The services should improve students’ mental, emotional, and social health. These services include individual and group assessments, interventions, and referrals. Organizational assessment and consultation skills of counselors and psychologists contribute not only to the health of students but also to the health of the school environment. Professionals such as certified school counselors, psychologists, and social workers provide these services. School and Community Staff can use the NC Standard of Course of Study for Counselor Education (www.ncpublicschools.org/curriculum) as a resource for classroom instruction.
School counseling programs in North Carolina assist all students in pre-K through 12 with educational, personal, social, and career development goals. While some specific activities and services may differ as counseling programs progress from the primary to the secondary levels, these essentials of school counseling programs are consistent throughout all grades. The purpose of a comprehensive school-counseling program is threefold: providing developmental, preventive, and remedial services to students, parents, and teachers with the intent of helping people reach their potential.
NC School Counselor Web page on the web at
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/schoolimprovement/alternative/counseling/
Resources:
School Mental Health Project:
Due to the significant need for mental health services in our state, the Eastern Area Health Education Center (AHEC) provides in-depth training to school nurses and other school personnel on child and adolescent mental health topics. The training curriculum will address suicide, crisis intervention, eating disorders, anxiety/panic disorders, substance abuse and emotional effects caused by trauma, child abuse, neglect, or sexual abuse. For more information http://eahec.ecu.edu/smhp.cfm
Child Abuse Prevention:
Child abuse and neglect rarely stop without help from outside the immediate family. Law mandates North Carolina citizens to report suspected child abuse and neglect to the Department of Social Services in the county where the child lives. You can make a report without giving your name. To learn about the signs of child abuse, visit the Prevent Child Abuse NC website. You can make a report of child abuse by calling, writing, or visiting your county Department of Social Services, the Child Protective Services Division. The address and phone number can be found in the front of your local phone book in the county government section, or by calling 1-800-354-KIDS or 1-919-733-2580. A social worker will listen to you and take down all the information you give.
- About Our Kids
- American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychology
- Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
- Center for Mental Health Services Knowledge Exchange Network
- Depression
- Drug Facts and Prevention
- Mental Health Infosource
- Mental Health Net
- National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information
- National Clearinghouse on Family Support and Children’s Mental Health
- National Mental Health Self-Help Clearinghouse
- PsyCom
- Safe and Drug Free Schools Action Guide
- UCLA School Mental Health Program