Transcript of podcast below: 

How New Technologies Could Help Student Mental Health at Piscataway High School

Student mental health is very important, and schools are looking for new ways to help. Recently, many apps and tools have been made to support students’ mental health. These tools can help students track their moods, write about their feelings, or talk to a counselor online. Some even use artificial intelligence to give advice and guide students when they feel stressed or anxious. 

In other schools across the country, apps like Mirror and Willo are helping students check in with their mental health every day. Mirror is a journaling app for teens to track moods and reflect privately, while Willo is a campus wellness app developed at UC Davis that connects students to resources and events to support overall well-being. These tools use and give students a safe space to share their feelings. These technologies can help students who might be nervous to talk in person or who need help outside school hours. 

At Piscataway High School, The Haven provides counseling and mental health support for students. Staff at The Haven help students with stress, anxiety, and other challenges.

New technology could make it easier for students to get support, track their moods, and reach out when they need help. Today, I’m talking with Amalia, an intern counselor at The Haven, to learn more about how the school supports student mental health and whether new technology could play a role in the future.

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 Hi, Amelia, thank you so much for joining me today. To start off our interview, how important do you think mental health is for high school students today?

 Hi, yes, thank you. It’s Amalia, so just gonna, no worries.

 But to start off, how is mental health important for students today?

So I think that with the rise of technology and with, you know, with having the pandemic and then now coming back from that, I think a lot of teenagers are more aware than ever about what mental health is, how it impacts them, and so I think that at the Haven we see a lot more students than typical because a lot of kids, you know, look online and see things about depression, anxiety, and, you know, high school is a transition period, right? So a lot of kids, when they start high school, they may feel overwhelmed, they may feel like it’s a lot, and so I think that, you know, learning who they are and all of that, all of those factors really influence their mental health, and I think there’s a high need in the high school population. 

What are some of the main challenges students face when it comes to taking care of their mental health?

 That’s a great question. So some of the main challenges are asking for help kind of preventatively: So a lot of times kids will come in or teens will come in in crisis or like crying or upset. So not knowing when they need support, thinking that they can do it on their own. And then some other barriers are concerns about, you know, parents being called, calls home. And then also I think a lot of teens take on a lot, are overachievers, and so they have a hard time juggling everything and taking care of themselves in that way. So when students have like these thoughts in their mind about if they come into Haven then their parents will get called or like guardians at home, is this something that restricts them from coming here? Yes, it does, but we do share and I will share with you too that if you’re 14 and older in the state of New Jersey, you can consent to your own mental health services without your parents ever knowing. So, it has been a barrier, but we do share so we go to the freshman seminar and we share with the freshmen. They’re welcome to come and we have told that to all of the kids that come in here. 

I’m worried about that. How does The Haven help students who might be struggling with stress, anxiety, or other challenges? 

Yes, so at The Haven, we provide one-on-one counseling. So there’s two interns and then several externs. The interns are here every day, as well as Dr. Connelly. And then the externs are here maybe once a week. And so what would happen is if you come in and seek support, you would fill out a walk-in form and you would see someone that’s available to see you and talk about the current situation at hand. And then the clinician will decide if it’s best for us to meet on a one-to-one weekly basis to kind of process and cope with anxiety and stress or other issues. And then we would schedule a weekly meeting, typically during your elective gym or lunch, and we would meet once a week and kind of basically process and support the student in bettering their mental health.

So mental health is a pretty sensitive topic and most students feel a little nervous when it comes to like talking to adults. So what advice would you give to those students? 

Sure, yeah it is really nerve-wracking to talk to adults. What I will share is, I mean I know you can’t see me, you can only hear me, but I am very young. And so it’s almost everyone here. So the good thing about the Haven is that all the clinicians are what we call student clinicians, meaning that we’re still not done with our studies. So we are relatively young. Most of us, I would say, are in our 20s. So I think for some students, it feels more like talking to a peer than to an adult. 

Excuse the disruption. At this time, student government and class council pep rally volunteers are to be dismissed to the field. At this time, student government and class council pep rally volunteers. are to be dismissed to the field. Thank you. OK.

So as I was saying, we also try to make this space as safe and comfortable as possible. So if you were to be seen one-on-one, I can speak for myself. I have a really casual approach. And we try to make the space as comfortable and safe as possible. And so yeah, so we try to treat it not so much as like we’re adults or people in power. We’re more so peers supporting students. 

We know that new technology like apps or online tools is being used in some schools to help students manage their mental health. Are there any new technologies, tools, or apps that The Haven is currently using to support students?

 So, not necessarily. So, we do have like I personally have recommended certain apps that support students in terms of like tracking their emotions, so different like journaling apps and things like that. In terms of how the Haven uses technology, we mainly use technology to make sure that we’re discreet.

So when we do send for students, we send them a Schoology message and we send them a SmartPass. So it’s all digital, it’s all tech related, but it allows students to come in and kind of kind of anonymously come in, right? So only your teacher would know that you’re coming down, no other peers would know. But other than that, we also use some websites with the younger, so we do see like younger kids in the evenings. So we use websites such as like Go Zen, which has different modules that cover different topics such as anxiety, anger management, and it’s like videos. Some people really enjoy that because they like to watch videos and they learn visually and things like that. Besides that, I can’t think of anything else, any other way we use technology. 

So do you think using technology is something that could be added into the future?

Yeah, I think that we’re very cautious and I did want to share in terms of like using like chat GPT or using AI psychologists were very guarded about that and very protective of our field, because the thing about Chat GPT. It is super helpful maybe in the moment, but it is programmed to be validating, right? It’s programmed to learn you and support you, right? And so consistently being validated and consistently hearing kind of what you want to hear is not necessarily a therapeutic approach that a lot of psychologists align with. So I think that we’re very cautious. But of course, AI is super helpful in accessing, you know, summaries on up-and-coming like treatment modalities we for sure do use like like to an extent we do use like AI or Google to access more training modalities but it is not like to our core if that makes sense and we’re very cautious of it as well

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts today.

It’s great to hear how the Haven supports students and how technology could play a role in helping even more in the future. Mental health affects everyone, and it’s important for students to know that help is always available, whether through apps, online tools, or amazing staff at the Haven. Thank you for listening, and have a wonderful day.

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