JEFFERSON TWP — Many people visualize a brain-injured patient relearning the use of a fork when they think of occupational therapy services.

But on Wednesday, Nov. 29, a group of 14 second-year Slippery Rock University doctoral students who performed their fieldwork at St. Luke Lutheran School showed the field of occupational therapy cares for the physical, emotional and mental health of those receiving services.

“Occupational therapy has its roots in mental health,” said Miranda Virone, the SRU assistant professor who oversaw the occupational therapy students at the school.

She explained that occupational therapy began when therapists provided occupations and activities for World War I soldiers who came home with shell shock, which is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder.

Virone said occupational therapy uses a holistic model of care, including the psychological, physical and social activities patients engage in every day.

“The need for this in schools right now is so prevalent because we are in the middle of a youth mental health crisis,” she said. “We do not have enough mental health professionals to respond to this crisis, so occupational therapy is returning to the mental health team.”

On Wednesday, the doctoral students worked with students in preschool as well as those in grades six, seven and eight.

Virone said her students worked on emotional literacy with the preschool students.

“We’ll work on feelings and what different feelings look like and feel like inside our bodies,” Virone said.

The doctoral students used stories, crafts and discussion with the school’s youngest students to talk about feelings and their effects on themselves and others, she said.

The SRU students broke into groups of four or five to work with the older St. Luke students on social media literacy.

“That is using social media wisely, safely and responsibly,” Virone said.

She said lessons used by the doctoral students included those on spotting dangerous social media content, how to look out for other youths on social media, which is known as “active bystandership,” and more advanced information.

“We look at how algorithms operate and how to avoid the trap of getting pulled into that unhealthy cycle,” Virone said.

In the seventh-grade classroom of St. Luke teacher Deneen Sims, the SRU students showed the class a PowerPoint presentation called “Be Kind Online.”

The students were asked to identify the logos of popular social media apps and name their favorite thing to do online and what they do on that app or website. They also listed the pros and cons of using social media and discussed ways to use technology responsibly and being conscious of the amount of screen time they engage in each day.

The students were then instructed to close their eyes as the SRU students read a social media scenario. The young students were asked to visualize the situation and pay attention to the feelings they experienced while doing so.

Sims was excited to see the program carried out in her classroom. She said cellphones are strictly prohibited during the school day at St. Luke.

“I’m hoping next time the students do sit down to do something on social media, they will remember what they heard today and maybe do something different,” Sims said.

In the eighth-grade classroom of Troy Knoll, the SRU students posed various online scenarios to students and asked them to go to one side of the room where “would” and “wouldn’t” were posted.

The St. Luke students then discussed the reasoning for their reactions to the scenarios with the SRU students, with Kroll interjecting Christian principals as necessary.

Izzi Pawloski, a St. Luke eighth grader, said the exercise in her class will help her recognize potentially dangerous scenarios that crop up on social media.

“I learned people can be completely different online than they are in real life,” Izzi said.

Izzi’s classmate, Oliver Siemer, appreciated the social media exercises carried out by the SRU students.

“It’s good experience to make us aware of what could be out there and what we should do about it, like talk to an adult,” Oliver said.

He said the increased awareness students will have regarding social media will help eighth graders be more informed when they enter public high school next year.

“I think it’s great that the school is doing this,” Oliver said of the collaboration with the SRU occupational therapy program.

Krisztina Armstrong, a doctoral student who participated in the program Wednesday, said online danger is a rarely discussed subject, but a potentially lethal one.

“It’s beneficial to just be aware of the issues,” Armstrong said.

She said when a teen gets into a negative situation online, it can easily affect their education and social interactions, particularly if their classmates are aware of an embarrassing or scandalous situation they are involved in.

“They could get more socially isolated,” Armstrong said.

She said she chose occupational therapy as a major and career because of the wide range of assistance she will be able to provide to patients.

“I can work on any population,” Armstrong said.

Siddha Patel, another of the SRU occupational therapy doctoral students who visited St. Luke Lutheran, said her dream job is as an occupational therapist at a specialty school, such as a school for the blind, but she is open to any work experience once she graduates.

“Occupational therapy covers mental health and physical health, not just one or the other,” Patel said of her decision to choose the major, “so it combines both components for well-being.”

Virone said she hopes to form a partnership with St. Luke Lutheran School to provide consistent, ongoing mental health support through SRU’s occupational therapy program.

Virone will present her department’s work on the School Mental Health Promotion and Prevention program from Tuesday Dec. 5 to Thursday Dec. 7 in New Orleans at the National Center for School Mental Health Conference to spread awareness on using occupational therapists in school mental health situations.