Today’s adolescents are struggling with mental health issues and anxiety in teens is at unprecedented levels. But the good news is that kids are resilient, and when they get the care and support they need, their lives can vastly improve, and they can reach their full potential. In this case study we share how Effective School Solutions (ESS) programming helped one student with anxiety find success at school. The names have been changed to protect the student’s privacy.
When Anxiety in Teens Gets the Upper Hand
Emma was in sixth grade when the pandemic hit, and schooling went fully remote. She had always done well academically, but her mom, Katie, notes that she was anxious and somewhat standoffish socially. To Katie’s surprise, Emma flourished during lockdown. Katie is a teacher herself, and she was no fan of learning through screens. Only later did she and her husband understand that Emma found lockdown a relief; remote learning removed a whole host of triggers for her anxiety.
At the start of Emma’s eighth-grade year school was once again fully in-person. Like a lot of kids, she had a bumpy transition, but academically she excelled. Then in January, three of her teachers went on maternity leave at the same time, and this upheaval was completely destabilizing for Emma. That April, her parents found out she’d begun self-harming – cutting herself as a way of managing her confused and unmanageable feelings. “We immediately began therapy,” Katie recalls. “We started seeing a psychiatrist and putting all the scripted steps in place.”
At that point there were only six weeks left in the school year, and Emma sat them out. She continued with therapy all through the summer, and in the fall, at the start of her freshman year, she managed to attend. But her parents discovered she’d started vaping, and when they asked her why, Emma said she thought it was a more acceptable coping strategy than cutting. She was clearly trying to make her situation work, but it was also clear she was experiencing high levels of anxiety and distress. Then in October, the distress won. She essentially shut down and refused to get out of bed.
For Emma it was the anxiety and stress of being at school, not academics, that was overwhelming. In fact, she desperately wanted not to fall behind in her schoolwork. So, her parents worked with an advocate to get in-home tutoring so Emma could stay on track with her studies.
Turning a Corner with Effective School Solutions
Emma attended Newington High School in Newington, CT. Katie had learned from another parent that the school partnered with ESS to provide intensive Tier 3 programming for anxiety in teens during the school day. While Emma was still homebound, Katie worked to get her enrolled in the ESS program.
Initially, Emma resisted. She already had a therapist; she was tired of everyone poking and prodding her and asking her how she felt. She refused to attend in-person meetings with her ESS clinician, so Katie attended on her own, and they scheduled remote meetings with Emma, starting with bite-sized five-minute chunks. Katie says, “The goal was just to build a relationship, so that once we got her into school, it wouldn’t be a place where she didn’t have relationships with anyone.”
The ESS team had to earn Emma’s trust, and it didn’t happen overnight, but it did happen, and by the fall, at the start of her sophomore year, Emma began going to school and meeting with ESS. Katie says the first couple of months were tough, but that now Emma is thriving. The ESS supports are always available throughout the day if she needs them, and over time, Emma has learned she can rely on them.
“It’s been absolutely amazing,” Katie says. “ESS has taught her so many skills that I can’t because they are situational, and the support needs to take place in that moment.” Katie has become a vocal champion of ESS because she knows the programming works: “If the ESS program wasn’t in place, Emma would not be doing as well as she is right now.”
“This program is worth fighting for because ESS clinicians are the only ones who are going to meet the kids where they are, so that we don’t have this crisis on our hands when all these kids become adults.”
– Katie, mother of a student enrolled in ESS programming
