June 17, 2019, Wausau, WI, CBS7: Your Town: Stratford School District hosts student mental health training https://www.wsaw.com/content/news/Your-Town-Stratford-School-District-hosts-student-mental-health-training-511427562.html STRATFORD, Wis. (WSAW) -- …"We're certainly doing everything we can to help our students," said Scott Winch, the superintendent of the Stratford School District. "It's tough to be a kids these days is a nice way to say it." One in five adolescents will develop a serious mental health condition, like depression or anxiety disorders, at some point in their life. Since much of their time is spent inside schools, it's important that teachers, administrators and other staff are able to recognize a deeper issue. "Working with community partners, providing services for the students, and really working at the core on what we can do as schools districts to best help the students we have, " Winch added. Many school districts in our area have developed mental health teams to better address mental health issues in school…. Monday and Tuesday, the Stratford School District volunteered to host a two-day, 12-hour required training focused on student mental health…. "Everyone with those mental health teams that they have, the object is for the team to gather the information, be part of the training, and be able to bring that back to their school," said Richard Parks, administrator for the School District of Marathon. Marathon was one of roughly 10 local districts to send their team to the training, that covers adolescent mental health concerns, treatments, crisis intervention and de-escalation…. Both Parks and Winch agree that it's absolutely critical for teachers and other school staff to be able to recognize the warning signs….. The Stratford School District will also host a second training on threat assessment in August.
