Coming this December, the Mental Health and Wellness Center will soon be available for students to use as a safe space to prioritize their mental health. The Wellness Center will be open from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.,, and students are free to go anytime without booking appointments unless they are one-on-one, said Storm McNerney, Wellness Center liaison.
“[When] you’re really overwhelmed or stressed out, you can go to the Wellness Center whether your counselor’s available or not,” said McNerney. However during class hours, students will require a pass in order to go, and the visit will be for 15 minutes, McNerney continued.
During their visit, students can do many art, sensory, and tactile activities as well games, McNerney said. The center will also have a library, featuring a variety of genres of books from self-help to support for LGBTQ students. Another form of support is that students have the opportunity to schedule one-on-one sessions with Mireya Coronado, a mental health counselor that works in the center, McNerney said.
“That’s the goal for the Wellness Center, to provide different levels of support for the entire school,” said Coronado. The Wellness Center operates by a personalized structure for the levels of support students need, whether they need a group setting, or individual support, said Coronado.
The Wellness Center is also a part of the Community School movement, in which schools receive grants to create services that accommodate and are accessible to students, said Sandra Quintana, the program manager of mental health.
The MHS Wellness Center was funded through a grant from Santa Clara County and is in partnership with the County Office of Education, McNerney . Quintana, among McNerney and Coronado are all employees that work in Santa Clara County, and are MUSD employees.
“This year we are no longer using CASSY and we have our own staff of mental health counselors, or MHCs,” said Quintana. The CASSY counselors were not fully staffed due to the workforce shortage, said Quintana. However, this year there are currently four mental health counselors on site, sent from the district, all part of the Community Schools Movement, Quintana said.
The center aims to collaborate with parents when required; however, one-on-one sessions with students will be strictly confidential, Coronado said. “We really want to support your mental health so that [students] can get a break and go back to class.”