SAUGUS — The School Wellness committee convened Wednesday morning to chart a course forward and receive updates on a variety of initiatives — with a focus on the work of community mental health liaisons brought on via grant funding.
Among the committee’s members are Acting Superintendent of Schools Michael Hashem, Deputy Superintendent Margo Ferrick, Administrative Aide Jeannie Meredith, who works in Town Manager Scott Crabtree’s office, and Saugus Middle/High School Assistant Principal Kimberly Politano. Other members include parents, Youth and Recreation Director Crystal Cakounes, and other district staff whose roles are connected to physical and mental wellness.
During the hour-long meeting, members sought to define the committee’s purpose and goals. They also listened to updates on a variety of initiatives undertaken by district staff and beyond that intend to boost the well-being of Saugus students. The implementation of a team of community mental health liaisons and the work they have done thus far dominated much of the conversation. The team was brought aboard by grant funds in December, with each liaison assigned to one of the four schools.
The liaisons — Mary Eisner, Bernadette Peeples, Danielle Pierce, and Caitlin Jacobs — were hired with an eye towards building an infrastructure within each of the town’s schools to bring in clinicians from outside agencies to work with students. Ferrick explained that the clinicians would provide support outside of the typical work done by counselors, which she said is often more reactive.
“When we put something like this into place we are able to give a resource for the school counselors to refer directly to the clinicians that are coming into the school, which then allows them to start thinking about universal supports,” Ferrick said.
All four liaisons have been tasked with meeting with community partners and identifying potential fits for the town’s schools and then securing those partnerships. Once outside counselors have been brought aboard, the liaisons will be tasked with facilitating the program in an effort to alleviate a potential burden on existing counseling staff.
Ferrick said the ability to bring in outside counselors is a “win-win” for the district.
“We get consistent mental health clinicians in our buildings working with students, they get consistent students to bill for,” she said, adding that district officials have a proposal before the town to use funds in the Student Support Reserve fund to build out spaces within the schools that could facilitate the counseling. That way, students will be counseled in “a calming, gentle place.”
Eisner said the liaisons have looked into the viability of bringing mental health first-aid training to Saugus schools. This training would begin with bringing in paraprofessionals to talk about how to manage mental health issues with other staff and kids. That program “really dovetails nicely with our own work,” she said.
The program would be funded by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, with a 30-person cap per session, and two free sessions.
Ferrick said the district would look to use the program in part to build internal capacity, teaching staff members who are already in place to become trainers. That way, Saugus would not be dependent on any external people or funding sources.
Pierce told committee members that the liaisons reached out to upwards of 12-15 therapeutic agencies, met with about six, and received offers for partnerships from three, meaning they would assign clinicians to the schools. A memorandum of understanding with Justice Resource Institute, a Lynn-based agency, has been sent to Ferrick and a clinician from that agency is ready to start at the Middle/High School.
“The idea is for this to be successful in the long-term and outlive us all and we’re not going to be here forever, we’re on a grant,” she said. “Once these clinicians are identified within these agencies and really get working in our schools, […] the idea [is] they are going to make these their offices.”
Clinicians would be in the schools two to three times a week, depending on their caseloads, with 10-minute increments between each session, Pierce said. The liaisons would be on-hand to help figure out the logistics of the implementation of that program — how to be less disruptive to teachers, how to get kids to sessions, and other strategies.
Ferrick attempted to assuage potential concerns from counselors, saying the program is about “working really tightly” with them.
“There’s going to be times when kids bring up something in counseling that might keep them a little heightened and might need some support after, where we’re adjusting when should they actually see the counselors,” she said.
The goal is to make the program sustainable over time, because “it doesn’t cost us anything other than giving them space to be able to do this work,” Ferrick said, adding that the clinicians would work year-round.
“I’m pretty confident that this is a position that’s going to continue and maybe grow in time because they’re all amazingly skilled,” Ferrick said of the liaisons. “We were really, really particular about who and what skill set we hired, and together they all have different strengths and they work just so well as a team.”
