Brophy Wellness & Mental Health Fund

List of 9 items.

• Care Solace

  In 2023, Brophy partnered with Care Solace, a national organization dedicated to improving access to mental health resources, to facilitate warm handoffs to local mental health care providers for students, their families and any Brophy community member. Care Solace offers 24/7 availability in 170 languages and connects community members with mental health practitioners, guaranteeing appointments within two weeks.
  
  Brophy tracks data through Care Solace to understand the specific needs of the community in terms of both populations served and the most common concerns (depression, anxiety, trauma). Care Solace also allows for students/community members to experience the continuation of care through school holidays and breaks when campus is closed and school staff members are not immediately available.

• Community of Concern

  During the fall of each school year, we gather the sophomore class (and at least one parent/guardian for each student) for our Community of Concern, an evening session of programming related to teenage wellness.
  
  Traditionally, the program has targeted teenage substance use; however, we’ve made a shift to frame the program under the auspices of teenage wellness, primarily focusing on mental health and including programming and table conversations about substance use, social media use, healthy friendships and spiritual well-being.
  
  Sophomore families will receive information on session registration early in the school year; attendance of each student with at least one parent/guardian is mandatory.

• Peer-to-Peer: Hope Squad

  In 2023-24, the student-led Active Minds Club ushered in a new era of student mental health advocacy by partnering with Hope Squad, a national organization that trains and supports students in becoming engaged community members who can identify concerning student behavior and report this to appropriate school personnel. Set to launch for the 2024-25 school year, Brophy’s Hope Squad members will complete extensive training in suicide awareness and prevention, and then serve as publicly identifiable community members who can help connect students to support from school personnel. 
  
  

  As part of our Hope Squad partnership, adult moderators will complete a two-day QPR Certificate training program which will provide workshops on teenage suicidality and certify them as suicide prevention practitioners who can subsequently train other faculty, staff and students. 

• Sown-to-Grow

  Sown to Grow is a platform that offers weekly emotional check-ins with all students and facilitates social-emotional learning modules to help students build resilience, understand their emotions, resolve conflict, respond to failure, and improve their mental and spiritual wellness.
  
  Brophy introduced Sown to Grow to the class of 2027 during the 2023-24 school year and will continue to do so with each subsequent freshman class so that all students at Brophy will be engaging with Sown to Grow by the 2027-28 school year.
  
  During Community Period, students complete weekly check-ins, providing an emotional rating and responding to reflection questions that coincide with larger Ignatian formation programming. In doing so, we are able to collect real-time data on how our students, individually and collectively, are doing emotionally. Any student reporting difficulty receives immediate follow-up, and freshman advisors and college counselors track their students' data weekly to ensure support is offered at the first sign of distress. Consistent student engagement with Sown to Grow also allows us to compare data with other schools and at Brophy across the years.  We will track student wellness throughout the year, and year-to-year, to identify trends and proactively respond to evolving student needs.

• Sophomore Examen Interviews

  Starting in 2024-25, all sophomore students will engage in an annual Sophomore Examen. The student, who will be joined by his family and one faculty/staff member, will reflect on his Brophy experience thus far and discern goals for the remainder of his time at Brophy (and beyond).
  
  Students will review Sown to Grow data and faculty feedback in preparation for this conversation. Although parents/guardians participate, the conversation is student-led and faculty/staff facilitated. Emphasis will be placed on the student’s wellness, his connection to the community and community members, and goal-setting. 

• Suicide Awareness Programming

  Faculty/Staff
  Brophy has established a partnership with Teen Lifeline, a leading crisis response organization in the Valley, to provide proactive training for faculty/staff, students and parents/guardians on teenage mental health and suicidality. All faculty/staff experienced an 80-minute professional development workshop in January 2024 which focused on the recognition and prevention of teenage suicide.
  
  Teen Lifeline staff will also join us in our annual Community of Concern programming, which will be reorganized to prioritize mental wellness so that parents/guardians will receive the same suicide awareness and prevention education.
  
  Students
  Starting summer 2024, all freshmen will begin the required freshman health class with an 80-minute workshop from Teen Lifeline staff, again focusing on teenage suicidality. The aim is to prioritize mental wellness at the outset of a Brophy student’s journey here, and proactively discuss with students the realities of teenage suicidality. Subsequent training and reflection will take place through Sown to Grow so that all students are consistently talking about, monitoring and working toward improving their mental health.

• Counseling/Therapist Intern Program

  Brophy has signed a contract with Grand Canyon University to employ two interns annually, starting in the 2024-2025 school year, to bolster our on-campus counseling services. Similar to our athletic training model, GCU students completing higher degrees in counseling and therapy will complete practicum hours working directly with students on campus (supervised by a Brophy staff member). With two interns each working part-time, we are effectively doubling our capacity to provide on-campus professional mental health support to our students.
  
  Besides this immediate benefit, we believe the intern program will result in a bigger-picture effort that produces effective, empathetic and talented therapists for a world ever more in need of their services.

• Increase in Freshman Advisors and College Counselors

  Freshman Advisors
  Brophy is adding five freshman advisors beginning in 2024-25. This addition will improve the student-advisor ratio, allowing enhanced connections between students and advisors, quicker follow-up when there are student concerns, and better oversight of individual and collective student wellness. 
  
  College Counselor Addition
  Brophy is hiring a sixth college counselor for the 2024-25 school year. This will allow for the same improvements noted above for our sophomores, juniors and seniors.

• Large-Scale Student Programming

  Quarterly, Brophy will host large-scale student programming focused on mental health and suicide prevention. For example, in fall 2023, Charley Jauss, the mental skills coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks, spoke to the student body about his role in facilitating mental wellness at the professional sports level, as well as strategies for regulating emotions and minimizing performance anxiety. Brophy will host four similar sessions each school year.