Students With Disabilities and Mental Health Needs - Let's Talk About Mental Wellness

By Carol K. Kennedy, Ph.D.

How can I help my child get the necessary support for their mental wellness in their educational settings, especially after dealing with the trauma and impact of Covid?

Research has shown us that adolescents between the ages of 12 and 22 are changing and developing as they transition into adulthood.  What about our children with disabilities who may also have co-occurring mental health issues, especially during this time of impact from Covid? It's so important to support their mental health and well-being, in addition to dealing with any cognitive issues.  So what can you as a parent or care-giver do to help them?

 Goal Setting Strategies

Let's take a look at simple goal-setting as a good strategy.  This involves identifying a specific goal- with your child and their support team.  Perhaps this is a goal as simple (or hard)  as going back into the in-person classroom without having major anxiety.  This strategy allows them to work on their skills to ask for help, get access to care, and help them with their self-determination skills as well. Setting goals and working on them one at a time has shown to decrease anxiety, depression and stress.  When students with disabilities are given a selection of skills to work on, specific goal-setting strategies and realistic expectations, this not only helps them, but also helps their teachers and service providers to work with them.  Teachers can better teach your child  skills to problem-solve, multi-task and lower their anxiety in school settings. By identifying, creating an action plan, working on, monitoring and achieving these goals, we find that adolescents with disabilities and mental health issues also do better at home in terms of sleeping, behavioral issues, and overall well-being.

My child is not formally diagnosed with Mental Health Disabilities- now what?

While your child may not be diagnosed with specific mental health issues, such as under Section 504 Other Health Impaired, these skills and goals can be written into your child's IEP as well to be addressed.  Our goal is to help your child with disabilities and mental health needs to help insure their own mental wellness during this time of great stress.  Bring this up with your IEP team, your child's special education teachers and counselor or social worker.

Remember- You are your best advocate for your child. Their needs may change over this period of transitioning to adulthood.