Orange County Student Mental Health

Concerned About Your Teen’s Mental Health?

This guide is meant to help parents and families who are concerned about their teen’s mental health and emotional well-being have important conversations with their child. Although parents often pick up on concerning signs that their teen is struggling, not everyone feels well-equipped to approach their child to have a conversation about how they are feeling. Knowing what to do after the conversation, especially if the child has expressed something concerning, is not always obvious.

This guide covers the following topics:

  • Signs that your teen may be struggling
  • Preparing yourself emotionally to have the conversation
  • What to say and do during the conversation
  • What to do if your teen denies a problem or refuses help but you are still concerned
  • How to follow up after the conversation

Welcome to the Trauma-Informed Educator Training Series

The Trauma-Informed Educator Training Series includes four sessions that build on each other. In each session, you will learn and practice skills that you can start using immediately in your classroom and with students, hear from peer educators, students, families, and experts, and reflect upon your own goals and intentions as a trauma-informed educator. Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and McKinsey Health Institute collaborated to develop the Trauma-Informed Educator Training Series as a free, interactive training program for K-12 educators.

Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy Toolkit

Artistic expression can be healing. Expressive Arts Therapy is the intentional use of multiple arts modalities–such as visual art, creative writing, music, movement, and theater–to promote psychological growth and well-being. This Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy Toolkit can be used to foster healing and growth through the creative process. This toolkit includes simple, trauma-informed activities from Expressive Arts Therapy that can be used for self-care or in provider’s work with individuals or groups. The toolkit is intended for those working in the field of mental and behavioral health as psychotherapists, psychologists, social workers, drug and alcohol recovery counselors, and more. Most of the activities can be done individually or in groups.

Applying Trauma Informed Principles to food Security and Basic Needs

With the passing of AB 132, California has launched efforts to establish Basic Needs Centers across its community college campuses by June of 2022. Incorporating trauma informed principles into basic needs work is a critical part of helping students feel heard and supported while maintaining essential human dignity and cultural connections. The first part of the webinar features practical strategies on how to integrate a trauma informed approach to food security, as applied by Leah’s Pantry, a leading voice for trauma-informed nutrition education. This portion of the webinar also features brief presentations by Mt. San Antonio College and San Diego City College practitioners that speak to how each campus has integrated trauma informed principles into their basic needs framework.