Success with one mental health program for Hernando County School District students in elementary and middle schools could lead to state funding for a similar program for high school students.
The mental health programs for the students, both the current one for Pine Grove Elementary and West Hernando Middle, and the proposed program for two Hernando high schools, bear creative, ocean-related monikers with descriptive acronyms or letters signify the overall mission of the project. The programs’ names are strictly a Hernando Schools creation, although the mental illness problems and effort are statewide.
The on-going project is StarFISH, initiated in November 2016. The last four capital letters stand for Facilitating Individual Successs (and) Hope. Originally funded by the state, StarFISH is operating in 2016-17 with Hernando School District funds, funding which HCSD staffers hope continues through 2017-18.
SeaHORSE is the proposed project for two Hernando high schools, yet to be determined, which could start next fall, depending on state legislature funding and Department of Education approval. The whimsical acronym HORSE is also derived to reflect the project’s mission: Healing Opportunities (and) Resources (in) Secondary Education.
Veteran HCSD staffer Judy Everett serves as supervisor and part of the team of the HCSD Student Support Services. Everett told The Hernando Sun that both StarFISH and SeaHORSE focus on the students and their need for early intervention with mental health problems and behavior conditions. Everett said Hernando County, unfortunately, is near the bottom of Florida counties when it comes to public funding for mental illness. And, in 2016, Florida ranked 49th among states for funding mental health.
Thus, the practical and obvious need for both StarFISH and SeaHORSE which Everett contemplates will not only address current needs and problems but provide long term, positive benefits as participating students move on to and through life following their k – 12 education.
The HCSB has recognized the need to address mental health by requesting state funding for these challenges for Hernando schools in 2016 and again in October 2017.
StarFISH and SeaHORSE, its anticipated companion for high schoolers, are “tried and true methodologies” and should not be seen as bureaucratic gimmicks, according to Everett. She emphasizes that the state funding pays for or will pay for the jump start for programs that provide mental health professionals and other experienced counselors who work in a collaborative approach with regular classroom teachers, introducing therapy into education.
SeaHORSE differs from StarFISH in that the high school program will provide academic credit and can be taken by any student as an elective as well as repeated multiple times. High school students enrolled in SeaHORSE will receive individual counseling, group counseling, life skills coaching, and develop a life management, person-centered plan.
SeaHORSE, similar to StarFISH, aims to offer recreation that provides students with valuable lessons on working together, said Everett. “It will also provide art therapy classes with the therapy part more noticeable to the instructors than to the students.
“To the kids, it just looks like art,” she said.
“One of the goals of the Hernando schools mental health programs is to retain the students in Hernando and help them graduate and keep them with their families because this is less expensive than the long-term alternatives for deeply-troubled young people, including in some cases, institutionalizing,” points out Everett.
The total requested by the HCSB for the first year of SeaHORSE is $205,000. Estimated cost breakdown for fiscal year 2018-19 is:
• $25,000 for 40% of the executive director salary.
• $72,000 for 100% of guidance counselor salary.
• $3,000 for equipment, travel between schools, and supplies.
• $65,000 for salaries of licensed mental counselors from BayCare Inc.
• $20,000 for curriculum materials and development for staff.
• $20,000 for consultants for non-clinical services such as art, music, dance and recreational therapy provided by community vendors.
The expected benefits from the SeaHORSE project include an improved mental health status, improved academic performance, improved school attendance, reduced hospitalization, reduced homicide and suicide, reduced office discipline referrals, and graduation from high school with their peers. The Florida Department of Education’s Bureau of Exceptional Student Education and Student Services requires strict accountability and reporting for the local programs.
Everett credits the Governor’s office with helping HCSD shepherd funding for the mental health initiatives through Florida’s legislature and the Department of Education. Local solons Blaise Ingoglia and Wilton Simpson have also been instrumental in program funding by the state. And justifying part of its approximate $65,000 fee for annual lobbying efforts in Tallahassee has been the work of Ballard & Associates through operative Brady Benford at the state capitol on behalf of state funding for the projects for HCSD.