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Dear LNC Families,
Due to the increasing importance of supporting our students’ mental health and well-being, we are pleased to welcome mental health specialist, Dr. Danielle Graham to Lake Norman Charter. LNC has partnered with Novant Health to make this part time position possible. Dr. Danielle Graham has a doctorate degree in Counseling Psychology and her professional experiences include counseling and instruction in higher education, career education in high schools, substance use treatment with adults and community outreach.
Dr. Graham will be providing group services, 1-on-1 support, and classroom presentations to students and staff, as well as educational sessions to our parents. Her services will be available to all students, families and staff throughout the elementary, middle and high schools; however, the services that she provides at the elementary school will be appropriate to the ages and needs of our elementary school students. This role is not intended to replace outside psychological services; instead, Dr. Graham will provide brief, on-site support and intervention, help students connect to longer-term care and deliver programming and consultation to contribute to a culture in which mental health is valued, protected and prioritized. Lake Norman Charter counselors and Dr. Danielle Graham will be working closely with each other to ensure LNC students receive the support needed for their academic and emotional well-being.
Supporting the mental health of the LNC community includes the following activities:
- Promoting success, resilience, and wellness among students, staff, and families via trainings, presentations, workshops and provision of resources.
- Providing individual and group meetings with students experiencing mental health concerns and/or identified by LNC Counseling staff as benefiting from additional support.
- Working with LNC Counseling staff to identify action plans for mental health emergencies, including suicidal ideation, homicidal/violent ideation, threatening behavior, death of a student, death of a staff member/family member and community traumas.
- Developing processes for identifying students who may be currently experiencing, or be at-risk for developing, mental health symptoms requiring more comprehensive treatment and referring them to those services (e.g. ongoing psychotherapy, psychiatry or assessment).
- Developing a resource of local providers and services available in the case a student needs to be connected to outside services such as those noted previously.
A primary service will be the provision of educational workshops to teach skills that support mental health and academic success. Example topics of workshops include healthy coping strategies, time management and test-taking strategies. Because they are educational in nature, students will participate in workshops based on an “opt-out” model. This means that you, as a parent/guardian, will have the option to have your child excluded from these services. If you do not inform the LNC Counseling staff at your student’s school building that you would like your child opted out, they will automatically be included in these services. For your child to take part in services that are more personal in nature, including recurring 1-on-1 meetings or small groups, an acknowledgement form will be sent home for parent authorization prior to those services.
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