Marissa Mauro

2/6/11
Abstract 4
Dr. Osborn

Depression and Bipolar Disorder: Behavior Interventions for Individual

Students with Behavioral Concerns

Depression is on the rise amongst teenagers and suicide is becoming the leading
cause of teen death in the United States. Depression is one of the most commonly
diagnosed psychiatric disorders among school-age youths. As such, school teachers
should play an important role in the identification, assessment, and treatment of
depression and related problems in school. School-based treatment of depression is
especially relevant for students with emotional and behavioral disorders and learning
disabilities because they may be at a higher risk than their non disabled peers of
displaying depressive symptomatology. Cognitive-behavioral interventions have shown
promise as an evidence-based treatment for childhood and adolescent depression
disorders.
Having a good staff personnel to help assist a teacher that is teaching a student
with depression or bipolar disorder is crucial. It is important to understand that anger is
often a symptom of depression and that a student who is not working is not necessarily
being defiant, but is may be a symptomatic issue. It is important that school personnel
become aware of the changes in mood episodes. If the student suffers from explosive
outbursts known as “rage attacks”, the staff should understand that the student is really
not choosing to have these outbursts. School personnel generally needs to provide
specific strategies how to respond to such situations, and the student’s treating clinician
should be asked to provide some advice or strategies for the staff to use in these
situations. Accommodations should be made for medication side effects. Students with
bipolar disorder are likely to be on medication, and are often on 2 or even 3 different
medications. All of these medications used to treat either bipolar or depression have
side effects that are likely to affect the stamina, focus, and mood in school. For
example students may need to keep a bottle of water on them at all times from the side
effect of some form of lithium. Students who experience diarrhea from a mood stabilizer
may need a pass to leave the room at their discretion. Some medications may have a
visual blurring as a side effect and may find reading frustrating or have a difficult time
reading the board. Also, some medications will have fatigue or sleepiness as a side
effect and the student may have trouble staying awake in school. Talking with the
student’s doctor is advised to see where the teacher should allow the student to sleep in
school and for how long. Also, when a student is newly diagnosed, they may go through
medication adjustments. Make sure you get and give reports. Giving accommodations
for impaired concentration, focus, and memory is a must with bipolar disorder and
depression. Apart from medications and side effects, they are often associated with
significant problems with concentration and memory. The student is likely to need a
number of supports or accommodations. This may include provision of hard copies of
notes given on the board, discreet assistance focusing or remaining on task. Also it is
important to see that all assignments are recorded and materials for assignments are
packed. Also, and extra set of book should be left at home and extended time on
homework or projects is recommended. Word banks or other devices can help assist
with retrieval of information from memory. Test accommodations should be made
including extended time. In school counseling with students with significant mood
disorders may require in-school counseling on a regular basses. Getting permission to
leave the room is a good idea for students with bipolar disorder or depression. At times,
the student may feel that they cannot cope and needs to get out of the room.
Preplanning should involve the student identifying a “safe place” to go to and cool down.
This place will serve as somewhere they can feel safe. The student should plan on
having a signal for a “graceful exit” so they don’t have to call attention to themselves. If
a student is so depressed that they have expressed any suicidal ideation, they should
not be left without supervision.
I feel this article is a great article. It is very accurate and they are great
interventions for students with bipolar disorder and depression. I can say that students
in my school that had symptoms like listed above had the same accommodations.
Students that would have “outbursts” would come down to the guidance office and sit in
the computer lab they had with some tables. It was known as the “safe place” to go
when the student needed time to cool off. Also, our school had a counselor that would
come in and talk with students that were seriously depressed. With more mild cases of
depression, our guidance counselor always made herself available if we needed to talk.
I know that I always went to my guidance counselor if I needed someone to talk to about
my problems. I really enjoyed having someone to turn to if I was having a rough day at
school or if I was angry at a teacher. She helped calm me down and helped me talk
through my problems. The article gave excellent suggestions on how to accommodate
to a student with bipolar disorder or depression. and how to have appropriate behavior
interventions for students with bipolar disorder or depression.
Citation:

Packer, Leslie E. "Accommodating Students with Mood Lability: Depression and Bipolar
Disorder." Http://www.schoolbehavior.com. Web. <http://
www.schoolbehavior.com/Files/tips_mood.pdf>.