Santa Barbara Unified School District discusses mental health services

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The Santa Barbara Unified School District is working to ensure everyone in the district has access to mental health resources.

The school district is doing everything they can to support their students and staff by offering all kinds of mental health resources. 

Administrators believe in supporting the safety of everyone in every way.

"It’s so important that even this year we have reimagined our safety plans to include safety that is physical, mental, emotional and social safe spaces," said assistant superintendent of family services ShaKenya Edison of the Santa Barbara Unified School District.

Administrators are aiming to make each campus a place where students can thrive.

"If they need additional support ... that they know the trusted adult that they can go to ... but they also understand that the school is being responsive to the needs," said Edison.

The school district offers a variety of mental health resources including counseling for students.

"We’re gonna be building more family supports next year … but we also realize that when it comes to mental health, it really is a community effort to make sure that students are getting their needs met … and so often times we are referring to our outside partners … to make sure students are getting what they need," said executive director of student and family services John Schettler of the Santa Barbara Unified School District.

The school district hopes more students will take it advantage of its mental health services.

"Students report their primary needs … really falls into the highest need areas … in two buckets and it’s stress and anxiety and depression and the sense of feeling hopeless … and we want to make sure we create environments to counter those before the need arise," said Edison.

Administrators hope those with mental health needs will get help early. 

"My hope is that as time goes on, it will be less important for us to bring attention to mental health one month a year, and that our students and families or feel like they can step forward for help at any point in time," said Schettler.

For more information on mental health resources at the Santa Barbara Unified School District, log onto: https://www.sbunified.org/.

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