How Right Now: Addressing the Urgent Mental Health Concerns Among K-12 Teachers and School Staff

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis: To help people cope with mental health challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with support from the CDC Foundation, enlisted NORC at the University of Chicago to adapt the How Right Now (HRN) communication campaign for a new audience. HRN addresses mental health needs of groups disproportionately affected by the pandemic and beyond. The HRN campaign is being expanded to support K-12 teachers and school staff, given their increased stress and declining mental health since the pandemic. This presentation will provide an overview of the formative work that was conducted to inform this next phase and will highlight the new messages that will be rolled out in fall of 2023.

Methods: Multi-mode formative work was conducted to evaluate teachers’ and school staff’s urgent mental health challenges, feelings about COVID-19, definitions of resilience, trusted sources/channels, available mental health resources, and resource needs. Data sources included peer-reviewed and grey literature; the RAND American Educator Panel; “Teacher Twitter”; and online focus groups.

Results: Findings confirmed that teachers and school staff experienced declining mental health in the wake of the pandemic and that teachers need tailored mental health resources. Many teachers turned to trusted voices (e.g., administrators) and channels (e.g., social media) for support to learn techniques to improve their mental health.

Conclusions: These results signal the need for actionable campaign messages that reflect concerns voiced by teachers and school staff, with a particular focus on elevating the trusted voices and channels identified by teachers as critical sources of support. HRN will be rolling out new messages that do just that. Messages will be anchored around the frames of validation, solidarity, control, acceptance, and confidence. Additionally, a new video featuring teachers and staff will also be made available. This presentation will help launch these new messages and materials.

Implications for research and/or practice: Since its inception, HRN has aimed to remain nimble and responsive to emerging mental health needs of US adults in greatest need. This latest phase of the campaign exemplifies this and offers a model for health communication program planners on how to support the mental health needs of various groups now and into the future.