Story County schools to lose mental health services

April 15--A school-based mental health services program that has operated in Story County schools for the past two years has lost its funding and may come to an end on June 30.

The program is a partnership between Lutheran Services in Iowa and Story County Decategorization. In August 2014, the program started providing students in Story County who are uninsured or under-insured with professional and confidential therapy at school to treat issues such as depression, ADHD or destructive behavior, as well as other mental health services.

The program was funded through a grant to LSI from Story County Decategorization. Funding for the grant ended, but attempts to reach someone from Story County Decategorization to explain the loss of funding were unsuccessful.

Over the past two years, the program has provided services to 155 students, offered 12 mental health training sessions to 400 staff members, students and faculty members at local schools and provided a total of 1,700 combined consultation and therapy sessions.

"I think the biggest thing here is the access that students have to mental health professionals when some issues come about in their personal lives or things may be impacting them at school. It's a service that we've been longing for, when it finally came up it was something that we were really excited for," said Yonas Michael, director of student services for the Ames Community School District.

Michael said that level of excitement fell last week when he was notified Story County Decategorization had decided to terminate the program due to insufficient funding.

According to Michael, most school counselors are not equipped to handle children with significant mental health issues, and this program gave them a way to address those issues so the students could focus more on their school work, instead of the issues going on in their lives.

"It will be a huge loss for us," Michael said.

His disappointment in seeing the program end is purely based on his concern for what will happen to the children who need the help offered by the therapists because they are struggling with mental health issues, Michael said.

"I think, if you ask any school leader across the state of Iowa, not just here in Ames or in Story County, what are one of the biggest barriers to a student's success at school, I think you would here mental health be one of the topics or one of the issues that rises to the top for many people. It gets in the way of learning," Michael said.

State Rep. Lisa Heddens, D-Ames, said she had just learned about the program's funding issues, but it is an issue that concerns her greatly.

"In a time when we are trying to identify and address mental health issues, it is disheartening to see funding pulled back that could have long-lasting impact on youth and the educators who work with them throughout the school year," Heddens said in a statement provided to the Ames Tribune.

Scott Caldwell, director of mental health services for Lutheran Services of Iowa, said he was also disappointed to learn that a program with a success rate as high as this one has would be coming to an end.

"Overall, it's been very successful. We're very pleased and the schools are very pleased and the students and family are pleased," Caldwell said.

Caldwell described the partnership between LSI and Decat as good and supportive, but in the end the funding just wasn't available. Although he said he hasn't given up hope on finding a way to keep the program alive in Story County Schools.

"We are working on some ways to fund this program beyond July 1," Caldwell said. "We are having conversations with Story County Decategorization, they are working with us on ways that we could continue this service, perhaps throughout the 2016 calendar year."

Caldwell said that the annual funding for the program is $100,000 per year, and he is working with Decat to decide what funding is necessary to continue the program.

"If that can't happen, we need to be flexible in meeting the needs of students the best that we can," Caldwell said.

According to Caldwell, no deals have been struck yet but he is hopeful for the future on mental health services in Story County Schools.

"There's never any guarantees but it's good to hear the commitment to explore some options, so we're more than happy to do that. I remain optimistic," Caldwell said.

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