PENFIELD, NY (WHAM) — Caitlin Bradley said for students and parents, September is a season of stress.
Bradley is the director of youth and family services and behavioral health at Rochester Regional Health. 13 WHAM met up with her on Friday at the Penn Fair Pediatrics center in Penfield on tackling back-to-school tension.
“(There is) lots of anxiety heading back into the new school year,” said Bradley. She said students can ruminate constantly on things like, “Am I going to make friends? How are my classes going to be? Is it going to be hard? Am I going to succeed?”
Bradley said Rochester Regional is there to help navigate those emotions at a number of locations.
“We offer all sorts of programs,” said Bradley. “We have our clinic, we have our satellite-based programs, where we actually have embedded therapists in the school setting, and we have our school-based health centers as well.”
This school year has also added stress points to it in the aftermath of the mass shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis. Bradley says parents to seize the moment to have a conversation with their kids. Rochester Regional can help, too.
“Reassure their kids that, you know, we have things in place. We have support. We love them. And if they have worries, we can talk about it,” said Bradley.
Returning to the classroom can take on various forms of stress for families. Outside the clinic, Felicia was worried about school supply expenses for her four kids.
“Everything in life went up; that’s a big anxiety,” said Felicia.
Andrea was reminiscing about the stress of dropping her now-grown daughter, Magnolia, off to pre-school on day one. “That was, that was, that was difficult, because she had been home the whole time with me,” said Andrea.
For Brandi Gross and her daughter, Lola, the back-to-school “butterflies” aren’t exactly the same. “Yeah, so back-to-school jitters don’t happen for us because I homeschool,” she said.
Whatever you might be going through before the bus comes, Bradley encourages parents and students to see what Rochester Regional has to offer.
“Families can walk right in and they’ll be seen and get an appointment that day,” said Bradley. As mentioned above, they also have embedded school-based therapists; they are in a number of the schools across Monroe County, the Geneseo school district, and the Victor school district.
For more details, call 585-922-9090 or visit the links below: