To address ongoing mental health needs, the Ferguson-Florissant School District will partner with Great Circle to provide full-time therapists in all of its schools beginning fall 2015.
Great Circle is a children’s behavioral health organization that came about from a 2009 merger between Edgewood Children’s Center and Boys & Girls Town of Missouri.
Last fall, Great Circle therapists worked with district students in response to the Ferguson unrest, which delayed the opening of the academic year. The therapists assisted students at Mark Twain Student Support Center, the district’s alternative education program.
Aimee Cacciatore, director of student services, said a grant was written through St. Louis Children’s Service Fund to have therapists at the alternative program to help support students in crisis, whatever the cause.
“There may events that led them to be at our alternative center,” she said. “There is potential some environmental issues or some mental health issues that was unknown at the time.”
With therapists working in every school, students can receive individual and group counseling.
“In some schools, we may see the need for more individual therapy, and other schools may see more group therapy,” said Angela Bratcher, statewide director of student support Services at Great Circle.
“Others may need a combination of these things. So we are really going to individualize the needs of the students and families of that school.”
Additionally, students may receive case management and referrals to other services, if needed.
“There is a need for trauma support, and many of our families have difficulty with transportation or accessing supports, insurance, all kinds of barriers that families experience,” Cacciatore said.
“We have a lot of families that move in and out, that may have received support somewhere else, but then they move to a new area and they don’t really know how to access it. This is really just a way to give a family and a child intervention to be successful in school.”
Research indicates that the mental health of young people does impacts academic success.
“Traumatic childhood experiences negatively impact a child’s chances of success later in life,” Bratcher said. “Our partnership with Ferguson-Florissant School District aims to address the impact of trauma and equip students with the tools for positive, fulfilled lives.”
Embedding a therapist in the daily routine of a school enables therapists to become familiar with the students, get to know them better and become attuned to their needs.
“A lot of these will be quick interventions and some quick supports for a student or for a family,” Cacciatore said.
Therapists will work mostly in partnership with school counselors. “Through that process, there will be an identification of students who are in need of services,” Cacciatore said. “The counselor and the therapist are really going to work hand-in-hand.”
Last month, according to the district, Baltimore City Public Schools took a cue from Ferguson-Florissant’s partnership with community health organizations to provide mental health support services for students.
