TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Experts in Leon County are preparing to nurture your child's emotional well-being while they get their education.
Whether your Leon County child will be heading into the classroom Monday or learning from home, counselors with DISC Village are ready to help them cope with the familiar unknown.
Youth Services Director Cristin Dobrowolski says the nearly 20 counselors they have assigned to Leon County schools are focused on the new challenges students may experience in response to COVID-19.
According to a recent study, schools provide mental health services to 57 percent of adolescents who need help with things like trauma, stress, and anxiety.
One of DISC Village's goals is to help identify the different ways these challenges may present themselves in the classroom.
"What we've been doing is working with our staff to ensure that they're prepared as far as having the right supplies in the classroom to be able to engage in-person," said Dobrowolski. "But that also making sure that they have the opportunity to learn new aspects of what the anxiety looks like in an adolescent and what does it look like in a seven-year-old versus a 17-year-old."
They haven't left the educators out of the picture.
DISC Village has also been working with teachers to make them more aware of and better able to cope with any secondary trauma burn out they may be experiencing.
DISC Village counselors are available on site at all Leon County Middle Schools, or you can reach out to them here at their office on Pensacola Street.
