Berks County Medical Society Medical Record Fall 2021 - 13

are necessary in identifying substance abuse. From a school
perspective, online schooling has forced teachers to adjust and
modify criteria that is " concerning " and considered an indicator of
possible substance abuse. For example, at Reading School District,
students are not required to keep their cameras on when attending
class online to allow families privacy; however, if a student has
a pattern of consistently keeping their camera off, it becomes a
concern. A notable decline in academic performance, Zoom class
attendance, and Zoom class participation are also modified red
flags that teachers look for in online school. The challenge in this
is that all of these signs are multifactorial and cannot necessarily
imply that a student is using substances. However, it serves as a
base to help professionals identify struggling students.
HOW ARE SCHOOLS HANDLING IT?
Every school district in Berks County handles student
substance use based on their unique circumstances, as the student
populations in each area differ by race, family life, and class size.
Thus, they must respond to cases of substance use accordingly.
At Fleetwood Area, guidance counselors are of high rank within
the administration and are responsible for evaluating the socioemotional
health of the students. In regards to substance abuse,
they offer services such as in-school therapy, referrals to outpatient
therapy, classroom lessons on substance abuse, and run Student
Assistance Program (SAP) assessments and groups (Price). Kim
Price, a counselor at Fleetwood, says the job can be difficult as she
must juggle handling the mental health of the students with the
responsibility of ensuring that every student is fulfilling graduation
requirements. Essentially, guidance counselors in Fleetwood Area
schools play a crucial role within the school administration and
prioritize the mental health risks of the students due to academic
and other factors. At Reading, social workers are employed by the
school to care for the socio-emotional aspect of students' mental
health (Fisher). Because such a large number of students are
enrolled in the Reading School District, administrators there have
found that hiring social workers is better for the mental health of
the students and that the role of guidance counselors, who were
previously responsible for that duty, now focus their priority on
the important goal of student graduation (Fisher). With 26 social
workers (still a growing number!), guidance counselors can better
prioritize their other duties with the additional weight of mental
health care for students lifted off their shoulders. The students
benefit as well since the social workers' primary service is to
provide mental and emotional support.
HOW HAS PREVENTION CHANGED?
One big change in response to the Pandemic is that many
schools have lowered substance abuse education and prevention
as a priority for their students. With schools being more focused
on getting their students back to attending in-person classes
and catching them up in core curriculum topics, substance use
education and responsibility has become a lower priority than
it once was. Although it makes sense that working towards
returning to in-person school and strategizing the containment
of COVID-19 has become the highest priority, there have been
consequences to the reduced emphasis placed on substance use
education.
The Pennsylvania Student Assistance Program (SAP), a team
that is a mandated presence at every high school in the state, is
designed to " assist schools in identifying issues including alcohol,
continued on next page
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Berks County Medical Society Medical Record Fall 2021

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