PSI Solutions

Prevention & Intervention Services

Promoting Improved Grades, Attendance and Self-Discipline

PSI's Prevention & Intervention Initiatives are implemented in over 200 schools yearly throughout Ohio, having touched the lives of more than 75,000 students since 1991. Research-based programs are offered for all grade levels, K through 12, and can be designed for a wide array of time parameters, including after school. They include both nationally recognized programs and those uniquely designed by PSI. The curriculum and trained professionals give personalized attention that gains success.  

Highlighted Program: PSI's Shifting Gears: Remove the Bullies, Add the Discipline 

This program helps transportation directors prepare drivers to effectively manage many difficult situations that are faced daily. Bus drivers are often confronted with dangerous behavior, crisis management issues, disruptive bullies, and potential violence. They learn to better tackle difficult challenges, thereby helping districts respond to potential threats. Students are helped and, at the same time, drivers manage mental and physical abuse. Contact Karen McKelvey, Coordinator of PSI's Prevention and Intervention Services, at 800.841.4774, ext. 230, to learn more.

Prevention & Intervention Initiatives
(Staff/Parent Component Available For All)

REACT

Managing Bullies, Anger and Conflicts Successfully

Designed for 4th or 5th grade students, 12 weekly sessions

• Develops skills to reduce incidents of gossiping, taunting and bullying
• Teaches effective decision-making and problem-solving skills

Cyber-Bullying and Other Forms of Trash Talking

Teaching Students to Safely Deal with Today's Newest Challenges

Designed for 5th through 8th grade students, 10 weekly sessions

• Develops empathy and awareness of the impact of actions and words on others
• Stresses the negative effects of cyber-bullying and other forms of electronic harassment
• Increases awareness of the potential dangers of inappropriate web usage
• Improves student relationships through group activities, role-plays and discussions about appropriate behavior

Journeys and Heroes

Teaching Young Men and Women to Safely Navigate Adolescence

Facilitators work separately with male and female students. Available for 6th through 10th grade students, 10 weekly sessions

• Focuses on appropriate teen-age relationships
• Explores the differences in male and female bullying and relational aggression
• Develops awareness of the importance of appropriate decision-making in the challenges facing adolescents

Positive Peer Group Classic

Engaging Students to School

Designed for 6th through 11th grade students, 20 weekly sessions (10-12 students per group)

• Fosters identification and bonding for at-risk students through small group participatory curriculum
• Builds personal and social responsibility through role-plays, role reversals and school service program

Successful Teen Living

Healthy Teens—Safe Teens

Designed for 7th through 10th grade students, 10 weekly sessions

• Improves school climate, teenage relationships and school safety through role-plays and discussions of alternative behavioral strategies
• Expands knowledge of tobacco, alcohol, illicit drugs and their negative impact upon society through thought-provoking classroom discussion

Student Peer Mediation

Offered Through Peaceful Response: Monica Viviani, M.A., Licensed Mediator

• Formal Student Peer Mediation–designed for 5th through 12th grade students, 3 full day sessions, 20 students per group, must have teacher/moderator participation
• Playground Student Peer Mediation–designed for 4th through 8th grade students, 3 full day sessions, 20 students per group, must have teacher/moderator participation
• Combined Playground/Formal Mediation–designed for 5th through 8th grade students, 4 full day sessions, 20 students per group, must have teacher/moderator participation
• Helping Students Deal with Bullies–designed for K-12, length varies, 50 students per group, should have teacher present

Second Step
Conflict Mediation

Designed for 2nd or 3rd grade students, 15-17 weekly sessions

• Reduces aggression while building social competence and management skills
• Teaches effective decision-making and problem-solving skills

Aggressors, Victims & Bystanders

Promoting Active Engagement with Realistic Scenarios

Designed for 6th or 7th grade students, 12 weekly sessions

• Explains new ways of thinking in potentially violent situations
• Encourages safe and responsible reactions of bystanders

Meet Karen McKelvey

The Coordinator of these Prevention and Intervention Initiatives is Karen McKelvey, M.Ed., Ed.S.  Karen has created the overall design, collected the data and developed a wide variety of innovative prevention and intervention programs. "Before coming to PSI, I worked for 20 years as a counselor both in schools and in private practice. I never encountered programs as effective or exciting as these." To learn more about how PSI's programs can improve grades, reduce absenteeism, and enhance discipline, please call Karen at 800.841.4774, ext. 230 or e-mail her.

Read Karen's article, "The gift that comes from giving," published in PSI's journal, Paradigm.