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
“Maintaining Balance” in schools August 10, 2020 by Taylor Walsh Maintaining Balance in schools in a thoroughly unbalanced time Beyond Academics and Well-being? Among the guidelines for school openings that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued on May 5 and June 25 were several that are well aligned with the outcomes and purpose of school-based wellness activities. In “COVID-19 Planning Considerations: Return to In-person Education in Schools” the AAP said regarding the approach schools should take at re-opening: If the academic expectations are unrealistic, school will likely become a source of further distress for students (and educators) at a time when they need additional support. It is also critical to maintain a balanced curriculum with continued physical education and other learning experiences rather than an exclusive emphasis on core subject areas.” AAP doesn’t name school gardens, mindful moments, brain breaks, preparing meals, and plenty of time in nature specifically in that bullet point. But it could have. These are the most potent “other learning experiences” we know of for attaining beneficial outcomes in academics and in supporting mental, emotional and social well-being. And as the type of counter-balance to concentrated academics that AAP cautions about. Webinar on Balancing Academics and Well-being The question of how to elevate awareness of these positive outcomes for education leadership was the subject of our July 17 webinar “Balancing Academics and Wellbeing During School Openings, 2020.” Forty advisors, partners and colleagues described their own extensive experiences delivering school-based programs and discussed the factors that educators should be considering as they organize the unorthodox schedules and program adjustments that will begin the school year. The objective of this meeting was to compile the high points of the discussion and share them with education, policy and financing leaders in the weeks and months ahead. Among those points: The time is now to emphasize the social, mental and behavioral benefits that these programs have demonstrated Educators may say they have no time for gardens or teaching kitchens They are also looking for the means to support mental and social emotional health Engaging with parents particularly now is critical There may be interesting comparative research to conduct in this period (Click here for a brief summary of the webinar.) Sustaining the Balance It is not possible to know whether or how schools might follow the AAP’s guidelines and start to integrate any wellness learning program or method, especially with distance learning required for the vast majority of schools starting the fall semester. Courtesy Green Schoolyards America — Drew Kelly Photography Tracking the implementation of these programs during this school year (if not implementing them directly) will be important for members of the whole health learning community. As the webinar conversation showed, leaders in these wellness domains are already extending their work, missions and partnerships. Very notable right now is the growing interest in “outdoor classrooms” (a response used widely 100+ years ago when tuberculosis and flu pandemics raged). Green Schoolyards America is now hosting multiple Zoom meetings each week to help teachers and educators around the country as part of its National COVID-19 Outdoor Learning Initiative. These working groups organize topics that would be helpful to any whole health learning activity: Outdoor classroom infrastructure Park/school collaboration Outdoor learning and instructional models Staffing and formal/nonformal partnerships School program integration (with PE, recess, before/after care) Community engagement Health and safety considerations Local and state policy shifts Funding and economic model In these sessions presenters often discuss highly innovative solutions that they and their colleagues are creating out of sheer necessity. See more about the Outdoor Learning Alliance here. Long Term Balance? Among other things, COVID has presented U.S. education with the opportunity to build on academic and health improving activities that have long been available but have had no point of entry into — or a sustainable presence in — the core learning framework. This is true for demonstrated academic benefits and their potential to offset the impact and deep persistence of Adverse Childhood Experiences, trauma, and debilitating social determinants of health. The most important long-term impacts and effects of any COVID-driven re-balancing aren’t likely be about how schools apportion time for school gardens vs. geometry. Rather it will be whether or not any of those “other learning experiences” that the AAP recommends for coping with COVID remain in place. That depends on whether educators and the public come to see that imparting knowledge and skills that support physical, emotional and social well-being in should be an essential K-12 task for fully preparing their kids for their adult lives. In the meantime: as we asked at the start of our July Webinar: “What can we do Right Now?” to support kids and families, faculties and communities to establish the habits and activities that will carry everyone through this period safely and in their best health? One answer quite literally just appeared during the composition of that paragraph: in the form of a Tweet from Child and Nature Network (@ChildrenNature) reporting that innovations won’t necessarily come after Zoom meetings: “A D.C. teacher uses his stimulus check to start a nonprofit, so he can take kids fishing.” Let that sink in. Now let’s check it out: A new Inner City Angler in DC getting ready. Teacher-guided: CHECK Collaborative learning: CHECK Hands-on (literally, on the reel): CHECK In Nature: CHECK “Harvesting” food: CHECK All while socially distanced: CHECK So is born the D.C. non-profit: Inner City Anglers . And perhaps not a little hope, fun and enthusiasm on the rivers and streams around DC. As founder Carmen Garner writes: “It is the goal of ICA to instill social-emotional awareness, perseverance, self-confidence, empathy and other life skills along their paths to adulthood.” More about the webinar and WholeHealthED balancing these: Full Webinar Recording: https://bit.ly/33LHQuD The journal article, “Whole Health Learning: The Revolutionary Child of Integrative Health and Education” Contribution to the ASCDInService Blog: “Balancing academics and wellness during COVID-19 and beyond”
COVID-19: Resources and Webinar June 24, 2020 by Taylor Walsh Collected COVID-19 school guidance resources • “Balancing Academics and Wellbeing:” a July webinar • Exciting new project with the Whole Health Institute. Collected COVID-19 school guidance resources We’re continuing to build our site Resources Section, adding important policy and operating guidance for schools’ and families’ response to COVID-19. These articles, research studies, and policy papers have been prepared by many of the leading and most experienced organizations working in schools and communities across the whole health spectrum: The COVID Resources section is here. “Balancing Academics and Wellbeing for School Return in 2020” This July 17 webinar will bring together WholeHealthED advisors, partners and colleagues to consider how the combined positive health outcomes experienced by students and faculty who participate in whole health programs might help school officials plan for the return to school by emphasizing access to activities that can help offset the trauma and stress that most families will still experience. On May 5, the American Academy of Pediatrics published unambiguous guidance on this issue: “COVID-19 Planning Considerations: Return to In-person Education in Schools” . Notable excerpts: Under EDUCATION: • “If the academic expectations are unrealistic, school will likely become a source of further distress for students (and educators) at a time when they need additional support. • It is also critical to maintain a balanced curriculum with continued physical education and other learning experiences rather than an exclusive emphasis on core subject areas.” Under MENTAL HEALTH: • “Schools need to incorporate (into planning considerations) academic accommodations and supports for students who may still be having difficulty concentrating or learning new information due to stress associated with the pandemic.” The discussion will consider how those “other learning experiences” could be made available to schools during re-openings, however and whenever they take place. We’ll report the outcomes of this collaborative assessment and recommendations in the weeks following during a follow-on webinar designed for school leaders and educators Important new project with Whole Health Institute As WholeHealthED advanced the idea of whole health learning in K-12, other notable enterprises that embrace whole health thinking and precepts have been forming around the country. One of the most important was established in January when the Whole Health Institute and Chopra Research Library was formed by philanthropist Alice Walton in Bentonville, Arkansas. The mission of the Institute is to help people live a full and meaningful life by making the Whole Health approach affordable and accessible to everyone. The Institute will focus its work on transforming health and well-being by working from the very successful whole health model created and established in recent years within the VA, the nation’s largest healthcare system. (The creator and director of The VA initiative, Tracy Gaudet MD, now heads up WHI.) As COVID-19 blocked all in-person activities in the first quarter, the Institute’s whole health orientation and our approach in schools led to initial conversations based on our shared professional and collegial roots in integrative healthcare. These ultimately led to the creation of a project that is being built around our common interests in bringing whole person wellbeing to kids. As Dr. Gaudet explained in a May interview: We didn’t have this area of K-12 education highlighted originally. But with all of the trauma of uncertainty and fear around COVID I dread that we are creating a whole new generation of kids with ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences). We shifted because of COVID and because we have the right partner.” We’ll report more on this work in the weeks ahead. (For more on the antecedents of the Institute’s mission and purpose and the development of the whole health framework in the VA, see this report on the formal introduction of WHI last January.)
Education and Health Advisory Boards Formed June 6, 2020 by Taylor Walsh An Infrastructure of Self-Care? • We’re thrilled to announce the spring formation of two advisory boards to offer perspective, experience and guidance to the project. Education Advisory Board Kate Tumelty Felice EdD The Education Advisory Board is chaired by Kate Tumelty Felice EdD who developed the WholeHealthED Wellness Studies program that was implemented in four middle schools in southern New Jersey in the spring semester of 2019. Board members all share work experiences and commitment in and around elementary and secondary schools: as school-based coordinators for garden or wellness programs, as specialists who bring these programs to schools, as innovative district leaders, and as policy and research specialists and adherents of Social and Emotional Learning, SEL and the Whole Child (WSCC) movement. Health Advisory Board. Please see members of the Education Advisory Board here. Health Advisory Board Larry Rosen MD The Health Advisory Board, chaired by Larry Rosen MD, includes pediatricians from across the country. Many are members of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Section on Integrative Medicine, SOIM. They serve families from private and public pediatric clinics, work with Childrens’ hospitals, serve as research specialists affiliated with academic schools of medicine, and as contributors to initiatives created to mitigate the tides of Adverse Childhood Experiences and trauma. Members are committed to the principles of whole child health and appreciate the role that whole health learning can play in supporting children’s health and wellbeing, in mind, body and spirit. See members of the Health Advisory Board here. The creation of the Education and Health boards is part of our mission to bring together innovative stakeholders who are and have been deeply engaged in improving kids’ knowledge about the factors that influence health through academic and experiential learning, strengthening children’s health during their years in school, and forming a solid foundation for their adult lives. It is not usual of course to think of a connection between a school garden and a pediatrician’s office (but check out one pediatrician’s garden-informed practice below). But the adherents of both school-based wellness learning and integrative pediatric medicine (when not treating sickness and injury) are working toward a very similar outcome: Imparting to children an awareness of the importance of sustaining their own best health, while providing the knowledge, experience, tools and methods that let them know they can do it themselves. Formation of the Education and Health advisory boards will help shed greater light on the overlapping paths the members and their institutions are taking in support of such an outcome.