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DA District Administration
How online learning could negatively impact teacher mental health
FETC speaker shares three steps to help faculty cope with compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma during school closures
By: Steven Blackburn
June 2, 2020
Many educators who are further exposed to their students’ personal
struggles during online learning could likely be experiencing
conditions that negatively impact teacher mental health, academic
achievement and school culture.
“Kids can act normally at school even though they are having
difficulties at home, but on Zoom calls, teachers can see into their
homes and, in turn, the possible chaos unfolding there,” says Mandy
Froehlich, an education consultant and keynote speaker who presented on
The State of Mindfulness and Teacher Mental Health in Education at FETC
2020. “Students could also be more vocal about possible increases in
alcoholism, drug use or abuse at home during this time. Meanwhile,
teachers know that these students don’t have a safe place to go seven
hours out of the day as they did before school closures.”
The conditions that educators could suffer from include compassion
fatigue, where caregivers provide so much support that they do not have
the time to care for themselves, and vicarious trauma, which involves
caregivers experiencing the trauma-related symptoms that their students
exhibit.
“These conditions are not only detrimental to a teacher’s personal
life, but can, in the most basic sense, lead to teacher disengagement
such as failing to form relationships with students or contributing to
a negative culture,” says Froehlich, author of The Fire Within: Lessons
from defeat that have ignited a passion for learning and Reignite the
Flames: Finding our passion and purpose for learning among the embers,
which cover how teachers can cope with vicarious trauma and include
mindfulness activities that support healing. “It is really important
for administration to understand why their teachers disengage so they
can help educators help themselves.”
Here are three steps that school administrators should take to help
faculty cope with teacher compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma.
1. Provide teacher mental health resources
Leaders need to provide mental health resources or bring health experts
on campus to curb teacher stress and help educators understand what
they are experiencing. “Failing to identify the source of their
troubles could lead to teachers believing they are experiencing burnout
or demoralization, for example, and therefore pursuing the wrong
solutions to get help,” says Froehlich.
2. Maintain boundaries
Administrators need to respect faculty work-life balance. “If you are
going to send an email at 6 pm, for example, make sure your faculty
understands that you do not expect a response at night,” says
Froehlich. “When I was a tech director, sometimes I would email late at
night, not because I was expecting my staff to respond immediately, but
because it was only time that I could get to my email. This needs to be
communicated.”
Reducing teacher workload by ensuring every step in new initiatives has
a purpose can help as well. This can be accomplished by eliminating
unnecessary compliance-type of activities. “Do not ask your teachers to
give themselves up for their work,” says Froehlich. “They will try to
do this on their own naturally and don’t need help in that.”
3. Understand complexities of mental health insurance
Districts have the responsibility to know how their insurance operates
so faculty and staff can efficiently seek help when needed since
teachers suffering from compassion fatigue or vicarious trauma do not
have the capacity to do so continuously. “To get the point across, I
often tell a true story about a time when I was having a significant
bout of depression and had to call 14 or 15 different people on our
insurance list just to get an appointment that was three months out,”
says Froehlich. “Even though your insurance says that a doctor’s office
is taking new patients, they sometimes aren’t. Understanding the
insurance that is being purchased and their commitment to maintaining
their databases, updating their information, and supporting an easy
mental health process is imperative.”
Leaders could work with community mental health professionals to
schedule time for them to come into the schools to work with teachers
and students. “Teachers aren’t going to take time out of their day to
get a counselor until their condition gets so bad they can’t stand it.
To make services convenient and accessible is a more proactive
approach,” says Froehlich.
She adds, “Teachers have to be the ones to say, ‘Oh, I recognize this
in myself and I want to get better.’ The best thing that administrators
can do is provide the education and support so that teachers can take
that next step on their own.”
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