Warren County School System received an estimated $900,000 grant from the Tennessee Department of Health to provide mental health support to students and staff.
Director of Coordinated School Health Nicole Fish said the grant will help the school system continue its teletherapy mental health services that each school already offers through a partnership with a local provider. Fish said being able to provide mental health services at every school in the school system has been crucial as being in a rural area creates many barriers.
“Mental health has been pretty evident not just in our community but overall and I think throughout the state,” Fish said. “And so we started realizing that and you know a lot of the families in the district may not have access.”
Fish said the mental health services are free of charge to students and staff. Fish said offering free mental health support to students has relieved burdens for many families.
“We don’t get insurance information,” Fish said. “It’s a referral process through the school counselor and obviously we work in a partnership with the family as well and get their permission before providing any kind of service through this teletherapy program, but you know it’s something that eases that burden for them because we don’t look at that and we typically look at what the child is going through and we try to focus on the students that may not otherwise get this service.”
Fish said mental health services help address outside factors that might be hindering a student from performing their best in the classroom. Fish said she believes most people overlook mental health support needs for staff members and teachers as they have lives outside of school as well. Fish said the grant pays for a liaison between the school and the employee’s family to keep services confidential.
“The school system does not know what staff members are involved in these services,” Fish said. “So it’s something that we felt like it was important to make sure who is educating and supporting our students have the support that they need.”
Fish said the great thing about the grant is that it will be dispersed over the next three years which allows the services to extend beyond this year. Fish said the school system would not be able to provide mental health services without having the grant funding to pay for them.
