February-March 2015

Operating in an international environment means that schools and organizations often have trouble finding local resources to help with training or responding to emergency situations. Many times resources have to be flown in from overseas at great expense and with big time delays. ELG Academy, our division for professional training and consulting makes our resources available on a local basis, which means we can provide needed information and training on a cost-effective and timely basis. We know that nowhere else in China can you find over 20 professionals who bring a wealth of skills and knowledge to their work. ELG Academy is meant to bring that resource to places in our community where it is needed the most.

 

In just the last two months alone, we were able to help with the following situations:

Identifying and Responding to Mental Health Issues: Fiona Yapp, Social Worker, provided training to the student support team at Duke Kunshan University on how to address mental health red flags and addressed the role and limits of peer support mechanisms. Universities are small cities and communities within themselves – being able to identify students at risk for mental health problems is a critical part of their mission, which often goes overlooked.

 

Training on Autism Spectrum Disorders and Speech-Language Difficulties: Han Xiong, Educational Psychologist, and Dr. Shari Rosen, Program Director, Company Founder, and Speech-Language Pathologist, were the only invited outside speakers to Nanjing International School’s full day of professional training. Although Nanjing is a large city in China, resources are very limited for a school like NIS, which prides itself on serving children with special needs. Being located in Shanghai (just an hour away from Nanjing), allowed ELG to provide training and insight outside the typical discussions at an international school. Han provided bilingual (English and Chinese) training on Autism Spectrum Disorder, and Shari focused on speech-language difficulties and their relevance in the classroom.

 

Support for Rare Syndromes through Multidisciplinary Approaches: Dr. Shari Rosen spoke to doctors and health professionals at Shanghai United Family Hospital about the needs of children with rare syndromes, giving the doctors a rare glimpse into the kind of support these children need beyond the examining room. She presented a Multidisciplinary Model for how doctors and health workers can collaborate with other professionals and educators to lead to better medical outcomes for children.

 

Crisis Counseling and Support: An international school went through a tragic event involving a key member of their community and wanted to provide emotional support to staff and students during this difficult time. Julieta Barril, Psychologist, and Fiona Yapp, Social Worker, provided on-site support immediately following the incident. Afterwards, they helped design a long term plan to deal with the follow-up impact from the situation. We later heard from Julieta and Fiona that they realized just how complex these situations are in a multicultural, expatriate environment. While it’s difficult to support team members, students, and their families when the whole community is affected, they also appreciated how much our team – including counselors, psychologists and educational consultants – was able to provide crisis response and work with administrators and teachers to implement long-term strategies.