The constant pressure on schools to enhance academic performance, comply with new tougher regulations and deal with the impact of a rapidly changing world environment has given rise to new and more challenging stressors for educators.

On October 1st, the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) in partnership with University Behavioral HealthCare (UBHC) launched a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week free, confidential phone line to provide counseling and support for all employees who work in the field of education across the state of New Jersey, including the 175,000 NJEA members. Teachers, counselors, nurses, paraprofessionals, secretaries, bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers and security staff at the state’s public schools, and their families, can access the phone line, which is staffed both by specially trained retired teachers and mental health professionals.

The staff is trained to respond to issues arising from job-related stresses, as well as family and personal problems. The service is expected to handle 10 to 20 calls per day, each averaging about 20 minutes in length.

AID-NJEA is modeled after UMDNJ’s Cop2Cop program, a three-year-old "helpline" that has a proven track record with New Jersey’s police officers. UBHC clinicians say it has been demonstrated that policemen best understand the concerns of their peers, and that teachers are best qualified to comprehend the issues facing other teachers and school employees.

University Behavioral HealthCare will also create a Web site for school employees to access information on stress management, child psychology, behavior management and related topics. In addition, a crisis intervention team from UBHC will be on-call to work with school districts experiencing catastrophic events.