WASHINGTON — Teachers have been forced to pivot multiple times since the start of the pandemic. Now, the Ohel Zachter Family National Trauma Center wants to provide additional support and resources for teachers around the country.
In April, the Ohel Zachter Family National Trauma Center launched a National Teacher Support Helpline. On May 30, 2022, the school massacre in Texas compounded the trauma to teachers and students still reeling from the pandemic.
"We want to get the word out there. We want teachers to know we have this resource available to them. It's a free, confidential and non-judgmental space. Again, we have a team of trained therapist who have a lot of experience in school that really understand the climate in schools today and we are here to support," said Dr. Carly Namdar.
Namdar oversees the National Teacher Support Helpline.
"Teachers have almost become therapists for students. They are on the frontlines. We are seeing a lot of burn out, we are seeing that teachers really need a lot of support so we opened up this helpline to really be there and have a confidential space for educators to get support for their own well-being or challenges they are facing in the classroom," Namdar said
The Teacher Support Helpline is a confidential space for educators to access support and is staffed by a team of experienced school psychologists and mental health professionals.
"Teachers have really been on the front line since the start of the pandemic. They had to pivot so quickly, they had to innovate, they had to sacrifice to make the learning as meaningful as possible for their students," said Namdar.
The helpline is available for free and provides confidential, one-on-one support.
"We had a lot of people reaching out for resources. I had people reaching out in terms of how to talk to their students, we had parents reaching out to us, how to navigate these conversations with your children and we were able to turn around quickly and put out resources, we put on webinar and how to talk with your children it’s up on our website," Namdar said.
Dr. Namdar says they also had a lot of parents reach out to better understand how to talk with their students. They put together an entire list of resources about how to approach these conversations with your children.
"It’s really important for us to remember that children's coping is really connected to the coping of the adults around them so I think one of the first things we want to remember is that we need to make sure that we are okay and we are in check and we need to pay attention to our own reaction. I think children today really tune into our voice tone and our body language even more than what we say," said Dr. Namdar.
"We want to remember that we want to be there for our children. We want to be there for our students. We want to companion them and whatever they are going through, we want to be the source of information for them and help them understand what’s going on around them, more than them turning to social media. We want to help them narrate what they are seeing, what they are understanding and really be there with them still let them know that all the emotions are okay. Whatever they are feeling is okay," said Dr. Namdar.
For a full list of resources available to start these conversations, click here.
Contact number:
718-686-3230
Hours:
Sunday: 9 am to 12 pm; 8pm to 10 pm.
Monday through Thursday: 4pm to 6pm; 8pm to 10pm.
The helpline will be open to summer camps, with the following hours:
Monday, Tuesday, and Friday: 10am-12pm.
Wednesday and Thursday 8pm-10pm.
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