News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Livingston Academy hopes to partner with Dale Hollow Mental Health to provide additional services to students in need.
Overton County Schools’ ‘Gear Up’ Coordinator Vanessa Farris says mental health services have become a growing need among teens.
“Over the past year or so, we’ve noticed an increasing number of students who need mental health services for a variety of issues,” Farris says. “We know that we have students who need counseling, so we wanted to find ways that could get these kids the services they need and support families and their students to have those needs met.”
Farris notes that although the current team of counselors at Livingston Academy do what they can, providing mental health services isn’t the extent of their jobs.
“School counseling is different than mental health counseling,” Farris says. “Certainly our school counselors are all wonderful at identifying students that have needs, but they have a lot of other jobs – from scheduling students and handling curriculum, to working with attendance. So to give true mental health counseling and devote 45-minute sessions to a child is very hard for a school counselor to do.”
Farris says having Dale Hollow Mental Health provide additional services is much needed in order to detect severe cases that could potentially worsen if not treated properly.
“If you take a look across not only the state but the nation, the rate for teen suicide are just way to high,” Farris says. “So we know that our students are experiencing trouble to the point that sometimes, sadly, that has become an option… Students just have a lot of needs.”
Although the school system and Dale Hollow Mental Health have not made any agreements as of yet, Farris says services could possibly be offered as early as this school year.
“Our counselors would identify students who might benefit from those services, and they are 100 percent voluntary,” Farris says. “The students and the parent would agree to the service. Dale Hollow Mental Health would do their intake just as if they were seeing them at their own private office… so we’ve just got to secure where their place is going to be and just get that process rolling.”
Services provided by the company would occur at the corresponding school and billed to the family’s insurance provider.
Dale Hollow Mental Health is part of the Volunteer Behavioral Health system and currently provides services at Crab Orchard Elementary School.
The National Alliance on Mental Health reports nearly one in five teens either have or will face mental health issues in their lives.
