Kalispell Schools new suicide prevention specialist focuses on health, wellness
The Daily Inter LakeApr 18, 2022
Apr. 18—Serving as the
The position is starting to take shape as Dorrington works to assess what the needs are and what work the district has done in the areas of health, wellness and suicide prevention. Dorrington, a 1996
"In the month that I've been here I've taken part in these student-led initiative groups where they're talking about what they may need from their school programs — in the school environment — to better help them grow and become resilient and self-aware," Dorrington said. "We've taken a look at our crisis response procedures and we're trying to streamline those."
The position is new to the district and is funded by a
"In light of the suicide cluster [in 2020-21], and navigating the pandemic, what we realized was there were mental health and wellness needs of both students and staff that we really wanted to address not only as a reactive measure but also as a prevention measure," said
WHILE HE has a degree in psychology, Dorrington said he won't be working directly with students in that capacity.
"We have school counselors, school psychologists, we have mental health providers in the community, so I view it [the position] as a more collaborative, bigger-picture effort to bring the different pieces of the community together to bring more seamless types of services," he said.
Another goal for the position is finding out what support parents need.
"One of our major goals is to have a 'parent university,' or some kind of parent support system, to not only let them know what resources are available out there but ways to simply talk to your kids a little bit better," Dorrington said.
Dorrington and Cole agreed that students are coming to school with a broad range of needs that schools are trying to meet by equipping students with skills so they can problem-solve, self-regulate and be self-aware in a changing landscape.
"I think the environment of school is changing. Kids are dealing with just a ton of issues they just didn't have to deal with, you know, 10 or 15 years ago. Whether it's issues they are dealing with at home, or on social media," Dorrington said.
"I don't think people realize the extent," he added. "Some young people are having difficulties in navigating this world right now. I mean they've had this whole social media dynamic that none of us really went through. They've had a pandemic they've just gone through."
There's been a nationwide shift in schools' focus from physical safety to emotional safety, he notes.
"Just this last week, in a webinar, the
Dorrington, who joined the district from his previous position as the social services director at Immanuel Lutheran Home, said he took the specialist position out of a desire to work with youth again.
After graduating from
DORRINGTON BELIEVES working with youth offers more potential to affect change and prevent problems down the line.
"Ultimately, I think if you can give young people tools to be able to stop generational dysfunction — then we can start to change the landscape of society, right?" Dorrington said.
It's challenging to break behavioral patterns once established, according to Dorrington.
"Dysfunction breeds dysfunction and if we can intervene early with the youth on that I think that's really where change is going to come in our society," he said.
Dorrington, who grew up in
The inspiration to go into psychology came during his time at
"I had a really super-cool psychology teacher that definitely got me interested in it — Mr. [
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