Established almost two decades ago, Piedmont’s Wellness Center is continuing to create an impact on campus for students, as well as for student-athletes.
“Not all highschools have wellness centers, it’s quite unique to have a wellness center that offers free therapy services short term and long term to students,” said Wellness Center Clinical Supervisor Sari Sanghvi. “Other high schools have reached out to learn about our center and learn about our systems and models because they’d like to replicate it. We are pretty valued in the border community.”
So far this year the Wellness Center has had 900 total visits by students grades sixth through 12th, 104 of whom regularly use the center’s support. Sanghvi said that with such a presence on campus the center has a clear and specific goal.
“I think we are achieving what we’ve set out to do here and that’s to make sure that we are reaching each and every student who feels like they need support, either socially, emotionally, providing short term therapy or longer term support, we are here.”
Students come to the center for a number of reasons. According to the Wellness Center, 70% of students report stress or anxiety, 10% need help with managing stressors in their lives, 5% report depression and another 5% utilize the center to talk about social issues. The Wellness Center also provides students with snacks, hot tea, a microwave for heating up food, contraceptives, and much more.
Recently, Saghvi said, she recognized the importance of extending support to athletes specifically due to an observation on recent referrals. Sanghvi began research to see how other schools support students who dedicate time to sports.
“In my research of other schools I’ve found that only a few, maybe one or two, other schools in our area are really identifying this population as one who could really benefit from normalizing the need for mental health support.” Sanghvi said.
With a lack of research from surrounding schools, Piedmont’s Wellness center will be guiding this initiative with their own resources.
“I hope that we are innovators in this space and help other schools realize the need for this support,” Sanghvi said.
The Wellness Center’s resources will be directed towards athletes through posters in locker rooms, as well as direct guidance given to coaches and other athletics staff concerning their players’ well being.
Sanghvi said with the sports season kicking off the posters will be put up the week of the 10th.
“We will be doing a poster campaign around the spring season starting. We will be posting QR codes so that students can remember that we are here for them,” Sanghvi said. “We want to support the idea that mental health is just as important as physical health.”
