Texting Teens to Safety: How a Simple Message Can Change a Student's Life (Episode 89)

When teens face mental health challenges today, they're often caught in a difficult position – reluctant to walk into a counselor's office yet desperately needing support. School Pulse fills this critical gap with an elegantly simple solution that's changing outcomes for vulnerable students nationwide.

Iuri Melo, co-founder of School Pulse and a clinical social worker with 20 years of experience, joins the MindShift Power Podcast to share how their text-based support service creates a lifeline for struggling teens. What makes this approach revolutionary is its proactive nature – rather than waiting for crisis, School Pulse reaches out to students twice weekly with relevant, engaging content about managing anxiety, building relationships, and handling conflict. This consistent touchpoint establishes trust that pays dividends when real crises emerge.

The results speak volumes. With an astonishing 97% retention rate, students clearly value this service that allows them to text anonymously about everything from academic struggles to suicidal thoughts. School administrators receive invaluable data about their student population while maintaining confidentiality. Most importantly, real interventions are happening – from connecting abuse victims with protection services to preventing potential school violence through early identification.

"Whatever we talk about, we begin to control. Whatever we don't talk about controls us," Melo explains, highlighting why creating safe spaces for honest communication is transformative for teen mental health. By meeting students where they are – on their phones – and offering judgment-free support, School Pulse bridges the communication gap between struggling teens, overwhelmed school counselors, and concerned parents.

Are you concerned about the mental health of teens in your community? Discover how School Pulse is creating meaningful connections and preventing tragedies before they happen. Visit schoolpulse.org to learn how your school can implement this life-changing service.

To learn more about School Plus, please click below.

https://schoolpulse.org/

Mental health resources:

https://schoolpulse.org/schools/schoolpulse/

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to MindShift Power Podcast
• 2:22 What is School Pulse?
• 6:10 How Text Support Helps Students
• 17:02 Crisis Prevention Success Stories
• 22:35 Proactive Messaging Examples
• 30:48 Schools, Parents and Solutions
• 38:40 Mind-Shifting Moment: Making a Difference

Transcript

Fatima Bey: 0:01

Welcome to MindShift Power Podcast, the only international podcast focused on teens, connecting young voices and perspectives from around the world. Get ready to explore the issues that matter to today's youth and shape tomorrow's world. I'm your host, fatima Bey the MindShifter, and welcome everyone. Today, we have with us Uri Mello. He is out of Utah and he is the co-founder of School Pulse, and I'm going to let him tell you about himself and why he's here today. How are you today, uri?

Iuri Melo: 0:39

Fatima, I am fabulous and thank you so much for inviting me. I'm ready to rock and roll with you. Girl, let's go.

Fatima Bey: 0:46

All right, so tell the audience about yourself. Who are you?

Iuri Melo: 0:49

Sure, so I'm, first of all, I'm a married man. I'm a father of five seriously incredible kids that I'm just inspired by all the time. I've actually been a licensed clinical social worker for about 20 years, mostly in private practice, and honestly, the experience that I've gotten as a result of that just meeting people knee to knee, right eyeball to eyeball, like I'm sure you've done, fatima is just so incredible. About seven years ago I started School Pulse and I'm sure we'll chat about it a little bit more or maybe even kind of how I started that. But really what we do, or what we want to be specifically for schools and for adolescents, is we just want to be a fabulous solution that is coherent, that is streamlined and that provides kids with proactive tools to be successful in their relationships obviously successful in schools and often schools are really concerned about suicide prevention and student wellness and things like that and we just want to provide schools with an easy solution that they can apply and adopt immediately. So, just very briefly, that's a little bit about me.

Iuri Melo: 2:01

I live, like I said, like you mentioned, I live in Southern Utah, which is about an hour and 45 minutes away from Las Vegas. It's just this wonderful place. Love to rock climb, love to run, love to spend time with my kids. It's a good time.

Fatima Bey: 2:14

So tell us a little bit more about School Pulse. You explained it briefly, but what is School Pulse?

Iuri Melo: 2:22

Yeah.

Iuri Melo: 2:22

So School Pulse is a service that we offer to schools and districts, and even statewide.

Iuri Melo: 2:28

So schools have kind of a mandate, or districts have a mandate throughout the country to provide suicide prevention, to provide mental health supports and resources for students and for parents.

Iuri Melo: 2:40

And so what we've done is we've taken a lot of time to listen to principals, to listen to school counselors, to listen to superintendents and find out what it is that they want, what problems are they attempting to solve, what challenges are they facing when they're having to deal with students? And what we found is and this is not going to be news to you is that school counselors and administrators are just overwhelmed. They're overwhelmed not just with the demands that are given to them through the state, but they're also overwhelmed with the demand that students are putting upon them. I mean we know that 60 to 70 percent of teachers are dealing with students who are going through mental health concerns, mental health challenges. We know that our rates of depression, our rates of anxiety, our rates of student suicide, our rates of students who are self-harming are well above the norms, the highest that they've ever been and this of course, is translating into schools, right.

Iuri Melo: 3:45

And so here are these principals right. Who's really the primary role is? We want to provide some education for these kids, but, of course, when we're not well right, when we're not mentally well, when we're not emotionally well, learning becomes very difficult, and oftentimes our decision-making, you knowmaking, is challenged during that time as well. And so our goal is, in a very simple way, is we want to provide tools for these administrators, we want to provide tools for these counselors. In fact, we've created the most robust, the most complete mental health resource for teens in the country, our program, which we offer in a variety of ways. We provide live text-based support to students, and one of our roles and I think this is really important to me, fatima is, I think a lot of times, I find that we kind of enter this passive and reactive mode.

Iuri Melo: 4:41

In a sense, we're almost kind of waiting for crisis to happen, and then we're kind of jumping at the intervention right, like we're waiting until students are suicidal, and then we provide resources in front of them.

Iuri Melo: 4:54

And what we wanted to do is really come to students proactively right and build what in psychology we call our protective factors right, the things that create confidence, the things that build our ability to learn, instead of just focusing on the risk factors. And so we proactively go to students via email, we proactively go to students via text and then we provide them with live text-based support in addition to our incredible resources that we provide to schools. I kind of jokingly say that this is like a Nobel Prize-winning service that we're offering, but the reality is we have had those kinds of conversations with students who are just actively suicidal or who may be self-harming, or who may even have homicidal ideation or who are reporting physical or sexual abuse. And we're just honored, to be honest, we're just honored to be there, to provide support and to help to connect those incredible students number one to their personal network of parents or guardians and then, of course, to the professionals at the school, and we've been incredibly successful. We're just so grateful.

Fatima Bey: 6:10

I love, love, love, love, love what you guys do and I believe in it because there does need to be a realistic solution for our youth. A lot of them we're talking about America right now in the US they're lost, really lost, and they're not really being given. We're so politically correct that we're not actually solving any problems and that is hurting them tremendously. And a lot of them they're not going to talk to the principal and the staff there, because a lot of staff there, because a lot of the staff has to be clinically trained robots, so they're less human in their approach and of course, this isn't everywhere, but I'm talking in general terms and there's a very large disconnect.

Fatima Bey: 6:58

One of the reasons I started the podcast is because there's a large disconnect between the adults who serve our youth and our youth, and I love that you guys make that connection. So let's take a deeper dive into how you do that. So you explain to us now. You and I have talked about this ahead of time. So you send out text messages. How do you send them out and what's in them?

Iuri Melo: 7:22

I love that. So, one of the things that we do in fact, I'm going to do one a little bit later today and we do it in a variety of ways but when we walk into a school, right, I mean, the very first thing that we want to do is we want to deliver, like immediate value, right. And so one of the easy things that we can immediately do is we literally grab kind of a well, schools usually do this, obviously like they provide a roster of their parents, a roster of their students and we begin our proactive email campaign. And this is the simplest thing that we do, and this is just one thing that we do. And every Monday, we deliver what I call kind of our student success activities of the week. Right, anything ranging from you know how to build confidence, how to test better, how to improve our relationships, how to get rid of your states, right, these are just questions that students have asked how to deal with anxiety, how to deal with stress?

Fatima Bey: 8:17

how to deal with depression.

Iuri Melo: 8:19

It's huge and we'll be happy to talk about that a little bit as well. But what we're talking specifically about with our text-based support and that's just one piece that we offer it's pretty innovative, but we actually provide schools with these really cool posters with really positive sayings and then with the QR code, and students literally just walk up to those with their phone, they scan it and that's all they need to do. They don't have to download an application.

Fatima Bey: 8:47

It's not an app.

Iuri Melo: 8:48

They don't have to create an account, they don't have to create a password, they just immediately get a text on their phone it's kind of wild that says hey, welcome to School Pulse. And from that moment on, that student is going to receive proactive support every Tuesday and Friday. What that means is we proactively text them Tuesday and every Friday, but then we're available seven days a week from 8 am to midnight, 365 through the summer. So this is one of the ways that we can walk into a school and immediately amplify their efforts, multiply their efforts, because in a matter of seconds we could be chatting with hundreds of their students, and especially after school. Right, I mean principals, administrators, counselors. They need to go home too.

Fatima Bey: 9:39

They have to be with their own families. They're overwhelmed. They can't do everything they want to do. They are.

Iuri Melo: 9:43

Yeah, they are and, like you said, they're overwhelmed. They can't do everything they want to do. They are, yeah, they are, and we actually recognize. I think one of the things that I've learned is I mean, we've now chatted with hundreds and hundreds of schools and with staff and I think that they're actually trying really hard. I mean, with maybe some few exceptions of individuals that may be struggling themselves, but I think they're trying. I think they certainly see the challenge. I think they see the struggle. They certainly feel it right Because it's happening in their school, it's impacting the culture and atmosphere in their school, but oftentimes they're just overwhelmed.

Iuri Melo: 10:16

I'll give you an example, for example, school counselors. I think school counselors really want to counsel you. Yeah, a lot of them do. I think they spend a lot of time dealing with scheduling and things that are also necessary. They're important. I think they get it. They end up dealing with these other things that are less about actually supporting the individual student.

Iuri Melo: 10:40

I agree, and so I think our role is we want to come in number one. We want to give them awesome tools that can assist them in that process, but we also want to multiply their efforts by providing this additional level of support that's just available to kids and, by the way, to parents. We have lots of parents who opt in. Everything is transparent. We want parents to know exactly what's being sent to students, and so we have lots of students, that lots of parents who participate and, by the way, who not only participate to kind of see the incredible content that we're selling, we're sending to students, but they themselves are chatting with us about their own struggles, whether it's parents that are going through a divorce or they're dealing with their own sadness, their own anxiety, their own trauma, and we just provide that level of support which is really unheard of. It's fabulous.

Fatima Bey: 11:36

What I'm hearing is that, by using a text message method of reaching students, you're reaching people where they are, which is a principle I talk about and teach a lot. It's very important and you're also a liaison between the adults and the youth, and that, to me, is key in what is absolutely necessary In our schools and I'm speaking in general terms the environments are, like I said so, politically correct. Real, actual conversations that'll give actual results are not allowed to take place, so you guys allow that little leeway where they can just say whatever they want to you and you know, and you can reply or help them or however, but give us an example of what some of these text messages look like.

Iuri Melo: 12:20

You bet I mean I'll give you an example of one just yesterday and I think it's important to realize that, how important the proactive piece in texting is. I think that that's really a key part. So it's the fact that we're not passively waiting for students to come to us. We proactively reach out to them Tuesday and Friday. Tuesday with our brand new student activity, our brand new student videos which, if you'd like, I'd love to provide. These are just free resources that your parents, that your listeners can use, but we provide that every Tuesday. It's fun, it's attractive, it's easy to engage in. And then on Friday, we actually do a variety of things. We deliver other inspirational content and then we also do four questionnaires that kind of go every other week and we measure students' academic effort, we measure their opinion of how the culture and atmosphere is at their school. Oh, that's an average data.

Iuri Melo: 13:29

It's not individual to the student, to the school, which actually allows it, informs them right it informs their ability to intervene and to see, like, what is the actual pulse of my student body, right, and so we provide that to schools which educates them and informs their intervention tactics right in the future. But the texting what I was going to jump in specifically about proactive texting is 80% of our engagement with students happens as a response to our text to them. So, for example, our busiest days on our inbox per se right is our Tuesdays and Fridays by I mean by by a lot, because that's when we proactively tap them on the shoulder and say, hey, check this out, like, hey, take a look at this, hey, what do you think about this? Or how are you feeling today, or how has your week been. And when students are engaged with, they respond, and that's when we have these magical conversations.

Iuri Melo: 14:30

So, for example, yesterday we actually had a student that reached out to us and told us about two things. They were actually talking about a student that was a friend of theirs and she says I was having I mean, I'll paraphrase, of course, but I was having a conversation with a friend of mine and while we were in the midst of this discussion, she reported that she was being hit at home, right, and then, throughout that conversation, she also expressed some suicidal ideation. And so this dear student and I'm telling you this is just like heartwarming stuff these students just reach out to us and say, hey, like what should I do? My friend just said this should I call the Division of Child and Family Services? You know what do I do next? Right, we support the students, we just love them really.

Iuri Melo: 15:41

And then we do everything in our power to connect that student to the counselor at our school, which then contacted a counselor at the other school and gave them the information about that student that was reporting some physical abuse and some suicidal ideation. Right, and I think that that's the strength of our program. And you're absolutely right, flackyman, it is amazing to realize, but we've been teens, we know how that is too. Walking from that school classroom or hallway and into that counselor's office is not an easy walk. It is not. It is not an easy walk.

Iuri Melo: 16:15

They don't quite know what to expect. They don't quite know if that's the right place.

Fatima Bey: 16:19

They also don't know if they can trust us. So often kids don't yeah.

Iuri Melo: 16:21

They don't know if they can trust you. Yet I think you're absolutely right.

Fatima Bey: 16:23

And that matters.

Iuri Melo: 16:24

And I think that that's the beauty of our service. Right Is is this, is this anonymous right we reach out, we actually don't know who that student is and that anonymity other than yesterday suicidal ideations being sexually assaulted at home being abused in any kind of way sexual or physical or whatever.

Fatima Bey: 16:59

What about school shootings? Has anybody ever reported that?

Iuri Melo: 17:04

Anybody ever reported that I have. We have a lot of schools in a lot of different places throughout the United States. I mean all the way from California to New York, to Florida, to Washington, to Idaho, and so there's just a variety. But I'll tell you an example, and this was I don't know if you recall it was in December, I actually don't remember the exact date, but it was in Wisconsin. I actually don't remember the exact date, but it was in Wisconsin. There was that school shooting.

Iuri Melo: 17:36

Isn't it sad that those things are happening so often?

Iuri Melo: 17:40

It's just a tragedy that we serve in Wisconsin and there was a student there who was willing enough they had built enough of a rapport and a trusting relationship with us that they expressed some homicidal ideation to us, that they expressed some thoughts like that.

Iuri Melo: 18:03

And number one, we're just so honored, right, why does that matter so much? I constantly tell people like, whatever we talk about, we begin to control. Whatever we don't talk about controls us. And so when kids, yeah, and when kids come to us, and even just the act of expressing it right, of getting it out of their heads and saying it or writing it or texting it, that in and of itself is therapeutic. And so when students express that, not only were we able at that point right to obviously provide support and resources, but we were able to identify that student and connect them to their principal, who was able to intervene. And so on that day, the very same day, we had one very tragic incident and another incident that no one will ever know about because we were able to intervene. And of course I'm not trying to say that we stopped the school shooting, because I can't say that particularly.

Iuri Melo: 19:03

All I know I can say you did, is that we yeah, I think 99.9, particularly All I know I can say you did 99.9% chance that you did, yeah, and all I can say, right, is that we had a dear student that was willing enough, that was brave enough to share some of his own mental concerns and we were able to intervene. And we've had that all the way to other specific situations where we have schools with lots of gang activity and we have students who have reported school shootings, gang shootings, or sometimes even in the midst of those things happening. We've had them warn about specific events that were going to happen. And the beauty of it is all the way from students who have reported right, I mean that there was physical or sexual abuse going on even within the school. So, and schools are just grateful, right, they're just, they're just doing the best that they can. We know that they're underfunded, overrun, in a sense.

Fatima Bey: 19:57

Yeah.

Iuri Melo: 19:57

And so we're just happy to come in what I feel is is an incredibly affordable and effective way and just provide some additional support incredibly affordable and effective way and just provide some additional support.

Fatima Bey: 20:08

So I think that's awesome. And I also want to point out the fact that students will let you know about something as as sensitive as I'm being abused at home. Uh, we'll let you know that you know what these guys are beefing is about to be a shootout. The fact that they feel willing to open up to you and say that to me, that says how effective you actually are, Because it is not easy to get teens to respond to anything adults do really. And if they feel safe that's something I learned about teens If they feel safe, they'll open up.

Fatima Bey: 20:40

But they have to feel safe first. They have to feel like there's not going to be an attack. There's not going to be. You can't say this oh, that's not right, Don't say it that way, there's not going to be any of that crap, it's just going to be. You need help, we can help you. What can we do? And just that simple basic foundation of just that makes a difference. And then being able to feel like, okay, it's safe.

Fatima Bey: 21:02

They don't know who I am. I can be honest, I can express myself, because unfortunately, in today's modern school society, expressing their self in reality is not allowed. So how are you supposed to get, how are we supposed to get our kids to fix anything if they can't even really express themselves because they're going to be shut down one way or the other? And there are exceptions to that, but when I'm speaking in general terms, but for the schools where that's not true, they're the exceptions and not the rule, and I think that's part of the problem.

Fatima Bey: 21:34

But what I like is that you're offering a solution and you're not saying I'm going to replace everything in your school. You are saying I'm going to come alongside and work with the school Because, like you said, in some schools they are trying the best they can, but they are limited resources. And what are those resources? Are humans, Limited resources, funding employees, limited resources with actual digital resources, whatever it is, but having a space where kids can come and actually be honest and real, but having a space where kids can come and actually be honest and real, that's a really, really, really big deal.

Iuri Melo: 22:08

So text message what text messages you send out to to the team yesterday. I love it. Yeah, I'll, I'll, I'll, you know, I'll, I'll open it up right now. We actually had, so I'll just open it up. I hope I didn't lose him. I still on your screen, yeah, yeah, oh, I guess we're just recording. That's right. That's right. So here's the message that went out. That's right. Sorry about that, sorry, I'm just rolling down to it because I.

Iuri Melo: 22:37

So here's the one that went out on Tuesday, right? So we actually have a video, and this is not just questions that students will ask us specifically about, like following the crowd, but these are actually, you know things. Once again, as we've spoken to schools, as we speak to school counselors, as I speak to principals, who at times have to deal with disciplinary issues as well, right, but we actually sent out a video. It's a following the crowd video and the question that comes out there's a little image that just says following the crowd, and then there's a question below it that just says have you ever gotten in trouble for following the crowd? Right, this is a tough choice, for sure, but I think I have some ideas for you. Check out this video and take the quiz, and we just provide a link right there. The kids can open it, they can watch a short, inspiring, fun video that's not cheesy, I promise, and they can take a little quiz and they can just kind of see where they're at.

Iuri Melo: 23:25

The one below the one above that is on Friday, we send lots of content that I think is kind of funny. We actually have a little picture of a person sleeping in a room with a mosquito and then there's a little thing that says if you think you're too small to make a difference, try spending the night in a closed room with the mosquito. And then just a little quote that says start where you are, use what you have and do what you can. And it's just that simple. I mean, there are just little messages, just like that we have.

Iuri Melo: 23:55

The previous Tuesday we had one specific video about how to deal with fighting and conflict better. So it's just we're constantly proactively. Once again, that's kind of the key. We're proactively Okay. We want to plant these ideas inside their mind that are benign, and I really want to say this because you're right, fakima, we are walking into state and federal institutions and so our content has to be benign, it has to be friendly, it has to go out to parents. It has to go to schools in a way that schools can look at all that content and go. I can absolutely send this to a parent and it's not going to blow up in my face, right.

Fatima Bey: 24:56

Because a lot of times administrators are just fearful, right. I don't even know what I can share.

Iuri Melo: 25:01

I don't know what I can talk about. I don't know what I can share, uh, and so what? We've worked incredibly hard with schools to make sure that our content right. Number one is growth mindset, specific is positive psychology. It's full of that and it's full of cognitive strategies, right, that are kind of the gold standard, in a sense, that will assist these students in a way that is not politically charged, that's not going to offend them, and we have had countless parent board meetings to address these things and not once even all the way from the most liberal to the most conservative throughout the country, right, and we have had parents. Our resources are available to all, they're transparent to everyone, and we've heard nothing but just extraordinary reviews from them.

Fatima Bey: 25:56

This is awesome.

Iuri Melo: 25:57

Yeah, it's very important.

Fatima Bey: 25:59

What are the other methods? I know that there's more methods than just texting. What are the other methods that? What are the other things that School Pulse does? Sure?

Iuri Melo: 26:07

Yeah. So the email is I always mentioned that one first because that's just the easiest. The email is I always mention that one first because that's just the easiest, right? I mean, we can walk into a school and immediately the school can adopt this approach of just sending one proactive email we don't want to spam people. One email per week where we deliver that student success activity that matches the one that's happening at the school for the week. So this goes out to every parent so that they can be aware like hey, here's what we're focusing on this week. It goes out to every student and this is just a simple way to make sure that we are reaching every student.

Iuri Melo: 26:43

So at schools they usually kind of have a tiered system. They want to make sure that they do things that reach every student. They want to make sure that they provide some additional support for students who may be struggling, and then at the tier three level, they want to make sure if there are students who are really struggling, they can provide those supports. And so one of our jobs is to be a whole school tier one type solution. That means we want to provide tools that will not burden staff. Yes, yes, yes, once that email campaign is started, they don't have to touch it. So this is like a one touch and then let it go, plug and play. True, plug and play. The text is another one of those right Once the student is opted in unless there's an emergency, that we're going to communicate with that school, like we are literally offering that support. The school doesn't have to touch that.

Fatima Bey: 27:32

Go ahead. Speaking of texting, I think you mentioned in a very important number to me that I think the audience needs to hear. So anytime we're opted into subscribe to this, you get this text, blah, blah, blah. We often unsubscribe, right, sure, sure. What is the percentage of unsubscribe from these teenage students that get text messages from you? What is the unsubscribe rate for school books?

Iuri Melo: 27:59

I'm glad you asked that because it really is amazing and it honestly amazes me because I want you to think that in some of these cases, fatima, we are proactively texting students for years. Wow, like it's wild. It's wild Like we have students that will go and our program specifically targets about seventh grade to 12th grade. So it's kind of middle, middle school, junior high, that's kind of where our content is focused, but we have less than 3% of students opt out of our service, which is just awesome.

Fatima Bey: 28:36

What? Less than 3%? I think that's crazy. Less than 3% opt out? I think that's actually crazy because I can't think of anything else where that's the case, even like outside of school, just anything.

Iuri Melo: 28:46

And just think Tuesday and Friday, like I mean you're going to get a little text Tuesday and Friday, like I mean you're going to get a little tech and and of course, right, we, we try to make the content attractive, funny, engaging, and of course this doesn't mean that students engage with us on a week to week basis. I mean we have students who will go and just in a sense receive our content for months and then they will talk and then they'll kind of go on a pause and then you have to plant seeds and wait for the buds to sprout.

Fatima Bey: 29:17

And that's what you guys do you plant seeds. I'm always talking about thought seeds, everything. Fatima Bay, the mind shifter, is talking about thought seeds, because that's what I do too.

Fatima Bey: 29:27

But you're planting those seeds in our youth and then you see the manifestation of the. You know the buzz starting to sprout up Months later, a year later, the fact that they don't unsubscribe and they're done with high schooling. They still taking your messages. To me, that says that it adds value. Now, one key thing before we go I want to make sure that we point out as well is you help students to connect with their parents. How do you do that?

Iuri Melo: 29:53

So we do it in a variety of ways and that's always our first line of defense. So when you have number one, I'll tell you this way. So our proactive emailing that goes out to parents, that's what we actually we believe in parent development, right. So we want to assist parents. So part of our proactive campaign to deliver these student success tools to parents is to do that, is to help to engage them with their own student who may be struggling with their academic grades, who may be struggling in their sports, who may be struggling with their friends, who may be struggling, and we're literally providing parents in a very easy way with tools that they can connect with their kids. So that's one way, right, as we proactively just deliver this to them, so that we're giving them resources that are fun, that aren't geeky or dorky but they're fun, and that are packed with actual solutions and tactics, not just kind of metaphorical or just philosophical.

Iuri Melo: 30:56

And trust me, I actually. I mean, I love to talk theory, like I really do, like I could talk philosophy and abstract things all the time. I just enjoy that, to be honest. But I realized that, with parents and students, we have to deliver steps like do this and this and this, try this, because I would feel like that's helpful. So that's one way.

Iuri Melo: 31:21

The other way, of course, is when we're actively engaging with students right over text, and students report these things to us, and our goal is always to connect that student first to their family, like that's where we ought to be connecting them, and the way that that happens is we actually we ask the student for their own personal information so that we can connect them to their parent.

Iuri Melo: 31:46

I will tell you, though, I would say about 85% of our interventions happen through the school, so that means the student is more willing to give us the name of their counselor, or the counselor at the school or the student. We usually ask for the student's identification number so that then we can connect them to the counselor, and then the counselor connects them to the parents. More often than not, that's how our interventions work, is they go through the professionals at the school, connects them to the parents. More often than not, that's how our interventions work is they go through the professionals at the school and then to the parent, but they end there, which is really where they ought to be right. That's where we want those interventions to go.

Fatima Bey: 32:24

And that's the liaison piece you mentioned something else.

Iuri Melo: 32:26

Oh yeah, that's right. That's right. And you mentioned specifically what are some of the other things that we offer, and I'll just share one more, one of the things that we do, just because I really love this one, because we're constantly trying to solve for the problem right. What is the problem right? And one of the things that we see. In fact, I was having a conversation I'll be honest here with one of my own kids, went and spoke to the vice principal specifically about kind of a disciplinary issue and as I was talking to this principal, he said Yuri, this is what I do all day. It's one of the vice principals, a good friend of mine, and he said I spend all day dealing with discipline issues, all the way from tardiness to disrupting the behavior environment, the learning environment, to fighting, to gossiping, to relationship issues, to kids saying discriminatory stuff in the hallways. I mean you can imagine all of it, right? And he says I spend all day doing that.

Iuri Melo: 33:27

And so what we did is we created these activities. As part of it, with our videos that can be assigned individually, we've identified the 23, the 24 topics, the 24 areas that principals say we constantly deal with these things and we have provided these activities that they can assign individually to the student and the parent. So this is another way that we connect those parents is whenever and I call this this is called our restorative practice, or restorative justice is kind of a common term that's utilized in schools. So we provide schools with these ready to deliver assignable activities that they can assign.

Iuri Melo: 34:10

Let's say, a student is dealing with tardiness, instead of just suspending them. Or maybe they're fighting, or maybe there's substance misuse going on, instead of just suspending or expelling these students, what we want to offer is these positive alternatives to suspension. Let's not suspend, let's not exclude. Instead, let's teach them, let's educate them. They're not there yet. Let's give them the tools to succeed. And that's another way is when those principals or vice principals assigned those assignments, the parent is included, so the parent isn't left in the dark. It's a really easy way for them to become part of that solution which we know will deliver better outcomes in the long haul anyways.

Fatima Bey: 34:55

So if there's a school that is interested in adding school pulse to their system, or if there's a teenager out there that wants to just become a part of school pulse, how do they find you?

Iuri Melo: 35:09

You know, if you go to our website, that's the easiest way Just go to schoolpulseorg and that's pulse as in your heart, pulse, uh. So schoolpulseorg, and there you can find a way for you to reach out to myself, uh, individually. And then also there we actually have a little demo number. So if you have a student, or if you have, or you yourself, or if you as a parent want to engage, we have a demo number that runs exactly like our text campaign to the students. So it's no different and you're still receiving live support. You're welcome to go to our website and get your student, your teen, opted into that. In fact, I mean you can join in yourself and see it for yourself and then, if you love it, add your kid to it. I think you will love it and, for whatever reason, if you don't don't, I mean it's as simple as that, but it's right there for you.

Iuri Melo: 35:59

I think you'll be impressed with our resources. If you want, fatima, I will share some of those with you, all of our videos. We'd love to give you all of those so that your listeners can access our mental health resource. That's. The other thing that we offer is that comprehensive library that's just accessible to schools. We created that very briefly because, as we've looked now through thousands of schools' websites, we honestly find that schools have nothing. They have no mental health, no student wellness, no student success resources available, and I honestly just couldn't believe that, and so we just created it for them, and that's one of the first things that we give schools the moment we walk in is we give them an individualized link with their own logo and just our incredible resources that they can put there Just immediately, increase accessibility to good, positive, evidence-based, vetted content.

Fatima Bey: 37:02

And that is awesome. Well, for the audience listening, your schoolpulseorg will be in the show notes or the podcast description, so you can just click on the link there and make sure you explore his site. There's a lot of resources available there. And thank you, erie, for coming on. I really do appreciate all that you're doing for our youth and and for you coming on the show.

Iuri Melo: 37:29

You've been an absolute pleasure. Keep mind shifting, keep shifting those minds. I love your nickname, the mind shifter. It feels very mysterious, mind shifter. I love it, I love it. Anyways, I really appreciate you. You bet it's good to make a friend.

Fatima Bey: 37:48

And now for a mind-shifting moment. I want you to think about this. What School Pulse is doing here in the US is desperately needed at every school in the US A realistic way for our youth to get some help that they need. We all know there's not enough therapists out there for what's really needed, and even then to find the good ones is slim pickings. I absolutely love that. School Pulse is doing something realistic to help our youth. The anonymity that they offer is a part of it.

Fatima Bey: 38:32

What I want you to think about we know what School Pulse is doing to help our youth. They're being a part of the solution. What are you doing? What are you doing? And if the answer is nothing, okay, what can you do to make a difference for our youth, a difference you don't have to save the world. Are you making a difference for someone in your neighborhood, for your niece or nephew that you know is hurting? I want you to ask yourself what am I doing? Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow or subscribe to MindShift Power Podcast on any of our worldwide platforms so you, too, can be a part of the conversation that's changing young lives everywhere. And always remember there's power in shifting your thinking.