Long-term mental health counseling is now part of the services that Communities in Schools of the Permian Basin offers to students.
The nonprofit, which has been focused on dropout prevention, has expanded from Odessa and Midland to Pecos-Barstow-Toyah to Big Spring.
Previously focused on secondary campuses in the Basin, Communities in Schools is now offering services to Dowling and Goliad elementary schools and just recently Murry Fly.
The mental health offerings started last summer.
“… It’s really an effort …from the Communities in Schools side, to … do more of the preventative maintenance …,” Executive Director Eliseo Elizondo said.
They found that other CIS affiliates were serving elementary campuses and the one here was one of the few that didn’t.
The approach is to catch youngsters as early as possible with the goal of connecting them and their families with needed resources and getting them off on the right foot academically.
“… There’s academic support and then there’s a lot of social-emotional learning. SEL is the buzzword right now, but it really is … teaching these kids at a young age how to deal with adverse situations and the proper response to feeling anxiety and tension and things that make them mad or uncomfortable,” Elizondo said.
“… It’s two-fold for us on that front because we’re hoping to have the preventative maintenance and have the ripple effects that prevent some of those situations. Some of the students that we deal with, by the time they become teenagers … honestly we’re doing a lot of damage control at that point,” he said.
They are trying to stop any issues before they start.
“But on the social-emotional learning, we’re trying to head off, especially the mental health issues that will develop, when these kids get off on the wrong foot and don’t know how to deal properly with those situations …” Elizondo said.
He noted that there are certain indicators that children are at risk as defined by the Texas Education Agency. This is so CIS can be on the same page as the districts.
At a young age, not too many of those factors should come into play, but they do for students that are severely at risk, Elizondo said.
“There’s a high need for social services. Teachers, counselors and administrators already see kids acting out, having issues at school and so often those are strong indicators and not necessarily defined on paper, but you can start to see the responses that they have. They’re acting out; the lack of interest in academics has already started at that point because they’re dealing with other stuff.”
If youngsters are dealing with situations at home like hunger or sleeping in their car, for example, coming to school is a release valve for them.
“You see kids in kindergarten, first grade, acting out and throwing things at teachers and cussing people out. I don’t think a lot of the public realizes that …,” Elizondo said.
The age range of children Communities in Schools serves is 5 to 18 or 19.
Elizondo said the mental health component is not in the standard Communities in Schools model.
“There’s only a few affiliates, actually, that offer that type of mental health support, and we’re now one of those few affiliates,” he said.
Jessi Morgan, program manager of mental health support, said it’s part of removing barriers to success for children. And students the past couple of years have been dealing with a lot — the mass shooting, the pandemic, trauma, previous grief and everyday issues, so they are in need of mental health support more than ever before.
“We have gotten lots of referrals already,” Morgan said. She added that it will impact around 300 students this school year.
Along with professional counseling, peer support groups also are offered.
“Kids love groups and research shows that groups can be more effective than individual (counseling) at times. That doesn’t mean that what we’re doing (with) the individual (counseling) isn’t important, but just being with other kids, knowing that you’re not the only one going through this huge loss or change can really impact the student. And also, gives them a chance to find a purpose for their pain as they walk other peers through that and offer support, guidance, etc., for what’s worked for them. It’s definitely a process that works that we believe in fully,” Morgan said.
Elizondo said the response from the school district has been extremely positive.
“… I think most of them realize … you can’t have enough therapists and counselors. There’s more than enough work to go around …,” Elizondo added.
The grant funded program provides free counseling at school during the school day, Morgan said.
“You don’t have to have transportation; you don’t have to have money; you don’t have to have anything. You just have to be at school. We have to get a parent consent form signed and then we just come to your school and see you at a convenient time …,” she said.
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center had been offering tele-psychiatry to students. Morgan said they refer to Texas Tech psychiatry as needed.
“… We’re not here to replace what they’re doing; we’re just kind of here to also be an extra layer of support to students — which students can never have enough support — so (it’s) all hands on deck there. … If something happens, we can do tele-therapy. During the summertime if they don’t want to come up to the office here, we can do tele-therapy, so we do offer tele-therapy as well but we prefer in person,” Morgan said.
ECISD has a layer of academic counselors and SAS counselors, which provide crisis response.
“We are not here to provide crisis response. The SAS counselors are still doing that. This is for the kids that need that long-term care and support. We’re seeing them for long-term sessions … setting goals, treatment plans all of that giving them the professional counseling experience just at their school,” Morgan said.
Previously, the CIS case managers would make referrals to outside agencies. Morgan said
Communities in Schools was up for a state grant to provide mental health, but it fell through so Elizondo said with his and Morgan’s stubbornness, they got funding.
Elizondo said they got back to what was his Plan A. He said there are benefactors who have given them support.
Morgan said students have the option of coming to the CIS office in Odessa or Midland, or doing tele-health.
Along with Morgan’s four-person team, they also have an online database they use specifically for grief counseling if needed.
“If for some reason, like we have some that are kind of further out district like Pecos are not ideal for them to you know see one of us all the time so they can go in our coordinator’s office and meet with a grief counselor online in the office,” Morgan said.
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