Valley makes strides in kids' mental health
8:30 PM, Dec 17, 2012 |
Written by
Nick Penzenstadler
Post-Crescent staff writer
Mental health stats
Outagamie County provides a 24-hour crisis hotline (920-832-4646) that also serves Calumet and Waupaca counties. In 2010, just more than half of the 10,825 calls dealt with emotional or mental health issues.
United Way Fox Cities identified the following barriers to youth mental health care in the community:
• Limited financial resources.
• Parent work schedules.
• Lack of reliable transportation.
• Language barriers.
• Lack of parental support.
Source: 2011 LIFE study, United Way Fox Cities
Where to get help
Catalpa Health is located at 444 N. Westhill Blvd., Appleton. To schedule an appointment, call 920-750-7000.
United Way’s PATH for Students is in 10 school districts: Appleton, Freedom, Hortonville, Kaukauna, Kimberly, Little Chute, Menasha, Neenah, Seymour and Shiocton.
PATH uses resources from:
Catholic Charities, 214 E. Summer St., Appleton, 920-734-2601
Lutheran Social Services, 3003-A N. Richmond St., Appleton, 920-730-1326
Family Services of Northeast Wisconsin, 300 Crooks St., Green Bay, 920-739-4226
The Teen Screen program is administered by:
Samaritan Counseling Center of the Fox Valley, 1478 Kenwood Drive, Suite 1, Menasha, 920-886-9319
More
APPLETON — The Fox Valley has made strides in helping youth with mental health challenges get the support they need, but access to outpatient services continues to be a struggle.
After a comprehensive community report card in 2006 revealed the support network for youth was falling short, groups ranging from nonprofits to private counselors to conglomerate health care providers rallied to forge solutions.
The 2006 Leading Indicators for Excellence (LIFE) study found that a quarter of all 10th-graders said they experienced depression and 14 percent had attempted suicide in the previous year.
“When our volunteers saw those numbers, they were shocked,” said Mary Wisnet, community development program officer for United Way Fox Cities. “The concern was that kids weren’t getting mental health services they need.”
Access to mental health services has re-emerged as a complex community challenge in the aftermath of Friday’s shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Conn. The gunman, Adam Lanza, had a mild form of autism called Asperger’s syndrome.
In an attempt to remove barriers to care, United Way Fox Cities in 2008 launched a school-based program called PATH, which stands for Providing Access to Healing. The program puts counselors in elementary, middle and high schools to provide students with mental health services on campus.
The program started in the Menasha Joint School District and this fall expanded to include 10 local districts.
“It’s for kids that might otherwise fall through the cracks that wouldn’t get care through other mental health providers or have barriers to care,” Wisnet said. “Without PATH, they’d just go without.”
From May 2008 through June 2012, PATH served 269 students. Of those, 73 percent experienced reduced symptoms and 81 percent showed improved academic performance.
Many students served by the program were on long waiting lists for mental health services elsewhere in the community. One child, for example, had been on a waiting list for a year-and-a-half.
System strained
Though programs like PATH have helped trim the waiting lists, the mental health system in the Fox Valley remains strained.
The rate of hospitalization for psychiatric reasons in Calumet, Outagamie and Winnebago counties climbed between 2005 and 2009. Outagamie and Winnebago counties matched or exceeded the state average, with hospitalization rates of 7.7 and 6.4 per 1,000, respectively.
The 2011 LIFE study reported that “obtaining outpatient mental health services, including psychiatric care, has remained difficult especially for those insured by BadgerCare.”
To improve children’s access to outpatient mental health services, Wisnet said, another program is being piloted through Samaritan Counseling Center of the Fox Valley. Counselors are visiting Kaukauna schools in an attempt to screen each student for mental health problems.
“That way maybe you screen all freshmen for high-risk mental health issues,” Wisnet said. “Then you could catch some issues up front and avoid the problems with referrals or self-reporting.”
Children, teens
Another piece of the mental health puzzle is the newly created Catalpa Health, a joint venture of Affinity Health System, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and ThedaCare that opened in November. The group provides outpatient mental health services aimed specifically toward children and teens.
“One of our strategic initiatives is focused on doubling access to care with more psychiatrists, psychologists and counselors,” said Lisa Kogan-Praska, president and chief executive officer of Catalpa. “Another way to do that is with greater efficiencies and more groups, which can offer better access for a broader range of patients and providers.”
— Nick Penzenstadler: 920-996-7226, or ; on Twitter @npenzenstadler