Northwood hosted a parent workshop on Sept. 17 focused on strengthening parent-student communication, featuring Rady Children’s Health psychologist Sheila Modir.
Organized by mental health counselors Steve Lo and Gina Thompson, “Redefining Success: Shifting the Focus from Grades to Well-Being” encouraged parents to support their children’s mental health in addition to their academic performance. Strategies to accomplish this include avoiding an all-or-nothing mindset and learning how to validate students’ experiences.
“Especially at the start of the school year where students come back, there’s definitely gonna be intensity, in terms of schools, pressures, studies and all kinds of other stress,” Lo said. “We felt if we could have [Modir] come and speak to parents at the beginning of the school year, that could be really helpful and set the tone.”
Rady Children’s Health, a system which includes the Children’s Hospital of Orange County, has collaborated with IUSD for years, providing training for students, families and staff to help them better support the mental health needs of the community. Northwood developed Wellness Wednesdays and the Well renovations in collaboration with Rady.
During a district-wide summer training session for IUSD mental health counselors, RCH introduced support services and strategies for effective student communication. Modir had previously presented to Lo and Thompson last November, addressing student trauma in the classroom. Both events inspired Lo and Thompson to invite Modir to present something similar for Northwood parents.
“I like that she gave examples of how to talk and respond to my child in a positive manner,” parent participant Timmy Do said. “It made me think that I probably need to be a little more positive in my interactions, as opposed to saying ‘they need to do something.’ Some of it I already knew, but this reminded me that I need to do that more.”
This year, mental health counselors will be planning monthly mental health awareness workshops for students, with collaborations from RCH and Newport Academy. They will also be collaborating with Laura’s House for HOPE Week from April 27 to May 1.
“We can do all we want here and present things for the students, but if they go home to the same thing that’s causing the problems, we’re going to continue to have the same problems,” Thompson said. “So this year, Mr. Lo and I really wanted to start targeting parents [and] provide support for them as well, so that we can create change through our whole community and not just through our students.”
The next parent event will be held in the theater on Oct. 30 and feature internationally recognized Newport Academy psychologist Don Grant, who will discuss healthy device management. The event is open to all IUSD middle and high school parents.