[ GROVES' COMMITMENT TO MENTAL HEALTH ]
The Connection Between Mental Health and Academic Success Students' mental health and academic success continue to be at the forefront at Groves Academy, especially given the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent life stressors. These recent challenges made it abundantly clear how closely academic success and mental health are connected. The association between learning disabilities and mental health concerns has always existed. Often, there are co-occurring mental health concerns or other neurodevelopmental disorders present. Although the causes are not 100% clear, these connections are likely due to some combination of genetic, cognitive, and environmental factors. The relationship is symbiotic between mental health and academic achievement. Acknowledging this, Groves created a Mental Health Task Force (MHTF) with the purpose of bringing together a multidisciplinary team
12 CONNECTIONS | SUMMER 2021
made up of counselors, psychologists, and school administrators to support the mental health needs of our students. The goal is to use a systematic screening process that will allow Groves to identify students' social, emotional, and behavioral needs and create a plan to continue to support their mental health needs. This past school year the MHTF created a universal screening procedure that allowed the team to identify students who are either at-risk for or experiencing difficulties with social, emotional, or behavioral skills. Next, a parent survey was compiled to obtain a better understanding of our students' current mental health needs. Lastly, the task force piloted the new universal screening procedures with a small subtest of students to determine feasibility of this system.
