“I’m deeply passionate about reducing the stigma surrounding mental health in Indian Country, and in this role, I can be a consistent source of support for students while giving a voice to those who may not yet be able to speak up for themselves,” Peterson said.

When she began working there near the end of the last school year, she explained her role as someone who helps students with their feelings, friendships, and learning.

“It is my job to make sure you feel safe, happy, and able to learn,” she told the students. “I work with your teachers and parents/guardians to ensure you are receiving the best support to be successful at school. I focus on things like behavior, mental health, academics, and school systems.”

During her four-year graduate program, Peterson worked at six different schools ranging from high school to elementary school throughout San Diego County. Peterson said she always knew she would return home to serve her Tribal community.

“Being able to come back and work with and for my own relatives is one of the greatest blessings I could ask for,” she said. “In our culture, we are taught to take care of our relatives, and this work is my way of giving back to the community that raised me.”

Peterson is the first school psychologist at the preschool. Noli has had a contracted school psychologist who would come to provide specific services for certain students, but this is the first time one has been housed on campus.

“Working as a school psychologist across two schools allows me to experience the full range of my role, from conducting psychoeducational assessments at Noli to fostering social-emotional learning at the preschool,” she said. “Having the opportunity to work with two different age groups has been a truly rewarding experience.”

At the preschool most of her work is centered around developing social emotional skills whether that is emotional regulation skills, coping skills, conflict resolution, relationship building, and/or decision making.

“Our students are at the age where they are learning how to interact with peers and adults as well as learning new emotions and how to regulate those emotions in a healthy way,” Peterson said. “Early social emotional learning is an investment in your child’s emotional, social, and academic future. At both schools I collaborate with teachers to provide academic and behavioral interventions for those students who need additional support and are struggling in any of these areas.”

Peterson facilitates weekly SEL lessons with each class at the preschool. To decide which topics to focus on with each class, she consults with teachers to narrow down what areas of support they feel their students will benefit from most. She has implemented a few schoolwide mental health activities.

“We have done lessons on kindness, characteristics of a good friend, emotional regulation, and coping skills,” she said. “We recently had a kindness week where I facilitated an activity/lesson with each class every day of the week. Students participated in interactive activities that focused on kindness with friends, family, animals, and ourselves. I am currently working on starting an annual mental health fair at the preschool.”

At Noli, the majority of her role currently consists of conducting psychoeducational evaluations for special education. This includes consulting with teachers, parents/guardians, the special education teacher, and students. She also collaborates closely with the school counselor to implement mental health supports, activities, and social-emotional learning initiatives.

She is developing a series of workshops that focus on educating Tribal families about special education and their rights as parents/guardians. “My goal for these workshops is to provide a safe space for families who currently have students in special education or families who want to learn more about the process,” Peterson said.

She said students are always welcome to stop by her office at any time during the school day if they feel the need. At Noli, she works closely with the school counselor so if she is at the preschool when a student needs support at Noli, they are referred to the school counselor. She also receives referrals from teachers and parents when they have concerns about a student or believe additional support might be helpful.

Peterson graduated from San Diego State University in the School Psychology graduate program where she earned her Master’s degree in Counseling and her Educational Specialist in School Psychology. She was also a scholar and mentor on the SHPA (Supporting High-Intensity Mental Health Needs of Native and Indigenous Youth) project at SDSU. She was introduced to the field of School Psychology during the last year of her undergraduate at Cal State San Marcos.

“What really piqued my interest in the program was the SHPA grant which focused on mental health needs of Native and Indigenous youth,” she said. “School psychology wasn’t something I had planned on pursuing in the beginning, but it became a career that gave me the platform I needed to support our Native children.”

A school psychologist specializes in mental health and behavioral issues along with conducting psychoeducational assessments and developing Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). School psychologists work with both general education and special education students but focus on students who need more intensive support by providing intervention or assessments when needed. Peterson said a big part of her job consists of collaborating with teachers, administration, school counselors, and families to help the students succeed at school.

“I am so grateful to have so much support from parents and families since starting at the preschool and Noli,” she said. “I have received positive feedback, especially from parents who have shared that they feel more comfortable with having a Tribal member and familiar face helping support their child at school.”

Peterson is deeply grateful to her Tribe for supporting her pursuit of higher education, an opportunity that helped her grow personally and professionally.

“Growing up, we were taught that when you take, you must also give back,” she said.
“Reciprocity is a core value that was deeply instilled in me, and it continues to guide the work I do today.”

National School Psychology Week is Nov. 3-7. This week is an opportunity to celebrate the contributions of school psychologists and raise awareness about the important role they play in supporting students’ mental health and academic success. 

The post Soboba schools benefit from school psychologist appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

TikTok, which may soon be banned in the United States, has changed American culture in many ways. But its impact on how we talk about health stands out. In tens of millions of videos, users have opened up about their health and how they take care of themselves in big and small ways. They have touted “Oatzempic” for weight loss and extolled the (supposed) benefits of beef tallow face masks. They have shared their abortion stories and brought viewers inside the reality of living with terminal illnesses. And sometimes they have shared health advice so off-base that doctors and therapists stepped in to correct the record.

“Anyone that had a camera and a personality could get their message out,” said Aric Prather, a sleep psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco. More than 10 million videos are tagged #health on the app, and millions more are posted under related hashtags like #selfcare.

TikTok wasn’t the only platform to democratize information online. But there is something special about the way its algorithm brings people together to talk about deeply personal topics, and keeps the conversation going as more and more users join in.

TikTok broadcasts the minutiae of how people try to stay well — the morning lemon water, the evening “sleepy girl mocktails.” No space is too private, no aspect of daily life too banal to become a “ritual” or a “routine.”

This type of content is so popular that it has spawned a sort of personal health arms race. People share increasingly complicated skin care routines, with lip scrubs, red-light masks and pricey serums. (Even teens and preteens with supple, unravaged skin swap “anti-aging” tips.) Users try to optimize their sleep (and their viewers’) by taping their mouths shut at night and boiling lettuce in water to drink before bed. When they wake up, they document their “morning shed” as they strip away layers of sleep accessories and beauty products.

There is an irony to the fixation on better rest. “TikTok in particular is a funny vehicle for it, given that many people spend a lot of time not sleeping and watching it instead,” Dr. Prather said.

… and a window into what doctors thought about it.

The flood of health advice from users with no medical expertise brought doctors to TikTok in droves. Many see themselves as fact-checkers, helping people separate truth from fiction, said Dr. Brooke Jeffy, a practicing dermatologist in Scottsdale, Ariz., who often posts on the platform.

Numerous studies have found TikTok to be a breeding ground for inaccurate health information. Doctors have expressed concerns that such misinformation — particularly on serious diseases like cancer — could have dangerous consequences for people’s health.

A spokesperson for TikTok declined to comment on the Supreme Court decision this week and the platform’s contributions to health conversations in the United States, instead pointing to collaborations with health authorities and mental health resources on its site.

It took self-diagnosis mainstream.

There’s an uncanny sense that the app knows you, serving up content that describes your symptoms — and sometimes even dangling a diagnosis.

Some creators have built large followings by detailing “hidden signs” of conditions like autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and bipolar disorder. Others share quizzes to get people thinking about whether they might have one of these conditions.

Some of these posts, which have led users to diagnose themselves with mental health conditions, oversimplify complicated disorders. Some of them have no basis in fact at all. Some videos have been sponsored by telehealth companies that offered treatments for these conditions.

“Therapyspeak” has also exploded on the platform, with people branding their exes “gaslighters” or talking about “trauma bonding” — using, misusing and popularizing jargon that was once confined to the therapist’s office. These terms have become so pervasive that videos popped up to parody the trend.

There’s an uncanny sense that the app knows you, serving up content that describes your symptoms — and sometimes even dangling a diagnosis.

Some creators have built large followings by detailing “hidden signs” of conditions like autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and bipolar disorder. Others share quizzes to get people thinking about whether they might have one of these conditions.

Some of these posts, which have led users to diagnose themselves with mental health conditions, oversimplify complicated disorders. Some of them have no basis in fact at all. Some videos have been sponsored by telehealth companies that offered treatments for these conditions.

“Therapyspeak” has also exploded on the platform, with people branding their exes “gaslighters” or talking about “trauma bonding” — using, misusing and popularizing jargon that was once confined to the therapist’s office. These terms have become so pervasive that videos popped up to parody the trend.

It ushered in a new era of diet culture.

Weight loss content was around long before TikTok, and it will persist long after it. But TikTok gave us more palatable terms to reinforce long-running and harmful ideas about body image, said Lizzy Pope, an associate professor of nutrition at the University of Vermont who has studied the messaging around weight on TikTok.

“Diet culture’s always shape-shifting,” Dr. Pope said. For a while, she noted, many posts on TikTok were all about “protein, protein, protein.”

“I think it’s just a guise for losing weight,” she added.

For example, Dr. Pope said: You’re not dieting when you cut out carbs; you’re balancing your hormones, according to TikTok. You’re not “cleansing” to lose weight; you’re caring for your gut health. Julie Balsamo, a creator who posts about gut health in TikToks like the video above, told The New York Times that social media posts sometimes suggest that gut health is all about “restriction.” Her message, she said, is that a healthy gut comes from a diverse diet.

Perhaps nothing turbocharged the TikTok conversation around weight and weight loss more than the rise of Ozempic. The app has become a hub for people to show off their bodies “before” and “after” new weight loss and diabetes drugs. Users record their first injections and document their side effects. Some research suggests that TikTok videos have even driven up interest in the drugs — and, potentially, prescriptions for them.

It got us talking about taboo health topics.

In the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, the platform became a forum for people to connect over the anxieties of isolation under lockdown, to swap Covid information (and misinformation) and to talk about their health challenges.

“We couldn’t seek out care in the ways that we normally did, and as a result you got these comment sections of everybody trying to figure out everyone else’s problem,” said Dr. Sasha Hamdani, a psychiatrist in Leawood, Kan., who posts about mental health in TikToks like the one above. “And it just became this incredible way for people to destigmatize and for health care providers to reach people truly where they were at.”

At the same time, she said, people seemed to become more willing to talk about mental health, abortion, addiction and other once-taboo topics in confessional-style videos. It inspired Dr. Hamdani to do so herself: She posts frequently about her struggles with A.D.H.D.

Thriving communities have emerged around physical and mental health issues. There’s DiabetesTok, where users take people through supermarket aisles to find foods to help keep blood sugar in check. There’s GriefTok, where posts about loss feel as intimate as diary entries. And there’s SoberTok, where people discuss their struggles with alcoholism and recovery.

The post TikTok Changed How We Talk About Health appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

NAMIWalks Inland Empire raises funds at Diamond Valley Lake Marina

More than 1,800 enthusiastic walkers were given a beautiful day and afforded a fantastic view of the Diamond Valley Lake Marina, as they stretched and readied themselves to take part in the 14th annual NAMIWalks Inland Empire walk.

As one walker said, “We’re walking to increase the awareness of and to reduce the stigma associated with mental health.”

Walkers were treated to food stalls, fruit stalls, bottled water and dozens of educational and information booths as well.

“We’re here to raise awareness of mental health and the stigma associated with it,” said NAMIWalks and NAMI-San Jacinto Executive Director, Brenda Scott, explaining, “if a person has a physical ailment, such as a heart condition or a broken arm, we don’t whisper or make off-color jokes: we’re there with care and compassion. We have to learn to afford those dealing with mental health challenges the same type of empathy and compassion.”

Ms. Maria Jones and her family came to the walk all dressed in pink T-shirts as a sign of solidarity. They were thankful to have an organization such as NAMI: some enthusiastically drove more than two hours to reach the site.. “I came here because of my family and all our families: we all deal with this issue and we have to realize that it affects every family,” said Mrs Jones, adding, “we raised $400, and we were proud to have done so. Some of our family here drove all the way from Long Beach.”

The weather also cooperated to give walkers a beautiful warm and lightly breezy day as boaters carved paths on the surface of the serene, picturesque Diamond Valley Lake.

Marlene Hagen, Director for Children and Family Services in San Bernardino County was very excited to be a part of the walk. “I and my staff are here today because we want to support all of our foster families and all of our caregivers, relatives and kinship caregivers that are caring for our children, some, of whom suffer from mental illness, due to trauma they have experienced in their young lives. We want to make sure that we’re here to support them and to learn more about what they need in terms of support from us,” said Hagen. Even though this is the first year of CFS-San Bernardino involvement, they can tell that this was a very well-planned event. “I think the organization (NAMI) is great. They’ve been so welcoming. If it weren’t for Brenda and her board members, I don’t know that we would have understood what it meant to support NAMI, so it’s been wonderful.”

The NAMIWalk has drawn more walkers, supporters and booths every year, so supporters are already excitedly looking forward to what NAMI has planned for next year.  “It’s still a bit early, but I believe we achieved our financial goal.”  Those who know Brenda Scott and NAMI-San Jacinto know that this organization always succeeds in all its plans.

Those interested in supporting NAMI may do so at namimtsanjacinto.org

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