A program designed to assist students with mental health and other needs has gained a foothold in the 11,500-student in the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp.
The Counseling Counts program is a two-tiered approach focused on prevention and providing acute care to students from prekindergarten through high school.
With the launch of the program, mental health service providers from Centerstone and Family Service Inc. have begun working with students and their families, said Bill Jensen, BCSC director of secondary education.
BCSC was awarded $1.1 million in October 2017 from the Lilly Endowment, allowing the district to develop Counseling Counts, Jensen said. That funding allowed BCSC to continue its work that began after receiving a $100,000 grant two months earlier from Heritage Fund — The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County, which helped launch the program.
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The district last fall was able to hire a systems coordinator, Doug Moore, a retired director of guidance counseling at Columbus East High School, with the grant from Heritage Fund.
Since the start of this school year, full-time mental health service providers have been helping BCSC students needing immediate attention, Jensen said. The mental health professionals are being paid using part of the Lilly Endowment grant funding, which runs through 2021.
Students who are especially vulnerable to outside influences are seventh- and eighth-graders in middle school, he said.
“They’re pretty immersed in social media 24/7 and that has created a lot of pressure and stress agents and drama,” Jensen said. “We think social media has exasperated feelings of pressure, self-isolation, depression and anxiety.”
More work is needed to help students become more resilient to issues such as depression, and to remove negative stigmas about asking for help, he said.
The BCSC program, which has been ramping up for a year, has mental health service providers on site inside all BCSC schools with the exception of five elementaries.
However, Mt. Healthy, Parkside, Rockcreek, CSA Lincoln and CSA Fodrea Campus elementary schools are on track to have mental health service providers by January, Moore said.
Focus on prevention
BCSC is focusing on the preventative side of helping students build their developmental assets, social and emotional strengths, and resiliency. That involves the work of teachers, counselors and school administrators, Jensen said.
Developmental assets, which were designed by the Search Institute, a nonprofit based in Minneapolis, is an evidence-based approach, said Heather Carson, director of the Council for Youth Development in Bartholomew County.
That organization and other community partners are integrating developmental assets, spread across eight broad areas of human development, throughout the county, she said.
External assets — support, empowerment, boundaries and expectations and constructive use of time — focus on relationships and opportunities that create a positive environment for young people, Carson said.
Internal assets — commitment to learning, positive values, social competencies and positive identity — reflect personal character strengths, social-emotional skills and attitudes that young people need to fully engage with and function in the world around them, she said.
“BCSC’s efforts with the Counseling Counts initiative have and continue to be beneficial for the health and safety of all students,” Carson said. “We know that in order to sustain this work and reach more youth across this county, social-emotional wellness must be a community priority.”
Building assets protects young people from risky behaviors and promotes positive youth development, Carson said.
Search Institute surveys of more than 120,000 students nationwide in grades 6-12 have revealed that assets are powerful influences on adolescent behavior, Carson said. The organization has identified 40 developmental assets that have a positive impact on young people, she said.
“Children and teenagers who have high levels of these assets get involved in fewer risky behaviors and are much more likely to exhibit the positive values such as leadership, good health, diversity and success in school,” Carson said. “However, results also revealed that young people do not have enough assets.”
Mental health providers
BCSC decided to pursue the competitive grant funding from the Lilly Endowment after school counselors indicated they were seeing more students with social and emotional needs on top of their everyday duties of academic counseling, Jensen said.
Moore said BCSC counselors, deans and nurses have received training through the Counseling Counts program. The next phase will be targeted toward teachers to help them work on strengthening developmental assets among students, he said.
In addition, BCSC also plans to have teachers incorporate the asset-based approach through curriculum in their classrooms, Moore said.
He also noted that secondary referrals for students experiencing issues dropped dramatically this past spring after mental health service providers were added to Central and Northside middle schools, in addition to Columbus East and Columbus North high schools, as the program got underway.
“It’s been a godsend for the folks I’ve talked to,” Moore said. “It made a positive impact.”
At Central, mental health service providers interact with students on a daily basis, Principal Jay Payne said.
“They’re here to try to support all students,” he said.
John Wilson, a family support specialist with Centerstone in his second school year at Central with the Counseling Counts program, said he tries to build rapport with students he meets on an individual basis.
Families are also involved in the process when a student referral is made to assess the household dynamics, he said.
Teachers or other staff members who think a student might be experiencing problems contact a school guidance counselor — and a referral is eventually to a mental health professional, said Emily Spagnuolo, a clinical therapist with Family Service Inc. who works closely with Wilson.
Wilson said he has seen students with mental health issues such as anxiety or depression come from all different walks of life, including individuals who might have one of his or her parents in jail.
His role involves teaching students coping skills to deal with the problems, said Wilson, who conducts home visits if necessary.
Wilson’s office, located on the second floor of Central Middle School, contains puzzles, games and Play-Doh for students to use if they wish when they meet with him. That’s to reduce students’ anxiety.
On the back of Wilson’s door is a mirror that he uses with clients as part of a self-reflection process.
When a student is referred for assistance, it includes therapy with Spagnuolo, who noted that Centerstone and Family Service Inc.’s mission are to assist students with their mental health needs, including individuals with ideas of suicide.
“It’s great that our community is supporting (students’) mental health needs,” Spagnuolo said. “Suicide is preventable and providing them with the tools they need is really important.”
County support
In addition to Centerstone and Family Service Inc., BCSC is working with the United Way of Bartholomew County, the Council for Youth Development, the Foundation for Youth and others.
Cooperation between the schools and the United Way has resulted in a hotline to provide services for children and their families, Moore said.
“The county support has been extremely positive,” Moore said.
Jensen said the school corporation eventually hopes to partner with Columbus Regional Health and the Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress, an initiative launched last year to tackle the area’s opioid epidemic.
Moore said he anticipates a partnership between the school corporation and ASAP will come to fruition over the next few months.
“To see all these agencies and people come together, it’s very rewarding,” Jensen said.
Spagnuolo and Wilson said increasing the number of community partners even more will be beneficial.
“The more support and the more resources we have provide for families, the better,” Spagnuolo said.
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The Counseling Counts program helps students who are dealing with drug and alcohol abuse, suicidal thoughts, homelessness and other issues.
The program is a two-tiered approach in collaboration with partners such as Centerstone and Family Service Inc. that focuses on providing preventative and acute care to students in the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp.
BCSC was awarded a $100,000 grant from Heritage Fund — The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County that allowed it to hire a systems coordinator, Doug Moore, a retired director of guidance counseling at Columbus East High School. It also received $1.1 million in grant funding last year from the Lilly Endowment for the Counseling Counts program.
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2017:
- Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. receives $100,000 grant in August from Heritage Fund — The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County to launch the Counseling Counts program. Tapping into that funding, the district hires systems coordinator Doug Moore, a retired Columbus East director of guidance counseling.
- The district was awarded $1.1 million in October from the Lilly Endowment that allowed it to continue its work and develop Counseling Counts.
2018:
- Mental health professionals added at Northside and Central middle schools, and Columbus East and Columbus North high schools for spring semester.
- BCSC in fall places mental health service providers in all but five elementary schools.
2019:
- Mental health service providers will be added in January for the start of the second semester at remaining elementary schools — CSA Fodrea, CSA Lincoln, Mt. Healthy, Parkside and Rockcreek elementary schools.
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