Community collaboration in school based mental health services It Takes a Village: Community collaboration in school based mental health services School District of Ashland and the Greater Ashland Community

Why are we here? What was going on in our District? Our kids were hurting and connecting families with help was challenging for school staff. YRBS Data Suicide Feelings of Belonging Disproportionality No consistent way to refer students to behavioral health supports. What was happening in the Community? BH Providers did not have a consistent way to connect with school staff or students in school. Time and Transportation to clinics was a barrier for families. Is the watermark distracting?? If so - take it out :)

Why are we here? What were the gaps? Where did we want to be? What were we looking for with this slide??

Who are we? Amanda Popovich Greta Blancarte Scott Griffiths School District of Ashland Director of Pupil Services and Special Education Amanda supervises the AWARE project and oversees the pupil services and special education departments district wide. Greta Blancarte District Wellness Coordinator Greta works as a full time liaison between the school and community providers connecting students that are referred for support to resources in the community. Scott Griffiths AWARE Project Coordinator Scott works to coordinate the details of our project plan with all five schools and the community. Amy Syversen Trauma Sensitive Coach Amy is working with the district administration and community partners to understand trauma informed care and build systems to support our goal to support resilient learners and staff.

What kick started this process? After the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012, the “Now Is The Time Project” began nationally and part of that was the Advancing Wellness and Resilience Education (AWARE) grant program. This grant program expands the capacity to: Increase awareness of mental health issues among school-age youth Train school personnel and other adults who interact with school-age youth so they can detect and respond to mental health issues Connect children, youth, and families who may experience behavioral health issues with appropriate services.

What kick started this process? Ashland School District was awarded an AWARE grant in 2014. The 2014-15 school year was an opportunity to analyze district and community data to determine need. The 2015-16 school year we created a plan to address the district and community needs and focused on: Tier 3: How do we catch the kids right now! This is why our community referral pathway became our first priority and initial work. Tier 2: Enhancing the school’s schedules to provide this time and address internal small group needs. Tier 1: Enhancing and developing a structure that focused on the needs with ALL students and ALL staff members The 2016-17 school year we began piloting our plan, assessing the impact regularly, and making adjustments as we go.

What kick started this process? In the 2017-18 school year we intend to maintain our tier 3 work (fine tuning along the way) and shift a heavy emphasis to our universal work with all students. This will include reflecting with community partners to determine what needs they are seeing consistently with students that the district could help assist with universally. In the 2018-19 school year we hope to step back and watch our work in action to determine what we may be missing, fine tuning what’s in place, and ensure that this project has been fully integrated into the infrastructure of the schools.

Who did we partner with? How did we reach out to these partners? First Mile Counseling Northland Counseling Independent Counselors SOAR Bad River Clinic North Lakes Clinic Memorial Medical Center MMC Behavioral Health Unit Day Treatment Community Behavioral Health Group Wisconsin Family Ties Native Connections Program New Day Shelter Sheriff’s Department Health and Human Services New Horizons CCS

How are we doing? 175 unique students have been identified through the district referral pathway from 198 referrals representing over 8.5% of our student body 56 Students were referred to school-based mental health services 49 Students were referred to community-based mental health services

Innovations Network Map Reaching outside of the Education world Web-Based referral system- cheqin.weebly.com Handle With Care - Individual provider working exclusively in our schools Online guide to resources (can be updated/printed on demand) Clinical support/MOUs District Wellness Coordinator Forming an active partnership with providers Scheduling Referendum- clinical spaces If we have pics of the spaces on the next slide - figured it would be best to put that at the end of this list.

New clinical spaces in the district

What’s Next for us? Room to Grow Integration and Reporting into Skyward Separation of Clinical and School files Building time for ongoing check-in’s Handle With Care Grow collaboration with WI Family Ties and Native Connections Family engagement Where do we reflect and improve? Funneling other SDA info/resources through the Wellness Coordinator Wellness programs for staff Expanding behavioral health services to staff Integrating behavioral health voices into education Consultation code AWARE key pivot points K-12 social/ emotional curriculum and discipline

Take aways…. For community behavioral health For schools Seek ways into schools - primary office in school -even private practitioner Find a point person within the school (director, principal, counselor) Collaborate with point person to determine common strategies and access to design and space For schools Central Person for communication Method for referrals Regular 2-way communication with schools and partners Pilot! Try it and improve it Make/ find physical space to bring the providers in

Thank you for joining us! Questions?