By Jill Draper
Center School District in south KC has been chosen to help launch a new mental health partnership with Children’s Mercy Kansas City and Blue Cross Blue Shield.
This first-of-its-kind program aims to provide mental health resources for metro area children and teens before issues become a crisis. According to Children’s Mercy, 40 to 50 percent of local kids who have mental health issues do not receive any kind of treatment. Common issues include depression, anxiety, eating disorders, ADHD and autism.
Center was asked to participate partly because of its manageable size. With only eight schools and 2,500 students in pre-K through 12 enrollment, the district is one of the area’s smallest. Children’s Mercy also cited Center’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Training will begin in mid-February to make sure a core group in each Center building is familiar with restorative practices. Teachers then will be trained in the fall with the goal of creating a culture in each classroom where students work out their problems, said Rick Chambers, director of communications and development for Center School District.
Restorative practices goes beyond conflict resolution in its emphasis on restoring and repairing relationships, program officials said. The goal is to support social and emotional needs of students, which in turn will improve engagement, attendance and performance.
“We acknowledge injury to the other party, then ask how we can make it right,” said Chambers, who noted the root causes of many mental health problems are trauma, poverty, racism, neighborhood violence, substance abuse—even Covid. He said Center will make parents aware of the training and offer courses to them, as well.
The pilot program with the Center School District is one of 14 projects that make up the Children’s Mercy Illuminate plan, a $275 million initiative to address youth mental health, which it deems a “staggering crisis.” Other projects will include an inpatient mental health campus, an integrated inpatient care unit and acute mental health crisis center.
“We’ve probably been in a crisis forever. We’ve just become more aware of it in the last few years,” Chambers said. “Maybe we can make our world a little bit more pleasant to live in.”
According to Dr. Robert Steele, chief strategy and innovation officer at Children’s Mercy, “The more we lock arms with other innovative corporate partners for behavioral and mental health services in our schools, the more we can collectively provide support and foster resilience among our youth to promote self-care and well-being.”
Officials expect the program at Center to serve as a blueprint that can be replicated in other school districts.
See more at childrensmercy.org/illuminate.
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