By: Ryan Duey
Colleen O’Connell, School-Based Services Manager with Pawnee Mental Health, presented to Coalition members during the latest Clay Counts Coalition meeting.
O’Connell said School-Based Services provides therapy or case management services to directly support students’ mental health needs in the school setting. She detailed the services that are provided.
“We provide therapy services; this can be individual, it can be family therapy, and it can be group therapy. They are face to face, so the schools provide us a space to meet privately with the individual. These services help kids process a whole myriad of things.”
“We also do offer targeted management cases. We do a lot of collaborating with school staff, verifying what the needs are, and work on treatment planning. We working with the staff to help coordinate the case, assess the needs, and meet those needs of the student in the school environment.”
With case management services, professionals offer community psychiatric support management services, maintenance skill-building services, and attended care services.
O’Connell spoke about some of the benefits of School-Based Services.
“Some benefits of these services is early identification and treatment of mental health conditions, increased academic performance. The next one, and probably the biggest one, is that they have enhanced attendance records and reduced absenteeism since the services are done at the school. We all know that if you have to leave for an appointment, how quickly you get back varies; sometimes you don’t even get back.”
“The other side of that is people who don’t have transportation to appointments or may not be able to engage in the office still receive services because the kids are already at school.”
“This also really improves communication between the mental health support, the school, and the families. It also saves time and money.”
Pawnee Mental Health currently provides these services at all Clay Center schools, with hopes of adding the services in Wakefield in the future.
O’Connell said that services are currently provided directly through the individual’s insurance. Anyone interested in learning about these School-Based Services and how to enroll a student should reach out to Lisa Last at the USD 379 District office.
