Putnam County Schools are using trauma teams to work with teachers, advising them on how to notice children who are going through traumatic events.
Putnam County Schools Mental Health Coordinator Shelia Barker said every school in Putnam County has a trauma team. Barker said the trauma teams are comprised of an administrative representative, a school counselor, and a few teachers. Barker said trauma teams were formed as student behavior issues became more frequent.
“This child comes in and they are having a bad day or something has happened,” Barker said. “What are we going to do as a school to try to help support that child during the school day so that they can actually focus and learn because when there is a lot of trauma or there is stress they are not gonna be able to learn at the capacity that a child who is not experiencing that.”
Barker said the team completes special training and then works together to form trauma-sensitive strategies to implement into the classroom. Barker said the teams were created four years ago and have been so successful, the system chose to pay for them this year when a grant ended.
Coordinated Health and Student Services Supervisor Trey Upchurch said one tactic teachers have been told is to observe for unusual behavior.
“When you start seeing major changes in behaviors and major changes in eating habits, friends, how they conduct themselves, their hygiene, and all of those things are a red flag,” Upchurch said. “A lot of times it’s getting information and piecing it together from individuals. One teacher may see some small things but another teacher sees something completely different but when you start putting all of those together it really comes together to paint a picture of what that student is going through and then it just goes from there to get the right services in place.”
Barker said a traumatic event for a child could consist of poverty, abuse, neglect, losing a parent, or having a parent incarcerated. Upchurch said the teams have been a way for the schools to help their students in more ways than one.
“It’s really to focus in our efforts at our school level to bring all parties together that could be beneficial to support the student throughout whatever they are dealing with versus what we have done in the past,” Upchurch said. “They may go see the counselor or they may go talk to one of the administrators but this really gets everyone to the table so we are not duplicating efforts.”
The previous three years, the teams have been funded by a state grant.
