MONTGOMERY: Depression prevention initiative put on hold

By Charley Falkenburg, Staff Writer
   MONTGOMERY — After concerns were raised about increased demands on guidance counselors and student confidentiality, the Board of Education decided to put a depression prevention initiative at the Upper Middle School on hold at its May 22 meeting.
   The school aims to work with Rutgers University to combat adolescent depression through a program funded by a $2 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. The focus is to bring awareness of adolescent depression and to prevent it from occurring in students who are identified as being at risk.
   However, the board thought the program might bring too many added responsibilities for its guidance counselors, who would play a major role in the initiative.
   ”The guidance counselors are already overwhelmed and to add this to their plate is a big workload increase,” said board member Adelle Kirk-Csontos. “We need to make sure other students’ time isn’t being taken away.”
   The Rutgers team of professionals would be training the guidance counselors throughout the entire process — beginning with how to deal with student questions before and after the initial survey for the seventh and eighth graders.
   With parental consent, students would fill out a voluntary, confidential survey that would ask questions on how they feel about various issues and stressful situations.
   After the survey, the Rutgers team would continue to work with the guidance counselors in conducting group sessions with students identified as being at risk for depression who want to participate.
   For those who want the option, there would be an opportunity for individual therapy at no cost to students if they do school based therapy sessions with the Rutgers team. Other “at-risk” students would be able to participate in small group sessions facilitated by the guidance counselors.
   ”The issue is they would hold group sessions for eight weeks — just total up all the time the counselors will be spending on this,” said Ms. Kirk-Csontos. “You’re pulling school personnel out from the other 325 students.”
   Although the group sessions would be voluntary with parental consent, board member Judy Humza said the group counseling might stigmatize the students involved. She added that these kinds of sessions are more of a private matter and thought group sessions might comprise the confidentiality and reputations of the students.
   Superintendent Earl Kim acknowledged that joining a group of any kind involves exposure, but that the focus of the group is to get participants to a place where they can share their thoughts and feelings.
   Ms. Kirk-Csontos also appeared wary of conducting school-based sessions and thought counseling regarding depression should strictly be left to medical professionals — not school personnel and university research teams.
   ”Depression is a complicated issue and it takes a lot of training to deal with it professionally,” she told the board. “I would be fine with it if it stopped with screening, but it should be dealt with in a professional setting.”
   To try and allay Ms. Kirk-Csontos’ concerns, board member Dr. Lei Yu explained the Rutgers research group are professionals and that they are the ones who train students who go on to become clinical psychologists and treat mental illnesses.
   He also reiterated the initiative only seeks to bring awareness to students who may have potential depression issues.
   ”It’s not meant to be an all-in-one stop to deal with depression,” he added.
   Board Vice President Christine Abrahams emphasized the groups would not be dealing with depression directly.
   ”They’re not treating the students,” said Ms. Abrahams. “They will recommend clinicians to students in serious danger.”
   The board agreed to bring up their concerns to Upper Middle School principal Cory Delgado as well as to the Assessment, Curriculum and Instruction Committee before moving the initiative forward.