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Enhancing Collaboration With Key Community Partners to Support Emergency Planning

The Role of School Mental Health Professionals in Supporting School Safety Efforts

Event Date: August 16, 2022

Presenters

  • Denise Riemer, LCSW, Mental Health Services Coordinator, Mobile County Public Schools
  • Janelle Hughes, Project Director, REMS TA Center

Webinar

Recording

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Duration: 62 minutes

Supporting Documents

Details

The REMS TA Center hosted a Webinar to highlight the role of mental health professionals in supporting school safety efforts within their school communities. During this Webinar, presenters demonstrated the importance of developing a collaborative planning team to support emergency operations plan (EOP) development, as outlined in Step 1 of the six-step planning process detailed in the Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans. Presenters discussed the role that school mental health professionals — including mental health coordinators, counselors, and others — play in implementing the National Preparedness System mission areas before, during, and after a potential emergency. Presenters shared resources to strengthen mental health professionals’ efforts around climate assessment, behavioral threat assessment, continuity of teaching and learning, and overall plan development.

Presenters for this Webinar were Denise Riemer, LCSW, Mental Health Services Coordinator at Mobile County Public Schools and Janelle Hughes, Project Director at the REMS TA Center. The presentation concluded with a question-and-answer session.

The U.S. Department of Education and its REMS TA Center hosted this Webinar to provide K-12 schools, school districts, regional education agencies, and state education agencies, along with their community partners, with information on how to collaborate with mental health professionals on emergency management planning. While the live Webinar offered opportunities to respond to individual and unique questions from stakeholders and practitioners, the archived Webinar serves as a resource to help education agencies collaborate with mental health professionals on safety, security, emergency management, and preparedness activities.