PRESENTATION OUTLINE
PRIMARY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITES DURING CRISIS SITUATIONS:
Different crisis situations require different roles. If an AS student is having a “burst”, she either covers a class for a CPI trained teacher or does crowd control to help with safety and privacy.
If it is a suicidal student, she assesses the level of danger, contacts the building principal, contacts the SD Mental Health Coordinator to come to the school immediately to access the student and contacts a parent to have them come to the school immediately all without leaving the student alone.
PRIMARY ROLES (Cont'd):
If it is an abuse situation, it involves immediate C&Y intervention. The process has changed and the agency wants the report to be done electronically. Whomever gets the information must do the report. She supports the person who must report if it is not the counselor. The principal is notified either before or immediately after the report is made. They then also make a call to Childline and possibly the police depending on the type of abuse.
Types Of Referrals That Have Been Made:
Referrals for: sexual abuse, physical abuse, hoarding households, households where the children’s safety and wellbeing are in question, suicidal ideation, suicidal intent, death of student/staff, accident involving school bus…
P.V. Policies and Procedures for making an outside Referral:
PVSD has a 20 section Emergency Response Guide. Categories are: general guidelines, medical emergency/on-site accident, assault/fighting, fire alarm/drill, hazardous material spill/gas leak, terroristic/bomb threat/suspicious letter or package, evacuation/relocation/early dismissal, bus emergency, sports and field trip emergency procedures, weather/natural disaster, rape, suicidal behavior, child abuse, intruder/unidentified person, kidnapping, hostage situation, deaths, public demonstration, nuclear warning/alert, media (public relations plan for an emergency). She has dealt with almost all of these types of emergencies in her role at PV.
A Description Of The Referral Process:
Mrs. Militello advised me to log on to www.reportabusepa.pitt.edu for the most up to date abuse referral process.
Click on “Recognizing and Reporting Child Abuse” Every staff member in PV School District had to complete the course: Recognizing and Reporting Child Abuse: mandated and Permissive Reporting in Pennsylvania and register to use the electronic report through child welfare self-service portal.
Handling Crisis Situations While Still Meeting Daily Responsibilities:
It depends on the crisis. Suicidal intent or ideation trumps everything. Severity and type of abuse trumps everything.
"We all work together as a Team here. It may be that each one of us on the admin/counselor hallway jumps into action and takes a different part of the plan to accomplish. Students get sent back to class, meetings get rescheduled, others cover what needs to be done if not all are involved in the crisis."
The Aftercare Plan For a Student Transitioning Back From Treatment or Placement:
Aftercare has morphed over the years. The facility where the student was being treated used to send a representative to meet with the counselors, admin and teachers. They no longer do this. If you get lucky, they will do a phone conference with the above people.
Otherwise, the counselor is the main contact person.
Aftercare (Cont'd):
Counselors advocate for the student, are in charge of academic work while the student is away, arrange a Team meeting with the student, parent and admin to discuss the re-entry plan: work to be accomplished, work to be absolved, what to say to other students, what are the out of school supports (get consultation release for whomever needs it to support the student), arrange in school support persons.
Also.....
Guidance secretary and front office secretaries should be kept informed as to the academic day needs of a student. FYI: SOME PARENTS DO NOT TELL THE SCHOOL WHAT IS GOING ON AND WHERE THE STUDENT IS AT which is a very difficult situation to deal with. Secrecy can really hurt a student’s support at school.
How This Interview Has Matched My Perceptions About The Referral Process:
I was very familiar with many of Mrs. Militello's answers. Her reference to the Mandatory Reporting and Childline Hotline immediately reminded me of what we learned in this class and during my practicum.
Perceptions (Cont'd):
Also, the importance put on suicidal intent and the procedures she spoke about were pretty much the same as the procedures we learned about in class. Reasons for referral were the same as well.
I enjoyed this interview. Hearing the information and being able to relate it to everything we have learned has given me a new confidence.
