health. The district’s Golden Bell Award-winning Gateway to Success Program helps students work through the social-emotional challenges through school-based counseling and mentoring. A districtwide systematic approach ensures that all staff are trained to identify risk factors and make appropriate referrals. An electronic surveillance program allows for data collection and evaluation to determine the effectiveness of Gateway services.
The program has strong community partnerships with local mental health agencies, police/sheriff departments, judicial systems, and elected officials. Agreements with local colleges, universities and local agencies allow Gateway to Success to serve as a training center for clinical interns and therapists, who deliver school-based mental health services. In 2011-12, over 1,600 students received school-based mental health services because of this innovative, comprehensive program.
The program helps all staff identify and refer students who need social-emotional support by recognizing risk factors and “red-flag” warning behaviors. Alhambra USD has collaborated with universities and agencies that allow them to offer mental health services districtwide. On any given day, two to five clinicians and six to 10 interns are available on all 17 school campuses to provide services for students that are insured, underinsured or non-insured, so that no child is turned away. Each campus has a Mental Health Integration Team, a “Parent University” to educate and empower parents, and cross training with external agencies. A district-level mental health advisory team consisting of district personnel, the chief of police, county mental health officials and the District Attorney’s office ensure ongoing collaboration and sustainability.
Alhambra USD’s governing board has created districtwide policies and administrative regulations that include a social-emotional response in behavioral discipline policies, such as suicide assessment, crisis response, and anti-bullying. Board polices also require annual staff training in the identified areas.
Last summer, Gateway collaborated with the Alhambra Police Department to conduct an all-day training at a high school campus that involved a simulated incident with a shooter on campus. Police, school administrators, mental health providers and clinicians were involved, although no one but a few key personnel knew what to expect, said Gateway Director Laurel Bear. As the event unfolded, “it was so powerful” for all involved, she said, from the initial response to the subsequent psychological first aid training and debriefing.
Learn more about the program here.