PNW BOCES Hosts First Annual “Healthy School Communities” Conference

Being happy is the bottom line.

That was the message keynote speaker Dr. Steven Birchak brought to the first ever Healthy School Communities conference at Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES’ Yorktown campus.

Dr. Birchak, an author and professor of counseling at the College of St. Rose, talked about the importance of positivity, how much of it is within our control, and how it needs to be modeled for students. Conference attendees included school administrators, nurses, social workers, counselors and psychologists.

“What we all really want for the kids we work with every day is simply for life to be OK for them – we just want them to be happy,” said Dr. Birchak. He explained that approaching life in a positive way is a choice we make, and one that can make a big difference in the lives of students served by those in attendance.

Linda King, Croton-Harmon High School’s Director of Guidance and one of the event’s planners, remarked, “Dr. Birchak’s philosophy embodies what we need to embrace and practice every day with our students.”

Throughout the daylong conference, attendees cycled through workshops on resilience, working with parents, bullying, suicide prevention, the adolescent brain, alternatives to suspensions, sex, drugs and classroom strategies to support healthy development in teens.

“We wanted to find a way to support the school professionals who are really on the front lines when it comes to supporting healthy school environments,” said BOCES' Assistant Superintendent Lynn Allen. “By drawing on outside experts as well as the expertise of people in our region, a dedicated group of professionals was able to put together a daylong program to accomplish that goal.”

The many challenges today’s school counselors face can be daunting. The conference provided a chance for the attending professionals to refuel, refresh and return to work with a more positive outlook.  Andrea Albano, a guidance counselor from Mandela High School in Mount Vernon, said, “We, as counselors, are the caretakers of our buildings.” An important message she planned to take away from the conference was “to look for and see the good in all of our students.”

Experts like Terence Houlihan provided participants with an explanation of the developing adolescent brain and offered attendees tools to improve their connections with students, improve instruction and better manage their classrooms. Carol Fessler spoke about how to become a visible ally to LGBT youth and provided multiple resources for workshop participants. Pat Breux discussed nationally-recognized practices regarding suicide safety in schools.

Steven Beck, a licensed clinical social worker and “’Life is Good’ Playmaker” discussed the importance of playfulness, calling it the “anecdote to trauma.”  He talked about ways to bring “hope, joy and compassion to the kids we all work with.”

Sharon McCarthy of the National Alliance on Mental Illness presented a four-person panel discussion on the early signs of mental illness in children and adolescents. Panelists said recognizing the signs of disorders like bi-polar disorder, major depression, ADHD and obsessive Compulsive Disorder can be difficult for school professionals and parents alike.

Teachers are often reluctant to label a child as having a mental illness and parents may not know when a child’s behavior crosses the line from ordinary acting out to being a sign of mental illness. They talked about children and teens who exhibited abrupt mood changes, overreacted to changes in their environment, and had difficulty concentrating and sleeping.

Event sponsors included School Counselor Central, New York State School Counselor Association, New York Association of School Psychologists, Universal Technical Institute and New York State School Social Workers Association.