HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- As the mental health crisis among young people continues throughout the country, leaders in Henrico County announced a new and holistic plan to better connect students with mental health resources.
Dubbed "Henrico Cares," the partnership between the Henrico County government, the school division, and community partners aims to better deliver mental health help to young people at school and home.
"By enhancing access points, and dissolving service barriers, we're shaping a new era of mental health care," said Alicia Atkins, chair of the Henrico School Board.
"We wanted to make sure that we were moving every and any potential barrier that our students and families would have in order to connect and link with the mental health care services and supports they needed," said Tyrone Nelson, chair of the Henrico Board of Supervisors.
Henrico Cares is a multi pronged approach to delivering services in a county that has seen a 42% increase in suicide risk screenings for students the past few years.
An alarming number coupled with Virginia ranking 48th in the country in access to mental health resources for youth.
Henrico Cares incorporates the following, according to Henrico officials:
- A partnership with community and private mental health care providers to offer mental health care and services at schools
- An increase of HCPS school-based mental health providers
- No-cost, short-term mental health teletherapy that middle and high school students can access at home or school
- Increased clinical staffing to expand access to parent-child interaction therapy
- Support for qualifying HCPS staff to work toward licensure as professional counselors or clinical social workers
- Increased early and intensive interventions for mental health, substance use and youth violence
- Expanded curriculum and training to strengthen mental health literacy among students, staff, parents and caregivers
- A screening program for early identification of students who may need additional social, emotional and mental health care support;
- Enhanced coordination and information-sharing among school-based staff and private or community providers
- A virtual mental health care coordination service that offers a federal- and state-compliant referral system; 24/7 access to a live, multilingual care coordinator and a self-service tool to find verified providers
- No-cost treatment and support for students who are without an existing mental health care provider and have been discharged from an inpatient or residential treatment program.
Nelson said the plan will be implemented in phases over the next five years but officials plan to begin that process now.
Henrico would need to invest $17.8 milllion over the next five years to fully implement these recommendations.
“We wanted to make sure that we were moving every and any potential barrier that our students and families would have in order to connect and link with the mental health care services and supports they needed," said Liz Parker, HCPS Director of Student Support and Wellness, who helped with the steering committee that developed the plan over the past three years.
“We wanted to look at every potential blind spot and we wanted to hear from our medical community, our mental health providers, our families, our students, schools, community agencies, our Community Service Board, our faith leaders: everybody that has a unique perspective on the health needs of our students and youth," Parker said.
Kenya Sarai, a junior at Varina High School, said she has help to deal with the stresses of modern teen life, but knows all too well many of her classmates do not have the same support.
“God, my family: that's how I cope with it. Because without the two, I don't know how I will make it this far," she said. "Our voice matters, it really does matter because adults can talk about what they think we should be doing. But when you're actually in the school system, and you see like what's going on.”
“In school where there is so much drama, so much gun violence, so many things that are negative, this program will help grow us mentally as students and this helped us overall on our student mental health," Sarai said.
You can learn more about the plan here.
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