Early prevention is a key in providing mental health services for children and families

There has actually been a decrease in the number of children using services at the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center.

But that’s not necessarily a good thing.

“We’re seeing about a 20 percent decrease in the number of kids coming in for services,” said Janice Storey, director of Child and Family Services at Bert Nash. “But the acuity is much higher. They are in a much higher level of crisis when they get here. Sometimes our first point of contact with kids is a screening for the hospital.”

So while the numbers of children using services are on the decline, the severity of cases is on the rise.

“That’s disturbing,” Storey said. “Because the earlier you can intervene, the more successful those kids will be.” That’s why it’s always a good idea to get down to your local family medicine clinic as soon as you can if you see any red flags or warning signs. The earlier you spot any changes in your child’s mental health, the better their chances of recovery will be. It’s best to nip problems in the bud rather than letting things fester, and your family doctor will know the best course of action to take.

However, it has become increasingly difficult to spot red flags when it comes to young people’s mental health. Had there been prior access to psychosocial recovery support, identifying and rectifying the problems of young adults could have been easily resolved. One reason for this trend is the loss of on-site mental health clinicians in schools, Storey said. At one time, through the program Working to Recognize Alternative Possibilities (WRAP), there was a Bert Nash clinician assigned to every Lawrence school. The clinicians worked in collaboration with school counselors and officials. But due to the loss of funding, the program has been scaled back. Currently, there is a WRAP worker in both high schools and two of the four middle schools, but none of the Lawrence elementary schools.

“We were getting kids in services quicker when we had a WRAP worker in all of the Lawrence schools,” Storey said.

Bert Nash has a partnership with the Eudora SchoolDistrict, where thereis a WRAP worker in all threeschools. Funding for those positions is through a federal grant. There is also a Bert Nash child and family therapist assigned to Eudora. In addition, Bert Nash is a partner with the Baldwin, Eudora and Wellsville schools in a program for secondary students with behavioral disorders.

Economic pressures are another factor in the severity of cases the child and family services staff is seeing.  

“We’re seeing a lot of kids who are pretty unstable,” Storey said. “We have always had those kinds of kids, but it seems we’re seeing more of them because of the economy and the pressure that puts on families and there are fewer resources in the community, so it’s taking them longer to find their way into services.”

When they do find their way to Bert Nash, they will find a range of services available for children and their families.

“We have a range of community-based services,” Storey said. “We do individual therapy and family therapy and we have a variety of psychosocial groups that are targeted on skill building.”

Bert Nash offers an array of services for children who are chronically mentally ill. “We have services specifically developed for that population,” Storey said.

Storey is proud of the work her staff does, and it’s not easy work when dealing with cases involving children.

“We see a lot of abuse and neglect, which has always been present, but there are worse cases now and there are more of them,” Storey said. “Some of the things that have been done to kids who come in here for services, I think people would be shocked to know what kinds of things go on in the community.”

Joining Storey on the leadership team for child and family services are Kala Bhana, Julie Boydston, Kristen Brown, Becky Cheek-King and Charlie Kuszmaul.

“I have a great team and staff,” Storey said.

Internally, child and family services has a partnership with the center’s adult dialectical behavior team to offer DBT, which is a skills-based program, for adolescents.

“That has been a great collaboration,” Storey said of the DBT program for adolescents. “It’s been very successful.”

Bert Nash’s Child and Family Services also has a longstanding partnership with the Lawrence School District to provide a secondary therapeutic classroom, which is housed at the center.

“The school is on our property, but the teachers, paraprofessionals and the program are through the school district,” Storey said. “What we do is supply the mental health therapist in the classroom.”

Bert Nash also has a contract with the school district to provide mental health interventions for children at the juvenile detention center.

Bringing mental health out of the shadows is important, said Patricia Roach Smith, Bert Nash chief operating officer.

“The prevalence of mental health disorders in children and youth is about 20 percent in any given year, making this a fairly common problem,” Roach Smith said. “It is important for us to normalize talking about behaviors and feelings that can significantly impact our life. If our children have asthma or a broken leg, we address it promptly. Let’s talk about mental health and treatment in the same way. The work done by child and family services to focus not only on treatment but also on promotion, prevention, early intervention and education to improve the health of our county’s children is impressive.”

And as always, early prevention is the key. Mental health treatments now take an increasingly holistic approach when it comes to helping people with mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.

“The earlier you can intervene the better outcomes you will have,” Storey said. “To have a healthy community, the more you can build kids who have a high level of confidence and feel safe and are successful, then they are not going to keep developing more and more problems. That's why prevention can be very helpful. What you’re trying to do is stop that generational growth. So, you’re kind of paying it forward.”