Teachers are tied with nurses for experiencing more job-related stress than any other profession. Yet help for classroom leaders is hard to come by.
Mental health insurance coverage varies district to district, if visits are covered at all. Even in New York City — where teacher copays for outpatient, in-network mental health care max out at $25 — provider shortages and stigma can prevent educators from accessing care consistently.
“Nobody in the teaching department or other teacher candidates talked to us about that stuff — trauma and grief, emotions, and how to manage all of that while trying to maintain a classroom of 30 kids who are going through their own situations at home,” Modeste said. “It was kind of like, ‘If you can’t handle this, then this is not the job for you,’” There’s not a doubt in his mind that he should continue teaching. He’s flourishing professionally, last year among the prestigious FLAG Awardees for Teaching Excellence.
But the impact, what experts Psychologists dub the phenomenon vicarious trauma or empathetic distress, is taking a toll on his well-being.
“You need therapy when you have trauma exposure,” says Tish Jennings, an expert on teacher stress and social-emotional learning at the University of Virginia, who says without it people can become jaded, hopeless, numb and react to student behavior disproportionately.
“It’s very hard these days to get good treatment, because there’s such a huge need, and there’s such a shortage of good clinicians.”