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Culturally Relevant

Multi-Tiered System of Supports

for Mental Health

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Presentation

https://bit.ly/MTSSMentalHealth

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Dr. Rebecca Pianta

Dr. Enrique Espinoza

Presenters

Rebecca Pianta, Ed.D.�Coordinator of College and Career Readiness

Santa Ana Unified School District

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Enrique Espinoza, Ph.D.

School Counselor�Garden Grove Unified School District

Land Acknowledgement

The Cahuilla [ka-weeahh], Tongva [tong-va], Luiseño [loo-say-ngo], and Serrano [se-ran-oh] peoples

Let’s chat!

Who’s in the room?

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Where are you in your knowledge of Culturally Relevant supports for Mental Health?

Youth Mental Health

What mental health trends do you see at your school?

Mental Health Stats

1. 17% of U.S. youth aged 6-17 experienced a mental health disorder each year
2. Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among people aged 10-34 in the U.S.
3. LGBTQ+ youth are 4x more likely to attempt suicide than straight youth
4. Increase in Racial Trauma/Racism-Induced Traumatic Stress

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Source: NAMI

Racism & Mental Health

1. Cumulative through direct or indirect encounters
1. Overt and Covert (microaggressions)
2. Media coverage and/or witnessing
2. Affects Mental and Physical Health
3. Racial Battle Fatigue
4. Limited access to adequate care

Behavioral Symptoms:

• Changes in appetite
• Short tempered
• Unable to regulate emotions
• Tired (Sleeping Problems)
• Procrastination
• Unable to concentrate
• Increase at-risk behavior
• Drug & Alcohol Use
• Isolation
• Poor school or job performance

Trauma-Informed Care Steps

Culturally Responsive Framework

Mirror Work Reflection Questions

• What do I believe about students including their capabilities and contributions to school?
• What experiences have shaped my beliefs about students and their identity as students?
• How do my actions in schools support or negate my constructed beliefs about students?

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Asset-Based

• Defining of students by their aspirations and contributions. It recognizes that students have value before anything else.
• Asset based - looking at students and families strengths
• They are not empty buckets to fill
• Ask:
• What is present that we can build upon?
• What systems are creating this problem?
• Leads to new, unexpected responses and community building

Barriers to Academic Success

Lopez-Perry, 2021

Tier One

Prevention

Needs Assessment

Needs Assessment

• Cultural components
• Collab with students, parents, and staff
• Focus Groups

Climate Survey

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Identity Affirming Practices

Identity Validation

Features within the school environment affirm the identity (e.g., cultural, ethnic, race, class, gender etc.) of students.

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Culturally Relevant Curriculum Reflections

Prioritize

Learning

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What are our values within our discipline and in connection to racial justice?

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As a result, what are our priorities?

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Restore

Narratives

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Which stories, people or ideas need to be included, but often aren’t?

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How can we center stories of BIPOC students?

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Question Power

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How can we frame the learning in a way that challenges the status quo?

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How are we decentering whiteness?

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Co-Create

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How can we co-create with students and families?

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How do we ensure voices are heard?

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Empowering Student Voice Through Empathy Interviews- Tiers 1 or 2

Safir and Dugan (2021) state:

We can’t dismiss, deny, quantify or rationalize away the voices and experiences of children at the margins…By choosing the margins as the starting point for our data conversations- those quiet places where the hopes, dreams, and stories of our most disenfranchised students and families live- we invert the pyramid, shift the dynamics of power, and bring children to the center of educational discourse. (p. 52)

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20

Betters-Bubon, Pianta & Sweeney (2022)

Safir, S. & Dugan, J. (2021). Street Data: A Next-Generation Model for Equity, Pedagogy, and School Transformation. Corwin.

Community Agreements

• Ask what each individual needs to feel safe, comfortable, and excited to meet their goal.
• Hear everyone out without passing judgement
• Revise and revise as necessary

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Form Relationships:

SEL Signature Practices

Welcoming Rituals

Engaging Practices

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Optimistic Closures

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Trauma-Informed Yoga Affirmation Cards

Positive Affirmations

I am a champion

I am a winner

I am a leader

I am the best of the best

I’ve got what it takes

I can do anything

I believe in myself

I love myself

Transformative Social Emotional Learning

Make Learning Contextual: Ethnic Studies

Ethnic Studies is the study of U.S. history through the perspective of people of color, specifically Black, Asian Pacific Islander Americans, Chicano/a/Latinx, and Native Americans. It is a class that delves into the cultures, contributions, resistance, and resilience of these groups that addresses issues of race, ethnicity, and racism.

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In 2026, Ethnic Studies will be a graduation requirement in California.

Restorative Practices Circles

Power of Community

School environment connects to the world, cultural experiences of students, and inspires authentic relationships.

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https://covid19k12counseling.org/

What do you do for Prevention?

Tier 2

Interventions

Restorative Questions

Humanizing Approaches

The features in a school that enhance students’ partnerships.

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Loteria Project

1. Loteria as creative resistance (Garcia, 2017)
1. Rooted In Latinx Culture (Mexican Bingo)
2. A form of Visual Storytelling
3. Choose a topic and have students draw what comes to mind
4. The symbol, number, name can have significance
5. Resource

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PhotoVoice

• Photovoice (de Los Rios, 2017)
• A Form of Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR)
• Visual Storytelling
• Students capture images to tell their story
1. Can include a write-up
• Gallery Walks
• Resource

Healing/Brave Spaces

• Brave/Affinity/Counter-Spaces
• Allows for processing and healing
• Can be psychoeducational
• Space to vent & be heard
• Affirmation
• Drop-in Group Counseling
• Revolving around current issues/events
• A space for students to be heard & validated
• Culturally Responsive Learning

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Do you actively listen to the needs of underserved groups? How have the voices of marginalized communities shaped your practices and pedagogical shifts?

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What do you do for Interventions?

Tier 3

Intensified Interventions

Individual Counseling

1. Mindful of our Language
2. Spend time learning and defining the experiences of our students
3. Be non-judgmental
4. Help name/recognize racism and other forms of oppression (sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, etc)

AVOID →

Source: Sue, 2007

Dr. Rebecca Pianta

• Email: rebecca.pianta@schoolcounselor-ca.org
• Twitter: @DrRebeccaPianta

Enrique Espinoza

• Email: eespi017@ucr.edu
• Twitter: @eespinoza_91

Contacts