- To understand what resources are available to you at your school and in your community.
- To understand what the differences are for each resource and in what situations they may be utilized.
Using the blank template, have students, as a group or class, brainstorm different mental health resources. Then have students come up with a list of pros and cons of using each of these mental health resources. After completing the blank template, club leaders should pass out the completed chart to each group. Instruct members to read and discuss the differences between the two lists. If the club leaders/teachers want, the template completed by the club can be posted in the room or somewhere in the school.
- Do you agree with the Pros and Cons for the different resources?
- Why do you think it may be important to access multiple resources based on this list?
- If you or a friend is in crisis, who will you call/talk to?
- Do you think the student body knows all the resources available to them? If not, how can we, as mental health ambassadors, educate our school?
- Knowing the resources available to you and actually using those resources are two very different things. Which resources would you be most willing/comfortable using? Which resources are you not likely to utilize and why?
**Prior to club meeting, have club leaders print and cut out the scenarios to give to the student volunteers.
Have 9 student volunteers fill the resource roles from the identifying resources chart (i.e. one person will pretend to be the friend, one will be the school psychologist/counselor, etc.…). Arrange chairs for these students in a semi-circle at the front of the classroom. Then, have a 3 different student volunteers play the role of the person in crisis. Each person in crisis will have a unique situation (as outlined below). It is up to the student to explain to the class what his/her issue is and choose 3 of the resources they would turn to. After selecting each resource, the person acting as that resource will give the student in crisis advice from his/her perspective. For example, the person acting as the friend might suggest going to the mall to distract the person in crisis. However, the person acting as the school counselor might suggest the student to go through some breathing exercises. After hearing from the 3 selected resources, the student pretending to be in crisis will explain why he/she chose to get help from those specific resources. The club leader will then reveal which 3 resources would have been best to utilize in this particular situation. Repeat the process with the other 2 students in crisis (feel free to swap out the original 9 student volunteers if other students would like to get a chance to roleplay as well), then proceed to the processing questions.
- Stress and Not Sleeping
You are starting your junior year of high school, and your workload is crazy hard. You didn’t realize how tough the classes you took were. You’ve never struggled with keeping up with all your homework, but recently, things have been slipping through the cracks. Each night, you’re up until 2 am doing school work, so you only get about 4 to 5 hours of sleep a night. It’s been a month into school now, but you just can’t keep going like this. You need help. Who do you turn to?
Everyone thinks that your life is perfect. You’re the star quarterback of your high school football team, you’ve got great friends, and you’re acing all your classes, and yet, something just doesn’t feel right. You can’t put your finger on it, but the fun activities you used to do with your friends just aren’t fun anymore. You don’t enjoy practice, and you find getting up in the morning to go to school a daunting task. You’re starting to wonder if something is wrong. Who do you turn to?
It’s senior year. It’s supposed to be the best year of high school! So far, it feels like the worst, though. Juggling band practice, school, and extracurriculars has always been tough, but you’ve managed, until now. College applications are due in a week and you’ve only sent off two. You knew you should’ve started in August, but you just kept putting it off. Now you have one week to write three stellar essays, perfect a new number for the concert, go to two club meetings, and finish a multitude of reading and mathematics assignments. Needless to say…you’re freaking out. Every morning starts off with a mini panic attack, and by the end of the school day, a full blown one. You desperately need help, but feel like you don’t have anytime to get some. What do you do? Who do you turn to?
Scenario 1 Ideal Resources: Friend, Teacher, School Counselor
Scenario 2 Ideal Resources: School Psychologist/Social Worker, Family, Priva
- If you were actually in a similar situation to any of the students in crisis, would you choose the same 3 resources he/she did, or would you utilize the suggested resources, or would you pick different ones altogether?
- To the students who acted as different resources, how did it feel to be asked for help? Did you feel that the student in crisis made a good choice by going to you for advice? Why/why not?
- To the students in crisis, did you feel educated enough regarding the mental health resources available to you to make a smart decision on who to reach out to for help? If not, which resources do you feel could be explained more?