WholeHealthED and Kennedy Forum’s Alignment for Progress December 18, 2023 by Taylor Walsh As part of an extraordinary year-long national effort to address the discouraging state of the nation’s mental health the Kennedy Forum has initiated several major collaborations, notably the Alignment for Progress (AFP), a national strategy to move policy to support serious improvement in mental health and substance use programs. AFP numbers many of the nation’s most important health and mental healthcare and policy champions as partners. Along with others WholeHealthED has signed on as a “Commitment Maker” in line with our focus on strengthening children’s wellbeing and resilience during their school years: WholeHealthED commits to developing school models that embed well-established school-based whole health learning activities – in garden, nutrition, mindfulness, cognition bolstering PE and outdoor learning – whose outcomes have been shown to mitigate the impact of stress, ACEs, negative social determinants, and trauma that underlie the child and adolescent mental health crisis, which we argue should raise Wellbeing to peer status with Math and Language Arts as essential for the resilient, well-rounded education children will need to succeed in the 21st century.” (The most current list of organizations participating on several levels is here at the AFP page.) School-Based Mental Health Council As part of the Alignment for Progress, the Kennedy Forum has also established a School-Based Mental Health Council (SBMHC) to focus on child and adolescent mental health. Significantly for this effort the Forum in early December announced a substantial, multi-year grant from Pivotal Ventures, a philanthropy of Melinda French Gates for support of its expansive mental health advocacy and policy initiatives, which includes “a robust schedule of stakeholder working groups focusing on school-based services.” Youth Mental Health Handbook for the Nation’s Governors Earlier this year the Forum also helped the National Governor’s Association develop and distribute Strengthening Youth Mental Health: A Governor’s Playbook The Playbook was developed with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy who was chair of the NGA during much of 2023, and reflected policy and program elements adopted in New Jersey.
“Ending the Adolescent Mental Health Crisis” August 4, 2023 by Taylor Walsh Speak Our Minds works closely with the nation’s Children’s Hospitals to develop more and more comprehensive ways to give children and young people the means to mitigate and avoid the stresses and anxieties that compromised their wellbeing and which have caused such dire consequences for too many. Its important documentary film, “The Wait to Nowhere” is a compelling contemporary portrait of the challenge that children, their parents, schools, and physicians face every day. The no-holds-barred trailer for the video is here. (Thanks to SOM for contributing an excerpt during our symposium, First Line of Defense: in June 2023.) Speak Our Minds represents a major response by the nation’s pediatric health community to the 2021 declaration of a national emergency for child and adolescent health, and is calling on governors across the United States to pledge their commitment to end the youth mental health crisis. The National Governor’s Association recently issued a Youth Mental Health Playbook, led by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, current chair of the NGA.
First Line of Defense for Kids’ Mental Health: A Unique Gathering July 1, 2023 by Taylor Walsh On June 22 we co-hosted with the Harkin Institute a virtual symposium that brought together a unique interdisciplinary group of experts in education, mental health, school health, pediatrics, and whole health learning (WHL) domains. The presentations and discussions emphasized the importance of including those school-based, historically “ancillary” fields in the major national policy conversations and initiatives that have been put in place to address the impact of COVID on children’s mental health. The increasing demand for WHL practices like mindfulness, school gardens, and outdoor learning through the COVID era has presented very positive outcomes for children and faculties as they have gradually re-engaged with schools while their purposes and learning have been challenged from many directions. Our conversations considered how providing much more time for students in these programs can act as that “First Line of Defense,” to fend off and mitigate the stresses and anxieties that have worsened so badly at a time of a great shortfall in the availability of school psychologists and counselors. PRESENTATION VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE The persistence of the COVID era has led also to new roles in pediatric and child health care that focus directly on whole health approaches and outcomes which emphasize prevention and health promotion. These trends, early as they are, suggest closer and re-imagined school-to-healthcare connections that are defined not only by interventions for asthma, overweight or behavioral counseling, but also by whole health learning practices that start to bolster children’s mental health, wellbeing and resilience during their years in school. Participating organizations and professionals have been dedicated to improving children’s health and capabilities, but they have rarely, if ever, found themselves in the same room…virtual or otherwise. A sampling for organizations whose team members registered to attend: Speakers include specialists leading and working in the important and interwoven corners of elementary, middle and high school campuses and the important community-based initiatives that support children and schools: Laura Bakosh, co-founder and director, Inner Explorer, a leading provider of mindfulness practices in schools Wayne Jonas, MD, CEO of the HealingWorks Foundation, whole person, integrative healing approaches to reframe community health and wellbeing collaborations Cathy Jordan, PhD, Research Director, Children & Nature Network, leading national movements for greening schoolyards and city spaces Nathan Larson, School Garden Support Organization, a growing nationwide collaboration of highly experienced school garden innovators; also ED, Restorative Places Lawrence Rosen, MD, Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine’s community-based Human Dimension curriculum Jennifer Sacheck, PhD, Chair, Department of Exercise and Nutrition at the Milken School of Public Health at George Washington University Dennis Shirley, EdD, Lynch School of Education, Boston College, Co-author of the seminal 2022 book, “Well-being in the Schools” Kate Tumelty Felice, EdD, Faculty and Coordinator of Education Programs at Rowan College of South Jersey Sean Slade, Education Lead, BTS Spark: (previously coordinator of the CDC’s Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) enterprise) Andrea Falken, PhD, Special Advisor for Infrastructure and Sustainability at the U.S. Dept. of Education; and coordinator, Green Ribbon Schools. The symposium was organized by Adam Shriver, director of the Wellness & Nutrition Program at The Harkin institute and Taylor Walsh, founder and executive director of WholeHealthED. The Harkin Institute for Public Policy & Citizen Engagement is located at Drake University and serves as a venue and catalyst for dynamic non-partisan research, learning, and outreach to promote understanding of the policy issues to which Iowa Senator Tom Harkin devoted his career. The Institute was founded on the premise that good public policy is best achieved when policymakers have access to high quality information, political processes are open and well-understood, and citizens are informed and active participants. Happy Serendipitous 5th Birthday to WholeHealthED! “First Line of Defense” just happened to fall during the same week of June when five years ago we hosted WholeHealthED’s inaugural symposium at Georgetown University. We’re happy to note that among colleagues who joined us virtually in 2023, several in the photo below were there at the beginning. Thanks to everyone who helped kick-start us in DC!
Whole Health Learning and the “horrific collapse of adolescent mental health” February 24, 2023 by Taylor Walsh At a February address in New York senior advisor Larry Rosen MD described the potential for whole health learning to sustainably shift the course of adolescent mental health: as a safe and equitable systemic solution to the ever-worsening problem confronting teens and their families in the US. Dr. Rosen detailed the rationale and vision for what should be a public health model that can address the mental health crisis not only as it arises in middle and high school, but by beginning during students’ earliest years of schooling. Dr. Rosen is an internationally recognized pioneer in pediatric integrative medicine. He practices at his Whole Child Center in Oradell, NJ, and is chair of the WholeHealthED Health Advisory Board. He was interviewed by Avery St. Onge, editor at Integrative Practitioner several weeks prior to his presentation at the Integrative Health Symposium on Feb. 25. Lawrence Rosen MD Listen to the Podcast Here: WholeHealthED: Solving the Adolescent Mental Health Crisis with Integrative Care Recent Context: In the weeks prior to the symposium more reports and articles appears outlining and defining the scope of this national emergency. Of note is the report from the CDC: “Youth Risk Behavior Survey” which compiles “multiple years of national YRBS data to highlight focus areas with important implications for adolescent health and well-being: sexual behavior substance use experiencing violence mental health and suicidal thoughts and behaviors” The study also listed a very short list of Protective Factors, defined as “the characteristics, conditions, and behaviors that improve health outcomes or reduce the effects of stressful life events and other risk factors.” Primarily they are shown as: “School connectedness, which is the feeling among adolescents that people at their school care about them, their well-being, and success, has long-lasting protective effects for adolescents “Parental monitoring is associated with decreased sexual risk, substance use, experiences of violence, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors.” As is often the case, such recommendations rarely reach down in to the confines of the schoolyard to identify specific activities or programs in which children are involved. The report however, leaves room — much more room — for more expansive approaches: “Although the primary goal of schools is academic learning, they also play a critical role in shaping mental, physical, and social growth. More than 95% of children and adolescents in the U.S. spend much of their daily lives in school providing a considerable opportunity to foster the knowledge and skills to shape behaviors and experiences, but also the responsibility to ensure that all learning is done in a safe and supportive school environment.” Schools have access to an array of whole health learning activities that have been shown to foster behaviors that can offset stress and the impact of factors that often compromise their wellbeing and ability to learn and be successful socially, which might be considered the most potent “protective factors” we have available. Reference: A short article recommending that current efforts designed to address the disruptions of COVID on the wellbeing of school children and across society at large make sure to encompass all effective options, even if they originate in non-usual places: like school gardens. “Wellbeing can no longer be seen as an ancillary activity in our schools.” (Link to Medium)
Declaration of National Emergency in Child and Adolescent Mental Health January 27, 2022 by Taylor Walsh The furious rise of the Omicrom variant of COVID that has beset the nation since autumn of 2021 accelerated an already high level of concern about the impact of the pandemic on kids’ mental health. As a result, we have seen several important statements, reports and assessments from the nation’s leading healthcare policy, public health and program and professional organizations: From the U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy MD An “Advisory on Youth Mental Health Crisis Further Exposed by COVID-19 Pandemic” Dr. Murthy’s public and official comments since the end of 2021 have focused directly on mitigating the factors that have compounded kids’ normal stress and can lead to serious mental health issues. From American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Children’s Hospital Association. Click the title banner to see the full document. Prospective NIH Research Program “in School Settings” These actions coincided with an important research program announced in the fall by the NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Medicine (NCCIH): The specification for “school settings” here is an important distinction for such studies. This is one reason WholeHealthED has brought together researchers who study the impact on children’s health of participation in specific school-based activities such as the school garden, mindfulness, outdoor learning, and teaching kitchen that are not always considered factors in kids’ health issues: in particular as part of a single school’s programs: or viewed as the active ingredients for strengthening student well-being.
Public Health and Whole Health Learning Webinar January 25, 2022 by Taylor Walsh On Jan. 28, 2022, we were honored to help the American Public Health Association kick off its 150th anniversary year with a webinar describing the whole health learning framework and our work in schools and with important national organizations and the outcomes that a fully realized Whole Health Learning approach offers schools and communities. See the recording of the Zoom video here. We were thrilled to bring to the APHA the deep and comprehensive experiences of the many important domains that have created positive outcomes through school-based wellness activities on schoolyards across the U.S. One of APHA’s objectives for the event is to understand the implications of whole health learning for its goal of ‘building a movement to create the healthiest nation in one generation.‘ Background Material for Webinar From the National Academies Press Financing That Rewards Better Health and Well-Being (of May 2021: PDF) NAM Workshop Proceedings 05-2021 Lakeside Middle School Millville, NJ Principal Spike Cook, EdD: Commentary on the pilot experience, including entering the COVID period (article): Whole Health Learning in the Era of COVID 2019_21stCCLC_Assessment pre- and post- student survey of the pilot spring semester program (PDF) Faculty Testimonial: The Wellness Program offered to the Lakeside AVID students was engaging, informative, and so necessary for our student population. The curriculum was comprehensive and focused on all aspects of wellness. The students participated in hands-on experiences and left with knowledge and skills that they can apply in real life now and in the future.” – Sandra Lokuta, AVID teacher, Lakeside Middle School Recent Policy Statements Jan. 2022 Declaration of a National Emergency in Child and Adolescent Mental Health From the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Children’s Hospital Association Dec. 2021 U.S. Surgeon General Issues Advisory on Youth Mental Health Crisis Further Exposed by COVID-19 Pandemic