Desert Hills High School students have access to a staffed and fully equipped Wellness Room. The purpose of the Wellness Room is based on physiology and neuroscience. We are teaching students two main concepts: 1) to recognize how their stress response system works and 2) what coping skills they can use to self-regulate.
We are all doing the work of self-regulation every day and wellness rooms are used to teach appropriate ways of self-regulating. Our school is paving the path for the district and these rooms are showing up in more and more schools. Information on the district-wide initiatives can be found at the sight below.
Some Positive Experiences:
February 2020, a student came in today saying he was very stressed. He had just learned how to use the wellness room a few days earlier and said, “I knew when I started feeling stressed that I could come here to relax.” As he left he said, “Thank you, that really helped.”
A student came to the wellness room in a heightened state of anxiety. She has been experiencing high levels of stress at home and was having a difficult time. She was grateful to have a calm place to come to and work on getting her emotions regulated. She said her time in the wellness room really helped her get through a difficult day.
December 2019, a student came to wellness room pretty shaken. She had been rear-ended at lunch and was experiencing high anxiety as a result. She sat with the weighted blanket and watched the fish tube and within 15 minutes, was much calmer and felt like she was ready to go back to class.
Data from our Wellness Rooms
75.6% of students throughout the district report an improvement on their emotional rating upon exiting the Wellness Room.
The wellness room is most utilized on Wednesdays.
The district had over 19,000 visits to Wellness Rooms in the 2019-2020 school year.
Our Wellness Rooms in the News
Find Desert Hills High School at 3:29 in the following news clip from CEC.
Credits:
Created with images by Unknown - "Free illustration: Digital, Fractal, Background, Night ..." • Yoal Desurmont - "A unique view and a perfect reflection is waiting for your camera if you head to Lake Matherson, New Zealand. Surprisingly I was the only one there, 9:30am and pure silence." • Javardh - "untitled image" • Kelly Sikkema - "untitled image" • Thought Catalog - "Woman crying and in tears" • Natali Panichkina - "untitled image" • Aaron Burden - "Dewey grass"