Fairfield school district offers mental health services

FAIRFIELD — The Fairfield Community School District wants students and staff to know that mental health support is there for them if they need it.

Therapists in the schools

The district has made mental health a priority by increasing access to services, including an opportunity for students to meet a therapist in a school building instead of having to drive out of town as in years past.

Matt Smith, Fairfield school district social worker, said the district started that program two years ago.

“We’ve found it’s more beneficial this way because when a student had to be picked up and taken to a clinic, there as a transportation barrier, and parents had to take time off work,” he said. “If the therapist can come to them, we saw that the child was more likely to get the support they needed.”

For the last two years, the district has contracted with River Hills to provide the district with a licensed therapist in the buildings. Optimae is providing support for some high school students, and R & R Counseling Solutions is serving the middle school this year.

“We’re working with Sieda Community Action so they can get into the elementary schools and the high school,” Smith said. “That support should be coming soon.”

Screening

The district has also developed a protocol to screen for students who are feeling depressed or are having suicidal thoughts, and to meet with those children. Smith said the screenings are given to all students in grades 6-12, at the beginning, middle and end of the school year. Parents can choose to have their children opt out of the screenings.

Smith said an “at-risk team” consisting of him, the school counselors, and the at-risk coordinators meet with those children in need based on their screening, which is a questionnaire about their mental health.

“Any student who has a ‘red flag,’ we’d develop a plan with that student, complete a suicide assessment if necessary and work to get them set up,” Smith said.

Smith said the at-risk team meets monthly during the school year to ensure those students who have been identified are continuing to get services, “to make sure nobody falls through the cracks,” he said.

Smith said the number of students who report depression or suicidal thoughts is between 15-20 percent nationally, though he wasn’t sure on how the Fairfield school district compared to that national average. He said if the school followed the national average, it would mean about 50 kids in the district are depressed.

“I don’t know that we have that many, so I think we’re probably under what the national average is,” Smith said.

Black box

To ensure that no steps are missed in the process of evaluating and treating students in need, the guidance counselors in each building have a black tackle box containing all the information that relates to their student.

“It has all the forms that would need to be gone through, a suicide assessment, a safety planning sheet and information to contact family,” Smith said.

Smith said students can be referred to a therapist, or in severe cases, to have them hospitalized. The at-risk team goes through all the students with files in the black box every month to ensure that the student continues to receive the care they need.

Recent tragedies

Students have had to lean on these services, and more, this school year, which has already seen the community suffer multiple tragedies. A high school student committed suicide earlier this fall, and high school Spanish teacher Nohema Graber was found dead in early November, and authorities have charged two FHS students with killing her.

Fairfield Schools Superintendent Laurie Noll said that, after the student’s suicide in the fall, the district brought in ministers to walk the halls of the high school to provide support to their parishioners. The area education agency sent grief counselors to meet with students and teachers, and follow-up with any who are especially in need of the service. Noll said that same team of ministers and therapists visited the schools after Graber’s death, too.

“Because of the uniqueness of a murder, we ended up working with Hamilton’s Academy of Grief & Loss, who work specifically on a survivor’s guide to homicide,” Noll said.

Smith said a bereavement coordinator from Cedar Rapids met with the staff the day after Graber’s death.

“I think that was a benefit to the staff,” Smith said.

“Teachers really appreciated that,” Noll said. “Our staff got back together that day after, and [the bereavement coordinator] helped guide them through their feelings. It helped prepare the staff so they could come back to school that following Monday and be with students.”

Public meeting

The district is planning a public meeting on the evening of Wednesday, Jan. 12 to educate community members about mental health services. The bereavement coordinator from Cedar Rapids will talk about how to help navigate a crisis, support children going through one, and signs to look for that a child is depressed or suicidal. The time and location of that meeting has not been decided.

Students needing help

Smith wants parents in the Fairfield school district to know that if they are worried about their child, or have any questions about mental health services, they can reach him via phone at 641-472-0269, on his cellphone at 319-775-5487, or via email at matt.smith@fairfieldsfuture.org.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com