As the United States contends with a mental health crisis, schools across the country are working to provide mental health supports and services to students to help them thrive in school. One of NCSSLE’s Project Prevent (Cohort 3) grantees, El Rancho Unified School District in Southern California, has created a wellness center in the district’s high school for students to decompress and seek mental health supports and resources throughout the school day.
Impetus
In the early 2010s, El Rancho had just one mental health personnel in the district. Students who needed mental health support were given the phone number of a mental health agency and left to their own devices. All services were provided by one school psychologist.
To address this issue and expand mental health services in El Rancho, the district applied for grants that allowed them to establish partnerships with local colleges and universities and hire more providers.
Fast forward to the early 2020s, with more school mental health supports in place, El Rancho High School now needed the physical space to deliver these services to students at school. They started by repurposing a room formerly used for special education services for the wellness center.
Implementation
The room, now known as the Oasis Wellness Center, has an office on one side for the Mental Health Counselor, and a large closet on the other side that has become an office space for the mental health interns at the school. The room acts as a supervised space for high schoolers to visit during breaks and lunch to decompress, receive mental health services, and feel safe and supported at school.
Through a partnership with the Los Angeles Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse (LCADA), El Rancho received furniture to make the space comfortable, calm, and inviting. Furniture donated included lights, couches, carpets, and padding. The idea is that students can use the space to build relationships with mental health staff, attend workshops on topics like coping strategies and substance use, receive resource pamphlets, and more, all in an informal, calm space away from what can be the overwhelming environment of school.
An important piece of implementation of the Wellness Center was the Student Wellness committee – a student-led club that works with the mental health team to spread awareness of events and activities held in the space, provide feedback on the space, and encourage student buy-in. The emphasis on student voice and peer engagement has contributed to the space's success, as high schoolers indicate wanting more autonomy, and less structure.
Impact
The wellness center has received very positive feedback from students since implementation, apparent by its number of daily visitors. It was so popular, in fact, that the team had to adjust the system to limit how many students could use the room at one time. Those with documented anxiety disorders have constant access, and others must receive a pass to preserve the calming aspect of the room.
The mental health staff in the room have made many referrals from the space, it has increased attendance, and another wellness center was created at a local middle school.
El Rancho hopes to continue to expand these wellness centers across the district and offer more services, activities, and resources.
For more information on El Rancho High School’s Wellness Center, listen to an episode of our In Session Podcast.