Mental Health Story Archives - Page 16 of 16 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Want Students to Achieve Academically? Provide Mental Health Services

Of the 718 public schools in West Virginia, 129 have school-based health centers (although note that some elementary/middle or middle/high schools share a center). Just over 30 percent of those, including Riverside High School in Belle, have mental health services.

“I think it’s [the mental health services] a good thing because a lot of teenagers struggle with depression or something wrong with them – they think that – especially in adolescence, the way the brain develops and all that stuff,” said Lillian Steel-Thomas, a senior at Riverside.

Steel-Thomas has had, as she calls it, “a tough life.” Over the past 18 years, she has lived with every relative who would take her in. She has also attended six or seven different schools. Steel-Thomas is currently living with her boyfriend’s parents – the most stable situation, she said, she has had in a while.

“Most of the problems they end up going away after you get older, but sometimes they don’t and getting help young helps you not have all kinds of horrible issues when you grow up,” she said.

Steel-Thomas has been diagnosed with depression and anxiety. She is one of seven students I talked to from three schools who have similar challenges. Most said having a therapist available at school is invaluable. Two young women from Greenbrier East High School said they wish they had access to one (they actually do – they just didn’t know about it).

“For many, many years focus on academics – many school leaders didn’t see the relationship between mental health and academics,” said Barbara Brady, School Counseling Coordinator with the WV Department of Education. “There are many, many studies saying academics impact mental health and mental health impacts academics.”

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, one in five children ages 13-18 have or will have a serious mental health condition. West Virginia currently has very little data about the state’s childhood mental health and none that was publically available.

Riverside is Steel-Thomas’ second high school. The first did not have mental health services. I asked her if having mental health services available at school made any difference to her grades. The short answer? Absolutely.

“I have good grades now because I can study, but before I couldn’t because it wasn’t that great,” said Steel-Thomas. “Where I had bad grades they believed I wasn’t a good student or a good person and I told them I was having a horrible time, told them all kinds of personal things and they pretty much told me to my face that I was lying.”

0119MentalHealth.mp3

Full audio story as heard on West Virginia Morning

Steel-Thomas failed all her classes that first year of high school except for the two that were graded based on “participation.” She said she thinks she was truant about half the time.

“I just didn’t feel like going to school anymore,” she said. “What’s the point of going if nobody cares? And my grades are bad anyway and it sucks being home, but at least I can go jogging or something.”

Being at Riverside, she said, is a world of difference. She feels more supported by both teachers and administrators who in turn, she said, seem to feel more supported by having referral services available on site.

The on-site services also mean she doesn’t have to leave school for appointments or make up hours of work. She just shows a teacher her appointment card, then heads down the hall to the clinic waiting room. It’s an envelop of support that for most of her life she hasn’t gotten from home.

Cases like Steel-Thomas’ seem like a success. But administrators like Brady are quick to point out that if schools are not creating an overall better environment for students, placing therapists in school will not be enough.

“It’s critical to have those universal preventions, those universal supports. Teaching all students the skills they need to succeed, teaching all students anger management skills, teaching all students conflict resolution s

kills, social skills, so on and so forth.”

The idea is to slowly change the way schools think about mental health and behavioral support. It’s not a one size fits all prescription. Schools in Cabell County have very different challenges than schools in McDowell. These schools need to have programs available that they can pick and choose from that work for their school at this time.

A complementary story, on the programs currently available to schools, will air Monday during West Virginia Morning.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation.

Nationally Recognized W.Va. Program Helps Children Deal With Trauma

In 2013, the West Virginia Center for Children’s Justice launched a program called Handle With Care. The collaborative program is meant to help children who’ve experienced abuse, neglect or other types of trauma succeed in school. The program that started on the West Side of Charleston is now expanding across the state and in other communities across the nation.

Mary C. Snow Elementary School is located in a neighborhood where it can be stressful to be a child. The West Side of Charleston has gained a bad reputation for drug crimes and violence, and in 2014 the city of Charleston as a whole saw an increase in both criminal activity and violent crimes.

W.Va. police officer visits a classroom at Mary C. Snow Elementary

While these crimes are usually committed by adults, that doesn’t mean children aren’t affected by them. And that’s where the Handle With Care Program comes into play. If a child is exposed to crime, violence or abuse, police notify the principal and school counselor by the start of the next school day.

Janet Allio, school nurse at Mary C. Snow Elementary School

“When I first heard about the Handle with Care Program, I thought, that’s the program for us because 75% of our children are in some form on traumatised environment on a day to day situation,” said Janet Allio, the school nurse at Mary C. Snow Elementary School

It’s not always clear when something traumatic has occurred in a student’s life. The first step in the Handle with Care program is when police officers send schools a form after they respond to traumatic events with children present.

The second step is when the school’s staff figure out out what resources a child may need if they have experienced a traumatic event. Sometimes, it’s talking with the school counselor- or going to the health center for extra sleep, or spending time in the library with the school’s therapy dog, Paca.

Or, if the parent gives permission, the child might also be matched up with a counselor who travels to the school.

For children who are left to deal with trauma all on their own, there can be fatal consequences.

A report called the Adverse Childhood Experiences study found that children who experienced trauma early in life were more likely to abuse substances, smoke, overeat. Children who experience abusive and stressful situations could lose as much as 20 years off their life, compared with children who grow up in stable, loving families.

Ethan Napier and his mother Lynitrah Woodson are blowing bubbles and working with a therapist inside the mental health clinic at Mary C. Snow Elementary School.

But teachers and other adults in a child’s life can help, if they know what to look out for.

“Life does happen. And it’s teaching them how to handle things when life does happen,” says Katrina Helm, a special education teacher at Mary C. Snow Elementary.

“That we can still function, we can get the love, we can get the support the nurture that we need. Basically when they come here and we get the Handle with Care we look at what do they need and how can we fill in from there.”

Helm recently visited a meeting with other teachers from across West Virginia.

“And one of those teachers brought up that there’s so much trauma going on in their schools and they don’t know how to handle it. And they don’t know what resources do we tap into. This is an ongoing problem, it’s a growing problem, and one thing they were emphasizing there is they’re seeing it more and more in their younger kids. And that’s what we’re seeing here is we’re seeing it in our younger kids.”

Thus far, the Handle With Care Program has been supported without any extra funding- except for the resources already available to schools and children who need mental care.

The program is part of a collaboration between the state Department of Health and Human Resources, U.S Attorney Booth Goodwin’s office and the West Virginia State Police.

These groups are now working to help bring Handle With Care to communities throughout West Virginia. There are also similar programs that have sprouted in other states. When president Obama visited West Virginia last year to talk about drug abuse across the nation, he took note of the Handle with Care Program.

“I’d really like to see us advertise this more across the country and adopt this as a best practice,” said President Obama.

With drug overdose rates in West Virginia the highest in the country, Katrina Helm says more and more teachers are noticing children who are dealing with abuse and neglect. “So it’s definitely more prominent now than before. I think before we always thought it was just isolated to West Side Elementary.”

Katrina Helm is a special education teacher involved in the Handle With Care Program

But as drug abuse and domestic violence continue to barrage families across West Virginia, there simply aren’t enough resources to help children deal with trauma. Harmony Health Services, which provides mental health therapy to the students at Mary C. Snow Elementary, is working to get a mobile mental health care facility for some of the remote areas in West Virginia.

Note, since this story was originally reported, Booth Goodwin recently announced that he is resigning from office as U.S. Attorney and has filed papers to run for Governor.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation.

Staff Vacancies Drop at W.Va. Psychiatric Hospitals

State officials say staff vacancies have declined at West Virginia’s state-run psychiatric hospitals following court-ordered pay raises.

Vacancies at William R. Sharpe Jr. Hospital in Weston dropped from 67 in January to 33 as of Dec. 15. Vacancies at Mildred Mitchell Bateman Hospital in Huntington declined from 19 to 17 during the same period.

Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Duke Bloom had ordered the pay raises in an ongoing case centering on the treatment of patients at the hospitals.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that Department of Health and Human Resources officials gave Bloom an update on the hospitals during a hearing last week.

Bureau of Behavioral Health and Health Facilities commissioner Victoria Jones testified that the number of patients also has declined at each hospital.

Plan Approved to Ease Staff Shortages at Two W.Va. Hospitals

A judge has approved a plan to ease staff shortages at two West Virginia psychiatric hospitals.

According to media reports, Kanawha County Circuit Judge Duke Bloom approved the plan for the Department of Health and Human resources hospitals.

In doing so, he dismissed potential contempt charges against the department for failure to comply with court orders.

The plan involves the William R. Sharpe Jr. Hospital in Weston and the Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital in Huntington.

Under the plan, DHHR will order market rate studies for both hospitals to determine competitive wages for direct-care workers.

The plan also would institute a special hiring rate and 3-percent retention incentives each year, but would not include additional incentives for years served.

Judge Nixes W.Va. Plans for Fixing Psychiatric Hospitals

A Kanawha County judge has rejected a state agency’s plan to address issues at West Virginia’s two psychiatric hospitals.

The judge on Wednesday rejected proposals submitted by the state Department of Health and Human Resources regarding William R. Sharpe Hospital in Weston and Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital in Huntington.

The hospitals have been the focus of an ongoing court case centered on the appropriate treatment of mental-health patients remanded to state care.

Other issues included staffing shortages and noncompetitive wages for workers. One of the proposals included privatizing the facilities.

The Charleston Gazette reports that the department has been ordered to develop alternate proposals within 10 days.

Efforts to help state veterans continue

The author of a study published last year on state veterans is trying to do more to help them.Joseph Scotti has started a new organization called WHOLE…

The author of a study published last year on state veterans is trying to do more to help them.

Joseph Scotti has started a new organization called WHOLE Veterans. It stands for Welcome Home: Overcoming, Living, Engaging.

Scotti says it takes a lot of different people within a community to encourage veterans to reach out for help when they need assistance. He says there simply aren’t enough people at the moment to deal with absolutely every veteran who needs care.

The American Psychiatric Association’s guide on how to treat post-traumatic stress disorder has been updated. Scotti says veterans shouldn’t be worried about stricter qualification standards for treatment.

Scotti’s next study is geared specifically to hear from Gulf War veterans.