Additional reporting by Eva Chang.
When Superintendent Don Austin stood in August be fore an audience of hundreds of teachers and shared the story of his own mental health crisis, science teacher Liz Brimhall was listening. On the first teacher workday of the year, Austin spoke for 20 minutes about his struggle with mental health, and the challenges he faced attempting to access mental health resources through the district’s services.
Austin’s experience navigating the district’s system sounded all too familiar to Brimhall, who first opened up about her personal mental health journey in a June 1 article in The Paly Voice. Brimhall said that she, too, found the system of accessing mental health resources through the district difficult.
“You would call [and] they would say ‘here’s a list of providers,’” Brimhall said. “Even though the providers were all supposed to be accepting patients, new clients, they weren’t. You’d call, call, call… [they would say] ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I know, we’re listed on the site, but we actually don’t have [availability].’ And so it would be this long process.”
I thought he [Austin] was brave to talk about his own story. I think it’s a good thing to revamp the systems that are in place, because the old systems were really hard to navigate.” — Elizabeth Brimhall, science teacher
Since then, the district has led an overhaul of the system for teachers and staff to access mental health resources. The changes were led by Austin after experiencing firsthand difficulty navigating the district’s system. Austin first shared his story with teachers and staff at a Palo Alto Unified School District kickoff event in August. Brimhall, who attended the event, said she appreciated Austin’s speech.
“I thought he [Austin] was brave to talk about his own story,” Brimhall said. “I think it’s a good thing to revamp the systems that are in place, because the old systems were really hard to navigate.”
Brimhall said she thinks sharing personal stories about mental health can help others feel comfortable sharing theirs as well.
“I think the more we can, across the board, be authentic about our own mental health struggles, it helps everyone in the community feel okay about bringing forth their own struggles, which is all for the good,” Brimhall said.
Scan the QR code below or visit https://www.caresolace.com/site/pausdfamilies to access resources for Palo Alto Unified School District students, staff and families.
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