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Deer Creek health and wellness team reports expanded counseling, small-group supports
Summary
District health and wellness staff reported growth in counseling referrals, small-group interventions and staff supports; the program partners with interns and community providers and provides prevention curricula at specified grade levels.
Brian Johnson, the district's health and wellness presenter, reported to the Board of Education that the program handled 128 student counseling referrals this school year and provided on-campus services to 91 of those students, with the remainder referred to community providers.
"Out of that 128 referrals, we were actually able to provide services to 91 of those students here on campus with our interns," Johnson said. He told the board the district ran 52 small groups co-led by interns and counselors that reached 256 students.
Johnson said the program also provided 28 counseling sessions to staff members over the school year and that prevention curricula are taught to targeted grades: suicide-prevention and dating-violence curricula at the ninth-grade level and online-safety presentations delivered in partnership with the Canadian County Sheriff's Office ICAC unit at seventh and 10th grades.
When asked how students are identified for small groups, Johnson said counselors and teachers refer students based on observed needs and behavior patterns, and teams reach out to parents to obtain consent. He said typical group length is six to 10 weeks and that the district can add groups based on need.
Johnson described the program as continuing to expand: interns support both individual counseling and group work, and staff training on trauma-informed responses and suicide crisis procedures has been emphasized to standardize the district's response to student crises.
No formal board action was taken; the presentation was informational.
