By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Two school psychologists from the Hays West Central Kansas Special Education Coop were recently honored for being top in their field.

Julie Zollinger, HMS school psychologist, was recognized for her work to bring a program to HMS that seeks to identify youth suffering from depression.

The Sign of Suicide (SOS) program began as a pilot program at Hays Middle School with a group of eighth-grade students last school year. This year, the program has been rolled out to the entire eighth grade.

Zollinger helped spearhead this program and was awarded the Edna Harrison Pioneer Award by the Kansas Association of School Psychologists.

The SOS program seeks to:

• educate students about the link between mental illness and suicide
• teach that suicide is, most often, a fatal response to a treatable disorder–depression
• encourage individuals to seek help from adults
• encourages students to seek help when they are concerned about themselves or a friend

The initial funding for program came from the USD 489 Foundation for Education Excellence. HMS Home and School and a donation from Golden Plains Credit Union helped support the program this year.

Students watch a video and receive a newsletter. To complete the session, they must fill out a depression screening and hand in a response card indicating if they are concerned about themselves or a friend.

During the pilot program, the organizers received several cards from students who were referred for further screening and treatment.

“We had a self report from a student who no one knew was actually struggling with depression. The student was very involved in school. Many teachers knew the student personally. Staff members knew the student,” Zollinger said. “The student reported to us, and the student was in significant crisis. That opened the door to say the student was having these symptoms. ‘I need to tell someone because this is not normal for me to be feeling this way.’

“The counselors and I have said it was so worth it for that one student, who was hiding it very well. The student was suffering in silence. This opened the door for the student to get help.”

Students are asked to write down on their exit cards who they see as trusted adults in their lives. Often those people are parents and other family members, but sometimes they are teachers.

“If we don’t know who that student is, we notify the teachers, ‘You have been identified as a trusted adult.’ They may have no idea who it is,” Zollinger said. “It could be a student in their class who doesn’t seem to engage or [the teacher may not] really think of themselves as a trusted adult, but they have touched one person.

“That’s why it is important to have the adults familiar with SOS — what to say or what to do if a kiddo comes up and says, ‘I don’t want to be here anymore. I want to kill myself.’ It’s scary. Giving teachers and parents the tools to respond to that is a huge part of suicide prevention.”

The next round of SOS classes for students will start on Nov. 5.

If the logistics go well with the eighth-grade class, school officials hope to roll out the program to the whole school, but the school needs more mental health providers to expand the program.

“It is much more challenging to do this for 230 eighth-graders versus our pilot program, which was about 70 students,” she said.

Zollinger was also recognized for a program she launched that allowed students to check in through their iPads and show their mood for the day. The model used is called the Zones of Regulation.

She said more work is needed on this program to make it a practical daily tool for middle school students. She is working with IT to refine the program.

Zollinger, 48, also won the School Psychologist of the Year Award from the KASP for the 2015-16 school year. She has worked as a school psychologist in Hays for 20 years.

She said she has seen an increase in awareness regarding mental health among young people and in schools. When she started as a school psychologist, schools did not talk about suicide, suicide prevention or self-harm.

“We knew it was happening, but as far as the reporting of self harm and self injury … And suicide, if someone died, adult or child died by suicide, it was not talked about,” Zollinger said.

Zollinger was humble about her accolades.

“I look at my job. I want to help kids and families and staff members be the best they can … I want them to get better—to reach out and get help,” she said.

She added, “I am being recognized for things I want to do anyway.”

Vickie Unruh

Vickie Unruh, school psychologist for the district’s early childhood programs, was named School Psychologist of the Year by the KASP.

She has been a school psychologist for 29 years, 17 years of which have been with the Hays Coop.

Unruh said she decided to become a school psychologist while working as a paraeducator in college. She said she found a passion for working with the youngest children in the system.

“After working as a para, I really fell in love with special education and believed in the value of those services, and it lead into school psychology,” she said.

Unruh is usually the first person parents meet when their child is being considered for the special education program. She often screens children at about age 2-1/2 as they are getting ready to transfer out of their birth to 3 program.

She said parents can find it difficult to come to terms with the fact their child may have delays.

Kyle Carlin, assistant director of special education, in his nomination of Unruh for the award, commended her for the thoughtful and understanding manner she approaches parents.

Unruh said she tries to meet parents in an informal setting first, usually in their own home, before they have to go through the formal process of singing forms. She also evaluates the children in their homes if they have not started preschool yet.

“I try to talk about their strengths as well as their weaknesses,” she said, “and just to get to know them as a family and get to know that child.”

Unruh also co-coordinates the coop’s Autism Intervention Team, which is comprised of 10 members with varying specialties.

The teams offers behavioral, educational, instructional suggestion for the school teams to use with individual students on the autism spectrum. The team also offers screenings for autism.

Unruh thanked her administration team of Carlin and Coop Director Chris Hipp for their support and nomination.