News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Volunteer Behavioral Health was the recipient of a $900,000 state grant to expand mental health services in schools.
Senior VP of Operations Sejal West said the expansion will cover new child development specialists for its Behavioral Health Liaison and Project BASIC programs.
“And they will work closely with the teachers in the school and with the children,” West said. “So they’ll provide a lot of mental health education, early identification, and they’ll provide teacher consultation.”
West said that Project BASIC works with kids from kindergarten through third grade. She said that BASIC stands for Better Attitude Skills In Children. The Behavioral Health Liaison program serves older kids in the school system.
West said specialists use an evidence-based model in their work. She said that there is a need for this kind of resource everywhere.
“Our schools in Tennessee do a great job with our kids, but they don’t have the resources to really address in detail mental health needs,” West said. “And really be able to do that early intervention not just with the kids there but also to connect families to other resources and such outside of the schools. (…) It’s really focused on kind of an arm outside of the school to connect with community resources, treatments, services. There’s always a need, I believe, to really look at how we best help our kids in our state.”
West said that the next steps will be to hire those positions in conjunction with school officials.
