Back to School: Parental Mental Health

Christa Butler:

Welcome to the Voice of Counseling from the American Counseling Association. I'm Christa Butler, and joining me today is school counselor, Mr. Steve Sharp, who is here to talk about supporting parents and families through school and community engagement. Steve Sharp is a school counselor and K through 12 school counseling coordinator with the Hempfield School District in Pennsylvania. Steve is a past president of the Pennsylvania School Counselor Association, and he was named the 2017 Pennsylvania Middle School Counselor of the Year.

Christa Butler:

Steve, thank you so much for joining us today to discuss parental mental health and how school counselors and providers can support students and parents as we approach starting the new school year. But before we get started, I thought that maybe our listeners tuning in may want to know more about your school counseling journey. We may have some folks that are listening who wants to become a school counselor. Could you share a little bit about your journey to becoming a school counselor?

Steve Sharp:

Yeah. First, I just have to thank you. I'm really humbled to be here, I love the Voices of Counseling podcast. I remember watching it with Ken S. Butler and Cortland Lee, and so to be here as a Black school counselor right now, it's incredibly humbling. And just, I'm overwhelmed to be here, particularly to be in the esteemed company of another famous Butler.

Steve Sharp:

My school counseling journey, I actually started in behavioral health. My role was called an "access clinician". What we did was physician-assisted evaluations for inpatient hospitalization, partial hospitalization, outpatient psychiatry, and then also I worked crisis intervention out of the emergency rooms. It was an amazing job, actually. It was high-intensityco, but it was fantastic. But the worst day of everyone's life was my four or five times a day, five or six days a week. And it was fulfilling work just being able to work with children, their families, older adults just in those sensitive or critical moments, and help to be part of that turn.

Steve Sharp:

But you can only ask yourself what could have gone differently so many times before you say, really, what could have gone differently? And that's how I fell in love with school counseling. I saw it was a unique opportunity where I could bring some of the experiences, skillsets, just the shared narratives and stories that the families were experiencing, and just hand that back to help navigate the system that I knew was already really complex when it came to accessing even simple outpatient services, let alone more intensive services. Understanding what those early warning signs look like, and then trying to empower students and their families to navigate that. That's how I found my way into school counseling. I did that while working nice at the hospital then, until I got through very quickly.

Steve Sharp:

I then just found myself into an elementary school position. Really early on they asked me if I wanted to do middle school, and I said, "Is there a paycheck involved?" And they said, "Yes." I said, "We have a deal." But really, this is where I've been ever since then. It's provided me a lot of opportunity to work with amazing and great staff, both educationally and when we talk about our school counseling staff here. And then in addition to that, what's been really rewarding is it's provided me other opportunities to explore both school-based mental health, community mental health, and educational and counseling leadership, and what that looks like really across the state and nation.

Christa Butler:

Awesome. Well, thank you first of all for being here, and accepting the invitation. And it sounds like, from your experience in outpatient mental health that you're able to pull those things in to benefit the students in the families that you're currently serving as a school counselor and school coordinator. I think that is amazing that you have both the experience in the mental health side of things and then the experience that you have from being a school counselor for over the years as well. Thank you for sharing a little bit about your background and what helped you into your path of being a school counselor currently.

Christa Butler:

In 2021, the US Surgeon General issued an advisory on youth mental health, speaking to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has had on exacerbating the unprecedented stressors already faced by the youth. And we've continued to face alarming rates of suicide, anxiety and depression since then. And so, I'm curious if you could share with us, because we hear about these things on a larger scale in the news and in social media. But could you tell us more about, what are you seeing firsthand as far as the impact on students and their parents and the different things that you're seeing in your school as far as mental health?

Steve Sharp:

Yeah. What we understand, whether we look at parents report. Morgan Stanley had a great report done, whether it be student self-reports as well, where you can look at the youth risk survey. What we understand is when it comes to students, when it comes to depression, anxiety, suicidality, is yes, it's different. And yes, it's more. We were looking at a youth mental health crisis before the pandemic, absolutely. But if you look at even the most recent youth risk survey data, we understand. Whereas we've seen some improvement in many different areas including things like substance abuse and pregnancy. What we haven't seen a change in, what we've seen an acute change in is in youth mental health. How it's shown in our students, it is a lot of different ways. It can be in just more generalized reports of things like depression, anxiety, feelings of hopelessness.

Steve Sharp:

What we understand we're seeing happen in our emergency departments is more referrals for suicide related behaviors in addition to suicidal ideation. That's something that we need to have a lot of intention towards. We can even look outside those when we looked at things like the safe to say, where we're having separate automated features, analyze student language, we can see that there are a lot of proportion when it comes to suicide risk or self-injury or bullying being present in those things at rates never seen before. And these are things that we need to stop and really take a question as far as, what are the factors driving it? We understand that absolutely there are many different factors that were driving it well before the pandemic, let alone now. Some of those things that we can talk about is access to high quality mental health services and ready access to it.

Steve Sharp:

We understand access to qualified mental health professionals. Even when we talk about universal levels, like school-based mental health professionals, like school counselors. We understand really across this great state like Pennsylvania, let alone nationally, is those are drawn along colored lines. Our students' access for things like school counselor are disproportionate to then access to a school resource officer who is not trained in mental health, let alone deescalation for their students. And we needed to ask ourselves, what are the systemic structures we put in place to support all students?

Steve Sharp:

And in addition to that, we understand in addition to that, that many of our parents who were frontline workers providing those care for all of us while we're stuck at home, more often than not they were Black and brown people. But in addition to that, what we understand is even things I've seen is my students who had parents who were, frankly, healthcare providers running that direct service work as well. Our students whose parents were educators trying to lead and provide support for their students while they're providing support for their own children, those have created significant strain. And it's not just about the good job or who's knowledgeable, it's about some of these fundamental things, early identification, access to care, and those are some things that are systemic barriers.

Steve Sharp:

We understand when it comes to some of the work that happens when it comes to parents it's like sometimes there'll be a narrative that has been either explicitly spoken or unspoken that our parents are the barriers. What we understand is our parents are also our best tools when it comes to supporting our students' mental health. And frankly, in some ways our systems are the barriers for our students accessing the systems of support at the same time. That's where I think a conversation, and we've seen an increased rise for conversations as far as what school and school-based mental health looks like, is that much more important because we just have a larger network already surrounding our students in many different areas, even though a need for [inaudible 00:08:19] repair in a lot of different ways at the same time.

Christa Butler:

Right. It sounds like there's a need for legislative changes, a need for financial benefit as well as far as equipping schools with the needed resources financially, and both with being able to have the appropriate number of staff to meet the needs throughout the school district as well. I think you touched on it when you said the systemic and structural barriers that are contributing significantly to the challenges that you are experiencing, and that school counselors everywhere that we're seeing in schools and what we're seeing with youth. And then obviously the stressors that the stress that has on parents as well. Can you share more about, what are some ways that you and your colleagues are responding to the mental health needs of parents and students, specifically at your school and in your school district?

Steve Sharp:

Yeah, there are a few different ways. And what we understand, some of the most clear recommendations is when we look to some of the recommendations either on the CARES or ACES, is applying that money not just to ventilation systems but to staffing. And so some of the things that we've done here is, to be clear, in addition to our school counseling staff, which we run a wide range of ratios, but we've also expanded our school-based therapy. We have a clear articulation agreement that we continue to expand with a local partner community services group to provide school-based therapists that are salaried. Which again, our district doesn't pay their salaries, they're paid through the behavioral health provider. And we're able, because we understand there's a need in schools and a direct referral mechanism, so we are able to provide them with a steady client list that they're able to meet, expand their staffing, and we're able to really provide that.

Steve Sharp:

One thing that we do fundamentally to do that is we have worked with the state of Pennsylvania to pilot a mental health screening for youth for years now, over a half decade. And so we have a fundamental mechanism where we don't have to wait for our students to be in crisis. We can simply ask them the question, are you okay? In many different ways to create very clear referral mechanisms or tie them into school-based supports, like small group counseling, or just for target interventions after that. We've also used that same mind to expand what would be our student support network, which is called our Student Assistance programs here in Pennsylvania. Where we actually have a clinician come in and do drug and alcohol and mental health assessments with students, and also meet with students regularly that may or may not be in one of those insurance gap areas, or having trouble to ready access care from an outpatient standpoint. Or just work with our school teams as far as recommendations and supports and services.

Steve Sharp:

In addition to that, one thing that we try to do as a district is to reinvest when it provides some of the social emotional learning tools for our students, including things like Second Step. Because we understand our teachers have been trying to be more intentional, have been asking for more language tools to provide our students with the support that they need on a day-to-day basis. And so having a cohesive language that's used across the district, let alone across the building. That our teachers don't have to recreate the wheel and can provide some of those language tools when it comes to either self-awareness, or whether it be self-management, or the complex social relationships that our students had really interrupted along the way and help them to further have responsible decision-making from there.

Steve Sharp:

Those are some tools that we understand. Those are legitimate skills that can be taught. And there's a robust amount of evidence in the literature on the outcomes of these effects when it improves academics, reduces office referrals, or attendance, attendance, attendance. We can create schools and communities of caring. It's just about, again, having these policies and practices of care at the same time.

Christa Butler:

That's amazing. It sounds like you all are utilizing a combination of community-based services and having that relationship with the providers in your community, while also increasing some of the prevention and mental health supports within the school system itself. And so it sounds like is definitely, like you said, community of care approach to both provide the supports while students are at school, but also recognizing the whole person and the family systems that they live in and that the needs are going to be beyond the school setting as well. And so that's where you have the community based supports perhaps that are available for both the students and their parents, and the family in general as well. I think that's amazing that your school district is providing all those services.

Steve Sharp:

And to stay off if. The one part is just the unique nature of how I fell in love with school counseling. If you read some of our guiding documents, our legacy documents, our at school standards. I remember I was in theory and practice or internship or something like that and we're reading through these ethical standards, and they talked about school counselors being systems change agents and providing support through systems of care instead of just individual counseling. I do individual counseling, I love individual counseling. But what does it mean to provide systemic support for your students and your clients? What does that actually mean?

Steve Sharp:

And so I had to, really just because I have thick glasses and a bow tie, I started to look to see what is system design, what does that mean? And we understand there are lots of these different systems, whether it be the education system, whether it be the outpatient therapeutic system, or the inpatient therapeutic system, or the partial hospitalization system. Whether it be community based systems. We understand all these are really different systems even though they all fall under mental health or under education. And understanding how they could all interact or be leveraged against each other, the expected outcome of each in addition to that. And then trying to interweave that to our school's goals, in this case to reduce barriers to education, for instance. Those are things that the more that we understand a systems design approach as school counselors, the better we are uniquely positioned to support our students.

Steve Sharp:

Because unlike if I'm in my outpatient office, for instance, I have a chance to actually walk in and see my student live and see if they're applying the skills live in a setting that they're in, frankly, during the school week more than they're at home sometimes. And I can see them apply those skills. I can get additional feedback not just from their parents, guardians, and caregivers, but from school officials as well. I can go NFL and I can go right to watching it on a tape if I really wanted to. And we can then use all these different datasets, reporters and information to really see if the interventions that we are designing are leading to the expected outcome. If not, refine them. And it's a very exciting time. I feel like technology and innovation can really align with our ways that we really aspire to support individuals and the true complexities that they are in really unique ways.

Christa Butler:

Yeah. No, I couldn't agree more. And I think that part of what you're speaking to as well is how to work with students and family more ecologically. And so thinking about the whole picture, not just how they're doing at school, but just how they're doing in their overall functioning, and providing the supports that are needed from a more holistic perspective. And then also thinking about the needs and how they might look different in different settings.

Christa Butler:

At school there are some specific things that perhaps you as the school counselor or the school-based mental health professionals may be able to hone in on. But in the community with, for example, the outpatient therapist, their focus may be a little bit different. And so I think it's really cool that you all are doing that work. I want to ask you all, I understand that you're a nationally certified school suicide prevention specialist. That's a mouthful. And that you're continuing to work with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to pilot the electronic behavioral health screening for schools. And so, could you tell us more about what your school district is doing specifically for suicide prevention as well?

Steve Sharp:

Yeah, I can talk about that. We piloted for the first five years the initial launch of the program for the state. In the school safety report, 2017, they talked about this practice as far as screening students as far as a violence prevention strategy. And I was like, oh, that's pretty cool, because I know where that's happening at. It's happening right here at my school. When we talk about it, we partnered with Drexel University, and MD Logics is the name of the company, to administer an electronic questionnaire. Electronic questionnaire really has a series of validated questions for ages 12 and up in areas of anxiety, depression, bullying, substance abuse, psychosis, trauma, and suicide risk. And the value for that is just one of those things is what we understand is our students are not always externalizing in their behaviors.

Steve Sharp:

And many of our students who are concerned, particularly before they're at a crisis point, they've been carrying this and showing you this for a long time. And simply, if given the right opportunity, would welcome an opportunity to share those experiences. One thing that we're doing unique about it, which isn't terribly unique, if you start tracking your schoolwork data as school counselors are trained to, not just track school-wide data when it comes to attendance, office referrals, and academics. We're also trained to look at our own data and our own use of time. And we start looking at things like the frequency of your referrals. You understand August, September, all right, but then you hit October, and then you don't stop from then. We really work with our staff to be intentional about administering our universal screens in September so we could hit them before we hit the wave of referrals that we know are going to happen before the crisis point, and then we could start making referrals earlier on. I thought that was a big value add to the services that we provide as well.

Steve Sharp:

And another part is really talking about, our goal is not to find students that are suicidal. Our goal is not to identify students who are depressed. Our goal is to have a healthy school community. And as a healthy school community, are students going to participate to identify early on concerns for depression, anxiety, or suicide risk? The answer is, yes. Are they going to support this friend who might be afraid to take it by themself? The answer is, yes. And are they going to just make sure that all of our students participate at a high volume so that no student is afraid to ask the question, are you okay? The answer to that is also, yes. And it's something that I celebrate as far as both the maturity and initiative that our students take to have a healthy school environment.

Steve Sharp:

And one of those things, again, is trying to talk and educate our students, whether it be through classroom lessons or other educational materials that mental health is not just about pathology. Mental health is not just about depression, anxiety. Mental health, like our physical health, is about ongoing maintenance of our health through healthy behaviors and taking time to check in as well. And we can normalize those practices with our mental health as we do for our physical health. We understand these are going to be the true foundations when it comes to both healing, recovery, and wellness.

Christa Butler:

It sounds like early intervention and prevention, and community engagement within the school itself, because you spoke to the piece about how students can be involved in supporting the overall community within the school setting as well. I'm curious, what are your thoughts or suggestions that you may have for providers and parents on what their role is in supporting students who might be experiencing suicidal ideations, or are in need of some support in terms of suicide prevention?

Steve Sharp:

Yeah, there's some great things. We understand all of our providers, and really our parents, should take some time to understand some of the basic warning signs when it comes to suicide risk. And in addition to that, to suicide intervention. Programs like QPR, question, persuade, refer, can be a great tool in addition to that. Right now, we understand in addition to that, the Columbia screen has had a lot of great guides out there for asking questions. Here in Pennsylvania, we are starting to pilot an app as well. The biggest things that we understand that save lives that educators can do, that parents can do, is just to seek out training. We understand training is increasingly viable and can decrease suicide risk in a lot of different ways and help to increase health seeking behaviors. And then in addition to that, it's just to know where are the places to get for help.

Steve Sharp:

Like, 988 is a great resource out there that we understand here in the state of Pennsylvania and nationally is having additional money invested in to streamline those services and continue to buttress them a little bit more. In addition to that, the crisis text line, which is 741, 741 that you had talk or your state, or whatever you wish. Those could be great resources as well to make sure we understand there are some places to connect students and children, and frankly adults who are at risk at different points, to someone to train in those second steps. But what we understand at the same time is to understand a few different things. If you have concern for your child and have concerns like they might be experiencing suicide risk. The first part is say, they might be. If we look to the youth risk survey for instance, there's numbers are somewhere between one and four and one and five at this point.

Steve Sharp:

If we are having a high number of students who are experiencing things like suicide risk, but at the same point what we understand is we also have students have a lot of different resiliency, skills embedded at the same time. From a clinician standpoint, understanding practices like not just suicide risk assessment, but also safety planning. And the values of understanding the balance of resilience and risk at the same time. And you have meaningful and collaborative conversations with your clients and their families can be one way to make sure that they're further invested in treatment. Far too often, both as a school counselor, let alone as a community-based mental health professional, we see.

Steve Sharp:

We as clinicians, sometimes it brings in a emotional response for us. We don't want to do something wrong because we really care about the individual in front of us. But we care about the individual in front us so much that we don't engage with the individual in front of us and take time to hear their narrative. And understand not just that there's risk involvement, but we care about you so much, we're going to sit in this uncomfortable place because we want to ease your suffering at the same time.

Christa Butler:

It's engaging the families and engaging parents. But I also heard you speak to helping parents to recognize what are some of those warning signs, those early warning signs, and helping them to have an understanding of what to look for. What are those signs that my child might be experiencing suicidal ideations, or depression or anxiety? And then helping them to be aware of the resources and supports that exist both within the school setting as well as the community. I'm curious also, because we were talking earlier about the engagement between community-based supports and school-based supports. And for mental health counselors specifically, I'm curious what thoughts do you have about how mental health counselors can work with school counselors more collaboratively when it comes to supporting students and parents? What are some things that you would suggest would be helpful for, let's say you're an outpatient therapist or a private practice therapist and you're working with a student who perhaps is in need of some additional support in the school setting. What do you suggest in terms of how mental health counselors can work with school counselors?

Steve Sharp:

They just need to fix the kids and be done with it. No, I'm just kidding. When we talk about some things, there are a lot of practical things. The biggest tool is to the degree they use it is one thing, but making sure that there's a sign release of information and working to educate the family about aspiring to have a collaborative relationship with the students, the parents, guardian, caregivers, the school, and the clinician is fundamental. In part of our approach here at school counselors, we wrote that into our ethical standards because we feel like that is something that we aspire to do. And we understand that that's something that we need from our clinical counselors as well, because we understand that provides the best outcomes. A solid release of information is probably the best foundation.

Steve Sharp:

Separate to that, what we understand to be a few different things in addition to that as well, is a lot of our school counselors, particularly whether or not that was their original training or not, we understand we are the frontline when it comes to school-based mental health treatment for our students. And so understanding that sometimes having a treatment summary of things that you're doing, particularly you're doing like DBT or CBT strategies, and you have a coping card or something like that. We would love to see that at schools because we can provide brief interventions for our students, review these strategies and make sure there's a continuity of care, and then get them back to class.

Steve Sharp:

If we're understanding, particularly if you're considering referring a student for higher levels of treatment or care, particularly when we talk about IOP or partial hospitalization, or if you think your child needs to be hospitalized. These are going to be some things that are going to be great resources to share back for the school because it asks a few different questions. One, we can make sure that interruption to their education is something that is as least interrupted as possible. We can take steps to either provide them with the tools or resources to maintain their education, work with their teachers to identify the essential elements to provide while they're receiving treatment or after the fact. Or work for other educational options, whether it be home bound or something like that, depending on what their treatment progress looks like.

Steve Sharp:

Separate to that, what we understand to be true is we want to make sure we're applying appropriate supports and services. And if a child's receiving some of those higher levels of care, including things like a partial hospitalization or inpatient hospitalization, I'm not saying every time, but schools should start legitimately asking if this child needs more intensive supports either under the American Disabilities Act, section 504, or under IDA at the same point. And your level of awareness and then advocacy for your client can help us as counselors, or school entities, make sure that we're providing the school-based supports while they gain the community-based supports at the same time.

Steve Sharp:

And absolutely, when we talk about things like suicide risk, we understand. As someone who has had training under a zero suicide model, those transition points are really important and need to have a higher level of communication, and that's just frankly not always happening at the same time. So having clear communication, not just with the family and the supports and structures in place, but also in the school as well. Just to be clear, during the hours of the school day we still honor and respect the sovereignty of our parents, and guardians, when it comes to supporting their child. But we are also legally parents of that child during the school day, and we want to make sure that we care for them in the same ways. And so having cohesive information when it comes to aftercare planning, treatment recommendations.

Steve Sharp:

And again, this is through coaching support and cohesive communication. We are not trying to infringe on a child's privacy, but we are trying to make sure that we have a cohesive network of support. And with an absence of cohesive communication, the reality is there are large gaps that children could fall through when it comes to their mental health and school systems if we're not being proactive with our communication.

Steve Sharp:

I really celebrate the work that I've had with my community-based partners, particularly with partial inpatient and partial hospitalization. Because we've been able to get some good [inaudible 00:28:14] tools to make sure we have a cohesive network of support for our students when they transition. But I make sure to hold us to having transition meetings after any partial or inpatient hospitalization to make sure we're not missing anything, and work with them to make sure we're having clear treatment recommendations, both in safety planning, any coping strategies and skills, any practical applications or recommendations they have for skills. It's this weird thing, we got into schools because of the money and fame. No, we actually got into schools because we like working and supporting with children. So we're always going to be clear in welcoming the feedback that you have as far as outpatient providers to guide our treatment and support our kids here.

Christa Butler:

There are so many important points that you touched on. The big piece to it that I'm also taking away from this is that-

Steve Sharp:

The money and fame?

Christa Butler:

Is so much of it is awesome. That it's so important for us to advocate for our clients and advocate for the continuity of care, and to make sure that we're doing our due diligence. Of course, with that release of information because we want to do it ethically, but we also want to make sure that our students are getting the appropriate level of support that they're in need of in the school setting. And you spoke to the importance of communication and the importance of how school counselors and mental health providers in the community can work together to best support that student in utilizing some of those skills and tools that they may be learning with their mental health provider.

Christa Butler:

And so, I am an advocate of, like you said, system of care, and how we can work together to best support the child's needs and the family's needs into inpatient setting back into the school. That transition is perhaps as smooth as possible. And of course there may be times where there's advocacy as it pertains to having different plans in place, whether that's an IEP, or a 504 plan. Those things are important for mental health providers to collaborate with school counselors to share those insights in terms of how the student perhaps could be receiving some supports that may not already be in place.

Steve Sharp:

You touched on one point that just may... Specifically to our counselor educators and our other trained staff. Looking back to my own training and to the graduate students that I work with, there is a lot of emphasis when it comes to our ethical training, our practice training. When it comes to privacy violation and the importance of confidentiality. And I'm not diminishing that, but there's not equal emphasis when it comes to having high quality communication, empowering and talking about the values across sector partnership, and empowering those voices to support across networks. I don't think that is something that is embedded into our ethical standards or into our preparation train nearly enough. And it's actually something, particularly as our systems become more specialized, fragmented, I think it's something that we need to start talking about a little bit more.

Christa Butler:

Yeah, absolutely. Because what we don't want to do is we don't want our kids to fall through the gaps. Where they're getting the supports perhaps in one setting, and then when they're transitioning to the other, the supports just aren't as strong as they perhaps could be. And also, it really does go back to continuity of care, and streamlining those services to ensure that the support center in place are doing the appropriate measures to best support the child and the family. We're coming up on our last few minutes here, and this has been great so far. There's been so much wealth of knowledge and information that you've shared. I wanted to ask you, because we may have some folks tuning in from the general public, what are some ways that parents and school counselors might work together? And generally speaking, what are some things that parents can do on behalf of advocating for their child's needs at schools?

Steve Sharp:

Yeah. The reality is that something I aspire to do in my own practice, that I aspire for the school counselors I work with either through training, and what we write into some of our legacy documents is we aspire for our school counselors to have real and authentic relationships with our families. And to actively seek out their feedback and welcome it. And that means in different ways. I just had an advisory council meeting earlier today to solicit feedback when it came to our school-wide and our district-wide goals when it comes to equipping our students for career readiness. Helping us understand the different gaps to your lived experiences is something that we as school counselors should welcome, because we care about your children too. But might not have the lived experience when it comes to gaps, when it comes to either accessing information virtually through our learning portals, whether it be managing your students' attendance. Because we understand, yes, your students should come to school. And yes, we want you to be employed at the same time.

Steve Sharp:

And both of those things are important, and there's some things we should try to address. Yes, we need to understand when there are gaps one of your student's learning and how we can come up with result plans to mitigate those and to help your students to thrive. And the thing is, that even if our school entities are still learning this, our parents are some of our most valued partners. Sometimes it can be as simple as a clear email, sometimes it can be sometimes we do through a lot of effort and breadth to educate ourselves in both ethical practice in law and in best practice. But the rally is not all counselors and not all educators are masters of all those things, let alone the nuances that come off through your lived experiences.

Steve Sharp:

And sharing those things in a non-judgmental way, offering that as support, those could be valuable learning tools that most counselors and other educators will welcome. And then in addition to that, sometimes we need to understand, what are some of those clear boundaries as well that are preventing barriers for our students to have equal access or opportunity in the walls of our school, let alone equal outcomes of which we aspire for all of our students?

Christa Butler:

This has been great. We've learned so much from your insight and your perspectives as a school counselor and as an advocate for students and for parents. Can you share with us, before we wrap up, if folks would like to get in touch with you or like to follow you on social media, how can people find you?

Steve Sharp:

Yeah, you can follow me on most social media, including Instagram and Twitter at @SPVSHARP. That's me, Steve Sharp, @SPVSHARP. In addition to that, clearly, whether it be this podcast or anything else, I'll try to continue to be outspoken for the voices of all of our students to make sure that they have the opportunities that we should all have.

Christa Butler:

Awesome. Thank you so much for being here, Steve. We've learned so much and I appreciate your time today.

Steve Sharp:

Christa, thank you for your voice and the work that you're doing. And thank you to all the counselors and other professionals out there, I really celebrate the work that you're doing.

Christa Butler:

Be sure to subscribe to the Voice of Counseling on Apple and Google Podcast, and you can follow ACA on social media. To join the ACA and to get exclusive access to all member benefits, check out counseling.org.

Speaker 3:

ACA provides these podcasts solely for informational and educational purposes. Opinions expressed in these podcasts do not necessarily reflect the view of ACA. ACA is not responsible for the consequences of any decisions or actions taken in reliance upon, or as a result of the information and resources provided in this program. This program is copyright 2023 by the American Counseling Association. All rights reserved.