Schools have many more issues with the mental health of their students today than ever before, with a perceived decline of the family unit further magnified by COVID-19.

Educational institutions do not have nearly enough counselors or social workers to attempt to solve all these problems, so many schools in West Central Indiana have turned to Hamilton Center, Inc. (HCI) to help with that important task.  HCI team members have spent more than 17,000 hours at 72 schools in 15 corporations throughout 10 counties in West Central Indiana. HCI’s team members working to help kids through the tough parts of life include 62 care managers, 14 therapists, and 11 wraparound facilitators.

For the last four years, Hamilton Center has been awarded a grant through the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration and the Department of Mental Health and Addictions for implementing and expanding school-based prevention services for youth intervention in 10 counties (Clay, Greene, Hendricks, Marion, Owen, Parke, Putnam, Sullivan, Vermillion, and Vigo).  This year the grant totals 1.171 million dollars.  The grant provides 7 evidenced based practices.  The practices provide prevention and education around suicide, substance abuse, and social emotional learning. 

Since the program is funded by the state, schools are not charged for HCI’s services.

Predictably, schools are thrilled to get this assistance for their students.

“Teachers, school counselors, school social workers, and principals are very appreciative of the support and help with the extra resources – both in our rural communities and the Indianapolis Public Schools,” said Erika McKinney, HCI’s Director of School Services.

McKinney, a former educator, thinks the lengthy period that students were kept home during COVID-19 has been a reinforcing boost in terms of the necessity for addressing youth mental health.

Not only were students sometimes denied proper meals by not attending school normally during that time, but they were also deprived of mental health services which some of them severely needed.

“COVID has been a big eye-opener to every adult that students are struggling with mental health,” McKinney said. “There are just not enough mental health services to go around. What we offer is a tremendous help to these communities.”

McKinney said her team uses seven different evidenced-based practices to solve a variety of problems, ranging from QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) to Catch My Breath (anti-smoking/vaping) and Signs of Suicide.

Most lessons are carried out in multiple sessions, with time in between reserved for teachers to enhance the messages being taught.

“All of our grant facilitators and school-based specialists are trained in each of the Evidence Based Programs [EBPs], and they work with principals, superintendents, and school counselors to provide these programs,” McKinney said. “Through the grant we have been able to create a website to make referrals to needed services easier.”

The website offers a simple, user-friendly experience to get connected. Students may input their school's name and learn programs offered to that institution.

Free and confidential screening sections are also available for teens and parents, asking a series of questions to help determine the level of need and potential avenues for solving problems.

“It took a while to build it, and then it went live in September of last year,” McKinney noted. “This is the first school year that we've started with it already live, and we have seen an increase in traffic on the website and also in referrals from the schools through the website.”

The current school year is the final one in the four-year grant, and McKinney said HCI can apply to renew the grant and extend – and potentially expand – the current program.

She said the state legislature recently approved money for youth mental health programs and the status of the process is the collection of Requests for Proposals (RFPs).

As with most grant programs, recipients must quantify their successes to the funding source to stay in compliance with the grant terms.

“I make a monthly report to DMHA to summarize how many kids we served,” McKinney said. “There is also an independent evaluator, as part of the grant, that collects and audits all of our data.”

McKinney and her staff have worked hard with each of their schools to include information in parent newsletters to inform everyone of the services that are available and how to receive them. The HCI staff also printed some “tear away” flyers on which students can take home the most vital information to give to their parents.

HCI is targeting nine additional schools in Hendricks, Marion and Putnam counties for program expansion, and McKinney said she even heard from one school corporation which had not yet been approached.

McKinney enjoys her job of helping youth who need help before any problems get worse than they already are.

“I feel like this job is definitely my wheelhouse,” she said. “It is something I am very passionate about, and this program brings mental health and education together very nicely. I feel it removes some of the barriers to treatment.”

School administrators, parents and students can access additional information by going to school.hamiltoncenter.org