by SARAH THOMACK
St. Joseph Post
A social worker and trauma consultant with the St. Joseph School District is continuing her work to help students and the community learn about the effects of trauma and stress and how to work toward healing and health.
The Adverse Childhood Experiences or ACEs study shows how childhood trauma can lead to health issues throughout a person’s life.
Jean West says one of the co-facilitators of the research study, Dr. Robert Anda, will be coming to the community to train school staff and others.
“We’ll have 15 SJSD staff and 10 local community agency staff,” West tells St. Joseph Post. “So this will be something that will be a community effort to help individuals and parents understand what ACEs - Adverse Childhood Experiences - are and what they can do to help lower those and promote healing in adults and children.”
West says they will also be training four more teachers on the neurosequential model in education.
“This helps teachers to understand how our brain works and helps them to teach kids how their brain works,” West says. “What we find is when people have that understanding, they’re able to regulate their emotions in such a better way, it just makes so much more sense when you’re like, ‘I understand why I’m so upset and I have coping skills to help me to calm down,’ instead of just maybe acting out or getting in trouble.”
West says coping skills and self-care are important now more than ever, adding that the stress level of school district staff has doubled and tripled this school year with coronavirus concerns.
“You go and you do your job, but you could be exposed every single day," West says. "Then you do your job on top of your job to try to get the virtual done, so the stress level is very high and so self-care is critical.”
West says they're also working to help students who are also dealing with anxiety related to this year.
“Just like adults, they’re like, ‘Why is everything so different?' and 'This doesn’t make sense,' and 'When is this going to come to an end?’ and we’re doing our best as a district to help with those fears, but they’re very real and normal fears.”
West has been working for several years with local Rotary Clubs and other agencies in St. Joseph to help provide resources for students dealing with anxiety and trauma. Earlier this week, the clubs made a donation to fund therapy dogs at two St. Joseph schools.