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The SCCoop
Words on Wellness
May 2020
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Well, this isn't 25th Anniversary celebration we were expecting, but it does highlight the importance of the mental health, substance abuse, and parenting work we've been doing for the last 25 years. Here's something that's working in our house every day:
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We so missed seeing sixth graders bright eyes and hearing their take on doing the right thing during Ethics Days and bringing together multiple school-based stakeholders our annual Administrators Supper. And our teens were sorry not to implement all their training to run Middle School Forum. But we've been plugging on as best we can. There are limitless resources out there to help children and adults while at home. Please follow us on Twitter and Facebook (@mcleanscc), as those are where we are sharing the most resources. We've selected a few local resources to share here, plus below we highlight the work our Youth Advisory Council and Mental Health Committee members have been doing.
As we prepare to wrap up this unusual year, we also look ahead to next year. To that end we open up our annual call for volunteers to join our board. This coming year we are in particular need for volunteers to manage Sixth Grade Ethics Days, to represent Langley HS pyramid, and to represent elementary and middle schools students and parents. Please contact us if you are interested!
As always,
let us know how the SCC can help in your community, school, and home!
Elizabeth Hale, President
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Mental Health Advisory Committee
Members of our Mental Health Advisory Committee are concerned about the toll that the stress of distance learning, social isolation, economic concerns, the inability to plan for the near future have taken on adults and kids. They've created videos on a variety of topics:
- Finding A Counselor: Tips and Advice
- Grounding Techniques to Help Cope with Uncertainty
- How To Meet Kids’ Three Basic Needs: Competence, Connection, and Autonomy
- Healthy Coping Strategies During Uncertain Times
- Staying Positive
- 5 Tips to Engage Your Children More Successfully During This Corona Virus Time
You can access all of them on
our website. Is there something else you'd like to see here? Let us know!
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Youth Advisory Council/Middle School Forum
Our Youth Advisory Council "Quaranteens" have been active these past few weeks working on how they might run a Virtual Middle School Forum. These eighth graders are moving up to high school one way or another! Stay tuned for details on that. In the meantime, you can read some of these Quaranteens' comments on staying at home, distance learning, and missing everything. Here are a few, but
check our website for more!
- "With all the free time, being independent and managing my own schedule have emerged as good skills to have. I’ve noticed that balancing work and free time is something that has changed for the better, now that I can mostly go on my own schedule."
- "I am getting enough sleep for my brain and body and feel better mentally because of it."
- "Learning at home is a completely different experience and environment than at school, which in turn can make it much more difficult to keep up. This coupled with not seeing your friends or even going out creates a very stressful situation to be in."
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Social Media Wellness
We are working with Ana Homayoun on a fall plan and will keep everyone posted!
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HCA Healthcare Virginia Behavioral Health Virtual Education Series
Join these Friday noon education events:
- Self-Care: Getting Creative with Covid-19 Restrictions
- Eating Disorders: Diagnosis & Treatment
- Anxiety Disorders in Children & Adolescents
- Many Faces of Trauma: Responding to the Challenges
- Treating the Nervous System: The Real Client
Click
HERE for more details.
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Substance Abuse During Quarantining
f
eaturing the SCC's own Dr. Melissa Sporn and Mental Health Committee members Gail Embt ad Corinne Coppola
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Our Minds Matter
is offering weekly meetings that are focused on building resilience, self-care, and sharing resources. They encourage anyone who wants to participate to
subscribe to their newsletter
to receive the meeting details and password to join each week at
bit.ly/ommconnect
. Meetings are held via Zoom, 3-4 p.m. Wednesdays.
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Wellness Resources
Fairfax County and FCPS have a wide range of wellness resources available on their websites. Maintaining your - and your family’s - health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic, is about more than just
protecting against the virus
.
This resource on Daily Life and Coping
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides a lot of great tips. And remember, social distancing shouldn’t mean social disconnection;
here are some tips
to stay connected with others. Topic-related resources are on the
County website
. The
FCPS Student Wellness
page includes tips and videos created by students for students
.
In addition, Fairfax County Government
is launching a parent support line
and will begin hosting
an online Parent Café on Monday evenings, where parents can connect with each other to process through and share different strategies.
Some thoughts that might be exchanged:
- What are you doing during this time?
- How are you dealing with this?
- How are you dealing with distance learning while still doing your job?
- How are you dealing with not losing it when your kid asks for snacks for the 600th time?
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The SCC thrives in its 25th year as an all-volunteer organization with funding from community grants and individual donors including the New Dominion Women’s Club, Rotary Club of McLean, McLean Community Foundation, the Zavela Foundation, and through the SCC Mental Health Committee. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and welcome all donations.
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Safe Community Coalition | mcleanscc.org
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