Even before the COVID-19 pandemic triggered an increase in depression, loneliness and anxiety among students, Dr. William Davies saw problems with the way many schools were addressing students’ behavioral health.

“There was a massive need for looking at different ways and new ways to support students in their behavioral health concerns,” says Davies, a program director for the Allegheny Health Network (AHN). “A lot of schools were designed with the support services of 40 or 50 years ago, where you have one counselor per 500 students.

“With the level of need students are showing, that’s not sufficient. Counselors were getting burned out and were only able to help the students with the most high-level needs.”

It was clear to Davies that AHN had to work with schools to modernize the support structure and better serve the mental health needs of today’s students. In an effort to do that, he in 2019 created the Chill Project by Allegheny Health Network, a mindfulness-informed and preventive, school-based behavioral health program serving both students and teachers.

Chill uses program-specific counselors hired by AHN to provide mindful-awareness and resiliency training techniques in a dedicated “Chill Room” to help students achieve greater academic success, while reducing anxiety and improving student-teacher relationships. Students may visit the Chill Room at any time to throughout the school day to speak privately with counselors or spend a few minutes in quiet reflection, Davies explains.

The program is in 20 schools in the Pittsburgh area, and in the two years since the start of the pandemic the demand for it has grown significantly, he adds.

“We have noticed an incredible intensification of behavioral health concerns across the general population, particularly among students since the pandemic,” he explains. “A lot of students who were getting by without needing services before the pandemic unfortunately require formalized services, so the need for us is pretty extreme right now.”

The demand for mental health services has grown to such an extent in recent years that hospitals have become overburdened, Davies says. This has resulted in a lack of staffing and potential patients being turned away.

“A lot of school districts are struggling with wondering how to serve these kids’ needs, when they should be in the hospital but can’t get there,” he says. “With Chill, we have concrete examples of us working with the schools and helping keep students out of a higher level of care or being placed out of school.”

All four schools in Northgate School District have implemented the Chill Project. Northgate Superintendent Caroline Johns heard Davies give a presentation prior to the pandemic at an Allegheny County Schools Health Insurance Consortium meeting and thought the program could help with the significant mental health, social and emotional needs in the district.

“The program has been very successful and is extremely responsive to the students’ needs,” Johns says. “We’ve seen individual counseling increase three-fold since we started the program. Having counselors available five days a week at each school makes it less stigmatizing because that counselor is just another part of our faculty, and they are able to develop relationships with the kids.”

One of the ways Johns knows the program is working is through the “Chill Thermometer.” The Chill Thermometer isn’t an actual device, but rather a rating by counselors of the agitation level of a student as they enter and exit the Chill Room.

“What the data is showing us is that kids aren’t coming in as agitated and they are leaving calmer, so I think the strategies are really working,” she explains. “We are also seeing a decrease in physical altercations since the program was instituted. I think it has really helped our students settle in since returning to in-person learning.”

It’s not only students utilizing the Chill Room at Northgate. Johns says many staff members use the room.

“We had nothing to the extent of the Chill Project for our staff prior to this,” she says. “A lot of our staff members use the room to decompress and talk to the counselors.”

Northgate is receiving $800,000 in federal funds over the next four years to cover the cost of the program.

Davies believes the program has been effective because it teaches students self-regulation, so their mental health issues do not intensify.

“We equip students with the skills and toolbox when they do get distressed,” he says. “If they are in the classroom and something sets them off, they can use the skills we’ve taught them to keep them in the classroom.

“At the same time, the teachers can use the skills they’ve learned through the program on the student and themselves to stay calm.”

One of the main aspects of the Chill curriculum is teaching students and teachers how to recognize when their body is having a stress response, Davies says.

“When a student’s body goes from 0 to 100, we want them to be able to realize they are having a stress response and do something like deep breathing, instead of lashing out and punching somebody,” he explains. “We teach the students what is going on in their brains, so they realize they are in control and they can shorten the attack.”

If there is a silver lining to the pandemic, it’s that many people are much more willing to talk about their mental health issues and seek help, according to Davies.

“There used to be a very strong mental health stigma, but what has happened recently is because of the pandemic and the massive surge of behavioral health concerns, I have found that people are more open and willing to discuss their distress,” he adds.

Although the Chill Project is currently available to only schools in the Pittsburgh area, Davies is not opposed to the program expanding its reach.

“We want to continue to serve our regional area, and also take a look at how we can move beyond the Pittsburgh region and serve whoever is interested in sharing our knowledge about what we have been able to do,” he says.