ESC Awarded $330,000 Mental Health GrantFunds To Improve Linkages Among Mental Health Agencies 
Superintendent Terry Thomas announced today that The Greene ESC is receiving one of 16 national grants for the Integration of Schools and Mental Health Systems by the US Department of Education. “This could not have come at a better time,” comments Thomas, “since funds for mental health services are becoming harder to obtain and the need for the services is increasing.” The $333,000 grant will fund the Stakeholders to Partners project which will enable the ESC to build sustainable linkages among partners including Greene County public schools, the Juvenile Court, and the Community Network. As a result, the county's youth will have greater access to mental health services. “There is much suffering in the lives of many children and teens who live in our community,” explains Dr. Timothy Callahan, ESC Director of Mental Health Services. "The mental health community is committed fully to reducing this suffering and to improving the health and well being of our youth and their families." "This grant," Dr. Callahan continues, "will enable key stakeholders in the lives of our school-aged youth to become full partners in the prevention, referral, diagnosis, and treatment of the county's youth who are impacted by mental health problems." The architect of the Stakeholders to Partners project is Anya Senetra, who supervises the ESC’s School-based Mental Health Program. Senetra goes on to explain that the funds from this grant will be used to train teachers and juvenile court workers to identify the early warning signs of mental illness and to make referrals before the issues turn into behavior problems in the classroom or community. As a result, treatment can be started earlier. “Because of the stigma associated with mental illness, youth often suffer in relative silence,” according to Senetra. “This initiative will focus on reducing the stigma related to mental health services and increasing key community partner’s ability to screen and to refer these fragile youth for mental health treatment.” In addition to enhancing mental health screening and access to mental health services, the Stakeholders to Partners project will focus on prevention, as well. Funds from the grant will be used to expand the implementation of the PAX Good Behavior Game, a cost effective primary prevention model which is used by classroom teachers with their students. First implemented in the Fairborn City School district, the PAX Good Behavior Game has proven to have a long-term impact on mental health functioning, academic achievement, and sustainability. The game enhances teachers’ capacity to nurture positive behavior among students and to increase students’ capacity to attend to academic tasks. Thus, the PAX Game is an appropriate tool to help teachers meet their building and district improvement goals. Infused into the daily instruction provided by teachers, the game also meet the mandates of two other existing school initiatives: Positive Behavior Supports (PBS) and Response to Intervention (RTI). In addition to enhancing academic engagement, the game have also proven effective in reducing the number of disciplinary and mental health referrals for students. A second preventive provision of the Stakeholders to Partners project is to enhance the efforts of the Greene County Suicide Prevention Coalition. Funds from the grant will be used to expand Project Brite Star, “Bringing Realistic Information To Every Sensitive Teen At Risk.” Project Brite Star, developed locally by two Greene County mothers, is a suicide prevention outreach program designed to increase youth awareness of depression and its link to teen suicide. The developers of the project, both of whom are survivors of teen suicide, founded this chapter and have helped to implement the program in the Beavercreek City School District. This model will be replicated in other Greene County middle schools and high schools. Thirdly, the Stakeholders to Partners project will provide training and support for school districts to establish individual crisis intervention teams. The teams will be provided with resources and trained in the skills needed to conduct interventions, to make assessments of student levels of trauma, and to collaboratively identify and refer students whose reactions and symptoms go beyond those associated with initial shock and grief. It is a goal of the project to increase the collective capacity of the county as a whole through cross-building and district-to-district support in times of crisis or tragedy. The Stakeholders to Partners project grant funding is in place for two years. Carl Brun and Wright State University will conduct an on-going evaluation of the project. Implementation and impact of the PAX Good Behavior Game will also be done through Wright State, in collaboration with Dr. Dennis Embry of the PAXIS Institute. In making the Stakeholders to Partners grant funding announcement, Superintendent Thomas was especially appreciative of the contributions to the writing and editing of the grant provided by Juli Mallow, Dr. Tim Callahan, and Teresa Arnett of the Greene ESC. Additional contributions were made by grant partners including the MHR Board of Clark, Greene & Madison Counties, Greene County Juvenile Court, Integrated Youth Services, The Community Network, Family and Children First Council, Greene ESC staff, Wright State University, and PAXIS Institute. The Greene County ESC Mental Health Services is accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Services. The Greene ESC is a contract agency of the Mental Health & Recovery Board of Clark, Greene and Madison Counties. For more information, contact: (937) 767-1301 extension 131 |