With advanced placement (AP) tests being taken at Lenape High School this month, strategies to relieve potential stress or anxiety for students can be found through Lenape High School’s Wellness Program.
Managed by school counselors Claudia Wolf and Shannon Conte, the wellness program provides a dedicated, calming center for students and staff to support mental health, social-emotional learning, and physical health. The program also features a yearly Wellness Day with, therapy dogs and mental-health services from Care Solice.
The center – opened in 2020 – is a resource to its students with 10 counselors. It also provides healthy coping strategies for students with activities such as Digitoys, Play-Doh, puzzles and coloring books.
“I think mental health is important,” Conte said in an interview with Lenape Digital Media. “Because everyone has mental health, everyone needs to work on it, talk about it and break down that stigma. That’s why it’s important to have healthy coping strategies and someone that we can connect with.”
Wolf, who was cited in February as the district’s Educational Services Professional of the Year, emphasized the need for students to prioritize mental health just as they would a physical ailment.
“Mental health is important, just like our physical health,” she explained, “but mental health is different, because we can’t see if somebody has something going on. We can see when someone has a cast on their foot or their arm in a sling, but with stress, anxiety and depression, we can’t see those wounds that our students are dealing with.
“This space (the wellness center) in particular is so unique to a high school in that it allows students to come and take a reset,” Wolf added. “It allows them to pause, de-escalate and sort of regulate their nervous system.”
Lenape High and the Wellness Center hold various events and programs to support student and staff mental health, including therapy dogs, yoga, a Smash the Stigma pumpkin smashing event every October, a Lace Up Against Stigma 5K run and one-mile walk and the school’s annual Wellness Day in January.
That event focuses on reducing stigma and promoting, physical and mental health through workshops such as dance, weightlifting and creative crafts.
Wolf noted that the Wellness Center also makes use of community resources, including the state’s 2NDFLOOR youth helpline; 988 suicide and crisis lifeline; and advocate organizations such as Contact of Burlington County and Prevention Plus.
“In house, we have our counselors, our coaches and our teachers who are all supported in their efforts to promote our students and their mental-health needs,” Wolf noted.
The center is open to students and staff during periods one, two, three and five, in addition to the lunch and learn period. For more information, visit www.lenape.lrhsd.org.
