New mental health course helps students with life experiences and career options
The Union County Public Schools (UCPS) Career and Technical Education (CTE) program offered a truly unique pilot course this school year, Counseling & Mental Health I.
Monroe and Forest Hills high schools were chosen for this state-funded pilot program, because both schools have strong Health Sciences pathways.
Administrators believed that the course would be a good compliment to the high schools as Monroe High has the Health Science Academy and Forest Hills High has the Nursing Fundamentals pathway, which shows students are interested in health care.
This elective course consists of two parts: Counseling & Mental Health I and Counseling & Mental Health II, with the first part covering mental health, trauma relationships, diversity, dating/dating violence and family cycles with a focus on social and emotional learning. Part two provides information on career options in the mental health field.
Chera Charlton, a Family and Consumer Science teacher at Monroe High School who taught Counseling & Mental Health I last fall says similar courses are being taught around the nation. “It’s a nationwide push to help students manage relationships and make it through a crisis and still be able to move forward.”
“It’s important to connect with our children and help them connect with that part of themselves that helps them understand that no matter what the crisis may be they can make it through,” added Charlton.
Anna Warren, who teaches Counseling & Mental Health I at Forest Hills High says that students enjoy learning about the different vocabulary words that fit into how they are feeling and also learning about different personality traits.
“It’s really important that students know what is going with mental health. It’s not talked about a lot and when it is, they get a lot of their information from social media and that’s not always factual,” said Warren, “It’s super important that they have an avenue to talk about the things that they are experiencing.”
Warren added that after each student completes part one and two of the course they will receive a certificate they can add to their resume, reflecting the knowledge they gained on mental health.
Anna Breeding, a junior at Forest Hills High and one of Warren’s students said, “It’s a great class especially for the social work career path I want to follow. I can learn about it one on one, instead of through social media.”
“We are seeing more students interested in potential careers in counseling, so it is building on that interest and that need right now,” said Brian Davis, the director of Career Readiness at UCPS.
Davis added that teacher’s voices and feedback are welcomed to help further develop and enhance the upcoming course.
The course will be offered at most UCPS high schools for the upcoming fall and spring semesters.
For more information on the course, students are encouraged to reach out to the career development coordinator at their school. To learn more about what the CTE programs at UCPS offer, click here.
Written by UCPS Communications Dept – Published March 10, 2021 – Link to Original Article (https://www.ucps.k12.nc.us/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=4&ModuleInstanceID=11&ViewID=6446EE88-D30C-497E-9316-3F8874B3E108&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=56791&PageID=1)