School Counselors and School Media Specialists: Innovative Leaders in Partnerships Promoting Student Mental Health with Online Resources

Abstract

Contemporary middle- and high-school students are coming to school with more extensive and more serious mental health issues than ever before. School counselors are charged with trying to meet the social/emotional and mental health needs of these students, but with case loads topping 300+ students they struggle to have time to identify and prepare curriculum and materials that will serve to educate students about positive mental, social/emotional health. Additionally, many practicing school counselors lack the skills necessary for developing web-based portals for sharing information in ways technology-savvy teens most often access. School media specialists, technology-competent professionals, can be powerful collaborative partners in the efforts of school counselors to prepare and compile educational resources and information to support the social/emotional and mental health of high-school students. This manuscript will describe a collaborative partnership between the school media specialist and school counselor to prepare a counseling program website with resources and educational materials specifically focused on positive mental and social/emotional health for teens. Key tenets of professional preparedness, possibilities, and the process of interdisciplinary collaboration for school counselors and school media specialists seeking to develop partnerships such as the one described will be shared. [For the complete volume, "Educational Media and Technology Yearbook, Volume 36, 2011," see ED597737.]