Counseling Services at Head Start

To be mentally healthy is to get the most out of life; this requires

• Knowledge (lifelong learning),
• Appropriate social behavior, and
• Good personal health (emotional, physical, dental and nutritional).

Mental Health is the ability to cope with all of life’s circumstances and situations, the highs and the lows, the joys and the sorrows. We all experience good days and bad days; and the difference is how we get through them and our ability to continue building successful life management skills.

At Head Start we believe, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

In the classroom we promote mental wellness by:

• Providing an environment that allows comfortable learning,
• Arranging the environment to manage behavior and build confidence,
• Planning activities that help children to feel good in their ability to learn,
• Building a positive self-esteem in each child,
• Understanding each others differences,
• Helping children deal with their feelings in stressful situations.
• Using the Second Step (dealing with anger) and Touching (dealing with appropriate touch) curriculums.

Some warning signs to look for in children are:

Extremely active	Cannot Play	Fights a lot
Extremely immature	Very sad	Inadequate toilet skills
Unusual behavior	Fearful	Extreme mood swings
Very accident prone	Withdrawn	Sudden behavior changes
Destructive to self/and or other		Eating non-food items
Inappropriate responses to situations (laughs instead of crying)
(A professional must carefully assess all of these items)

We would like to help you with any concerns you might have. Please contact your Teacher, Home Visitor, or Family Advocate for more information about our Counseling Services.

We offer counseling services for children and families. We have a therapist from Bear River Mental Health located in our Logan Head Start who is available to those in the Box Elder, Cache, and Rich counties. Idaho families will be served through their local agencies or service providers that Head Start has arranged to help you get the services needed. We also have a USU student’s doing their Internship with us. Counseling services are provided in English and Spanish.