|
Mental Health in Gratiot County Schools
My name is Zach Bates and I started my role here at Child Advocacy in August as our second GCSAC Prevention Educator. I grew up right here in Gratiot County and graduated from Fulton High School in 2014. After high school I attended Central Michigan University, pursuing a degree in Secondary Education, and taught as a science teacher before coming to Child Advocacy.
My transition from a traditional teaching environment into my work as a prevention educator has felt very natural. The opportunity to work on a deeper level with students on important topics like substance abuse and mental health has been a game changer for me. The impact of my work with Child Advocacy has been inspiring and there is still so much I hope to accomplish within our community.
Some of the work we do that I’m most passionate about is educating students on mental health topics. Within our department, one of our primary programs is QPR, a suicide prevention training. QPR tackles the tough and uncomfortable topic of suicide and strives to instill hope for our students. Although suicide prevention is a difficult topic to talk about, it’s important and students have told us how much they appreciate us bringing awareness to the topic.
Although QPR remains our flagship suicide prevention training, these classroom conversations around mental health have expanded this year! Ryan, our other prevention educator, and I have adapted these mental health discussions to fit the elementary setting. Starting in Ithaca North School Elementary, we have introduced students to the ideas of mental health and the importance of communicating our feelings, managing stress, and checking in with others. So far it’s been very successful and fulfilling and we hope to expand our elementary presence to meet the needs of the surrounding schools.
Increasing awareness regarding mental health isn’t just a topic of interest for us at Child Advocacy, our Above the Influence students have chosen this as a priority as well. Above the Influence groups from multiple schools have chosen mental health as the main topic of their Awareness Night this basketball season. Awareness Nights give students the opportunity to have their voice heard on a topic that they feel is important and organize themselves to make the night a success. In fact, an upcoming Awareness Night to look out for is on February 24th at Ithaca High School! We at Child Advocacy are excited to help facilitate these important conversations with our students and we will only continue to grow from here!
Zach Bates
GCSAC Prevention Educator
| 
