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Hillsborough school district creates mobile mental health response team
Joneé Lewis reports
TAMPA, Fla. - District leaders increased mental health services for Hillsborough County school students this year.
Noticing the impact of COVID-19, the district added an additional 100 therapists and invested $1.4 million to create a mental health mobile response unit.
The partnership with Gracepoint Health allows counselors to respond to schools when a student is having a mental health crisis.
"So this is a brand new initiative that we're really excited about," Maggie Dean with Hillsborough County Schools said. "This initiative was brought to the district because we're trying to increase the amount of times that we're using licensed mental health professionals to respond to students that are experiencing a mental health crisis. We wanted to be able to provide a comprehensive assessment and to stabilize the student in the least restrictive environment and try to help with de-escalating them at school."
The district’s support team has noticed the difference and with summer break approaching wants to make sure students and parents are still supported.
"We’re coming into the summer, so we really want to work with our staff and our students and families to know that there is support out there even during the summer months." Michael Kelleher, Clinical Care supervisor, said. "If they're with a community partner or if they want ideas of how to support their child over the summer. So we're really preparing and gearing up for that."
If you are struggling or need someone to talk to you can call 211 at any time to connect with local support services.