In When Data and Hope Join Forces for Kids Mental Health, Dr. Rich Gilman and Dr. Kevin Jamison join Travis Nipper to discuss the synergy of Terrace Metrics and Grant Us Hope’s Hope Squads. They share the impacts in Princeton City Schools and how parents and educators can use the power of these tools for mental health together.
Listen to Episode 6
Travis introduces our guests, Dr. Rich Gilman and Dr. Kevin Jamison (1:27)
Dr. Gilman begins his introduction sharing how he has spent the last 30 years as a clinical psychologist analyzing indicators of optimal functioning in children. He then stepped away from academic settings to run Terrace Metrics to further this study (2:20)
Dr. Jamison then jumps in to introduce himself. He is currently the director of human resources at Princeton City Schools but has 14 years of experience in special education and service delivery, counseling and teaching, as well as administration (3:26)
Dr. Gilman continues by sharing perspective from Terrace Metrics and how they have a focus on all students and not just the ones that specifically come to them (4:23)
He then goes further to explain Terrace Metrics. He says that it is a cloud-based service provided to schools that works with trained response teams and calculates a report of behavioral health data gained from surveys given to students (6:50)
Dr. Jamison then provides an explanation of Princeton City Schools as a large, diverse population and how it is important for them to have a variety of response services to support all of the social and emotional needs of the students. He additionally speaks about how Terrace Metrics has allowed them to take a more proactive approach compared to the reactive practice in the past. He further explained the training process his response team underwent and how they now use the information to identify targeted grade levels in order to begin identifying which forms of guidance lessons would be most effective in fostering the social and emotional health of students both individually and as a whole (8:58)
Dr. Gilman takes over to explain the different levels of support offered under the Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) model. He notes that the first tier is the preventative step, level two is smaller group services with students who have been identified as potentially at-risk or near the threshold, and finally the third tier includes students who have been identified as needing extra support procedures. He outlines how students are placed on a spectrum of risk and how different levels can be judged based on data like curricular outcomes (15:24)
Travis then asks what they have seen at the state level. Dr. Gilman continues to talk about how he has found that the state is searching for the most effective process in identifying and monitoring the mental health of students (18:53)
Dr. Jamison adds that he has similarly seen the fragmented processes of each school within the state and an overall lack of uniformity. Furthermore, he talks about how Terrance Metrics allows responders and practitioners to operate from the same platform of data in order to get everyone involved in the student’s monitoring to be on the same page (19:59)
Dr. Gilman jumps in to highlight that the community as a whole is what is needed to create positive impact. He goes further to note that the system also generates a report for parents to look through and identify areas that they could assist their child (23:09)
Dr. Jamison adds that this allows parents to see the situation through multiple lenses and how it is very important for them to hear from those multiple viewpoints in order to paint a full picture of what they should know about the support their children is receiving (24:20)
Travis next asks Dr. Jamison how parents can support their children as they return to school. Dr. Jamison replies by noting how important socialization is in all facets, and how that has been drastically changed due to remote learning. He continues to speak about the importance of this socialization to continue with peers and not only teachers and school employees in order to facilitate the social growth of students (25:30)
Taking a look at the synergy between Terrance Metrics and Grant Us Hope’s Hope Squads. Dr. Gilman explains from his end that the information they are providing is being taken and addressed with effective reinforcement (30:00)
Dr. Jamison adds from a school’s viewpoint that they have had tragic experiences where they’ve realized that they had the need for identification practices as well as a support system that would allow them to address these identified issues. He discusses how the process has been inclusive of a variety of student voices as well. Further, he talks about how the data they received from Terrance Metrics is how they were able to direct Hope Squad members to students who were at risk. He specifically addressed how the Hope Squad at their middle school level still remained very active despite the shutdown that came with the pandemic. (31:03)
Dr. Gilman then goes to speak on teachers and how important it is to keep up with their health. He shares his concern with the health of those who have been focusing so much on the needs of the students, and how they have designed a special system for teachers and administrators. He notes that the monitoring part is what differs most, and how that is outsourced to a third party if it would not be handled by the Terrance Metrics team in order to secure maximum privacy. He notes that metrics have allowed them to challenge senses of normalcy that come more easily with our behavioral health (36:26)
Travis now introduces the mic drop tradition, starting with Dr. Jamison who focuses on the power of Hope Squad in the overall community. He shares that he serves as a mentor to young kids and his experience of one child telling him that he had a friend who he was concerned about. Dr. Jamison was able to then contact that other child’s school district who also have Hope Squads present, where they were then able to reach out to the student and his family to connect them with mental health support programs (42:00)
Dr. Gilman’s mic drop focuses on how adversity has pushed innovation and how he has taken this as a reminder to stop admiring the problem and to get out there and do something about it (45:41)
Guest:
Dr. Rich Gilman, Founder, Hope Squad – LinkedIn Profile
Dr. Kevin Jamison, Gilman, Founder, Hope Squad – LinkedIn Profile
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