Frustration-Free Wellness Center
DBHS is to implement a new room to help students deal with stress.
September 10, 2014
When things become too overburdening, everyone needs something to fall back on. At a school as competitive as Diamond Bar High School, high stress levels are simply inevitable yet students had not place to vent their anxieties– until now.
Principal Catherine Real and Vice Principal John Terry plan on introducing the Wellness Center, a program aimed to serve as an outlet for students under unhealthy loads of pressure and bring balance into their hectic lives. This was the “missing piece” of the otherwise prestigious DB community, as Terry described it.
“This was an idea that Principal Real and [Vice] Principal Terry had, to have a place on campus where students could go if they were in a crisis and needed some help with how to manage those emotions, express them properly, and identify where they came from,” Stacey Woodward, school psychologist, said.
Although still in development, the Wellness Center will be located in room 254. Administrators hope to have it up and running before the end of finals week. The center may also have multiple contributors, including Woodward, Peer Counseling, part-time psychologists and psychology interns. Terry is expected to oversee the program.
At the Wellness Center, distressed students would not only express and vent their emotions, but also learn more about what they are facing and develop a plan to secure their emotional stability in the future. Some components of the plan of action include participating in guided meditation, learning more about psychiatric issues and their triggers, and developing a proactive attitude toward overcoming emotional turmoil. Additionally, developers plan to have a library for students to access and gather information about particular mental health problems.
A major contributor to anxiety and stress levels among students is the competitive environment of DBHS, which makes them prone to mental instability. The academic pressure produced by homework, impending exams, and expectations from parents all serve as stressors that often cause psychiatric issues.
“I have students that put an incredible amount of pressure on themselves; they want to take schedules that are very, very demanding in terms of [academics], and they want every single one of their classes to be very demanding, for the entire four years that they are here. It’s an overwhelming amount of work that they have to do, and that creates stress,” Woodward said.
Meanwhile, the causes of mental instability do not stop with academics pressure; social factors of adolescence and emotional sensitivity that come with high school also play a significant part in creating the “perfect storm.”
Students are encouraged to take part in the program, which administrators said will be maintained with individual confidentiality in mind. The administrators’ ultimate goal for the Wellness Center is to provide a “non-threatening” environment where students will be free to speak about their issues and get burdens off their chest.
“I’m hoping students will take advantage of it the way it’s intended to be taken advantage of,” Woodward said. “There are a lot of students who could benefit from this.”
