Concord children's system of care expanded integration project - through the concord children's system of care expanded integration project, the concord school district (CSD), in direct…

Concord children's system of care expanded integration project - through the concord children's system of care expanded integration project, the concord school district (CSD), in direct collaboration with riverbend community mental health center, will serve as a hub for school-based mental health services, family behavioral health education, and timely facilitated referrals for external clinical care. As new hampshire's capital city, concord is home to over 4,000 pre-k - grade 12 public school students, more than a third of whom qualify for free or reduced lunch. All five elementaries, the single middle school, and the sole high school are perennially title i schools and, at any given time, 80-110 of our students experience homelessness. As the state's most common refugee resettlement community, concord has welcomed thousands of new american students to its schools over the past decade. Pre-pandemic, 35% of CSD high schoolers reported symptoms of clinical depression; that figure has risen to 39%, as has the number who have seriously considered suicide (23%). The overarching goals of the project are to: 1) build the capacity of stakeholders with a shared interest in and responsibility for children's mental health through intentional collaboration, workforce development, community-wide training, and codified policy change; 2) mitigate barriers to clinical care needed by school-aged youth and young adults with SED/SMI by establishing responsive pathways to school- and community-based individual therapy, wraparound, and crisis intervention; 3) respond to the increasing need for targeted interventions through the creation of an alternative middle school program for youth with and/or at risk of developing a SED/SMI, the facilitation of skills groups in the elementary schools, and the implementation of restorative practices at the secondary level; 4) implement tier 1/preventative approaches in classrooms, preschool - grade 12, to create an equitable school climate that supports students' behavioral health needs in a covid-ERA world. This project will clinically serve 10% of our student population through tier 2/3 services per year, including an annual 50 highest-needs students assessed via the noms, for a total of 1,600 unduplicated youth enrolled in school- and/or clinic-based mental health services throughout the project. Additionally, tier 1/prevention programming will benefit all students in the district. We will work with no fewer than 400 families, through training and family therapies, project-wide. To respond to the increased behavioral health needs of students, care coordination infrastructure is a chief priority; two cmhc/school liaisons and a family coordinator will be the conduit between the school district, community mental health center, and families to effectively facilitate CO-located services, participate in multi-tiered system of supports for behavioral health and wellness (mtss-b), and support school- and community-based prevention programming. To achieve optimal behavioral health outcomes for students and their families, the district and riverbend will also partner with the state departments of health & human services and education, youth- and family-serving entities (e.g. concord family ymca, parent information center), and local health and social service providers (e.g. waypoint, community bridges).