Skip To Main Content

School Header

Logo Container

logo-image

Location

Schools

Search Button

Trigger Container

Breadcrumb

Mental Health & Wellness

With the safety and well-being of our students as a top priority, we recognize that strong mental health plays a vital role in a student's growth and success. Lakota offers a variety of services and supports to meet the mental health needs of our students.

If a person needs immediate assistance:

Immediate Crisis Response and Consultation
Mobile Response Stabilization Service: 844-427-4747 

Consultation Support and Referral/Intake
Children’s Hospital Psychiatric Intake Response Center (PIRC): 513-636-4124

Crisis Numbers

  • National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-8255 
  • Butler County Crisis Hotline: 844-427-4747 or call 911
  • Ohio Crisis Text Line: Text 4HOPE to 741741

Our Therapy Dog

tan lab with service vest on a purple mat

Techna is Cherokee's Therapy Dog and has been trained, certified, and insured through Circle Tail on how to interact with children within a structured environment. Techna has also undergone temperament and obedience training, and passed with flying colors.

Techna brings joy to students everyday at school and provides many benefits:

Cognitive: Companionship with a dog stimulates memory, problem-solving and game-playing.
Social: A dog provides a positive mutual topic for discussion, encourages responsibility, wellbeing and focused interaction with others.            
Emotional: A school dog improves self-esteem, acceptance from others and lifts mood, often provoking laughter and fun. Dogs can also teach compassion and respect for other living things as well as relieving anxiety.    
Physical: Interaction with an animal reduces blood pressure, provides tactile stimulation, assists with pain management, gives motivation to move, walk and stimulates the senses.
Environmental: A dog in a school increases the sense of a family environment, with all of the above benefits continuing long after the school day is over.

*If your student has a significant dog allergy or fear of dogs, please contact our school counselor so she can work with your family to ensure the best experience for your child. 

School Based Therapy

MindPeace logo with ladder and sun as the letter i

We want all of our students to be healthy and ready to learn, and we recognize that strong mental health and wellness play a vital role in a student's growth and success. Students who are struggling with stress, anxiety or other concerns cannot focus on school work. That's why we’ve partnered with Catalyst Counseling and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to help increase student access to high quality and affordable mental healthcare.

In addition to their network of school-based providers, MindPeace also manages a comprehensive community database of all the mental health providers in our region, along with other helpful resources to meet the needs of students and their families. Visit the MindPeace website to view the comprehensive list of providers and resources

 

After a rigorous needs assessment and interview process, Cherokee Elementary identified Children's Hospital as our partner to help increase student access to high quality and affordable mental healthcare. 

Meet Our Therapist

Brenda Day

Brenda Day

Brenda Day is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. She has worked as a school-based therapist for over six years in various schools in the Greater Cincinnati area. Brenda values the importance of access to mental health support within the school environment and works with students to help them overcome social, emotional and academic difficulties.

Brenda utilizes a variety of modalities in therapy, including cognitive behavioral therapy, and neurosequential-model of therapeutics-informed therapy, while also using creative and expressive techniques to individualize treatment for each student. Brenda recognizes the importance of the developmental years of childhood and will continue to advocate for students to succeed socially, emotionally and academically. 

Brenda enjoys spending time with her family and is a fan of the arts and sports including local theater, ballet, and is a huge baseball fan.