Rural mental health initiatives aimed at first contact school personnel

Many students have mental health concerns, but for those in rural areas, access to health care could be limited or not available at all. That’s why Texas A&M University- Kingsville’s Institute for Rural Mental Health Initiatives (IRMHI) is opening training to rural counties to catch mental health concerns quickly before they worsen.

There are two parts to the initiative. The first is First Contact Training. This is aimed at those at a school who see students on a daily basis, like bus drivers, cafeteria staff and front office personnel.

The free two-hour workshop is meant to train personnel on what signs to look for and how to report a concern with a student's behavior that may feel off.

“If there’s a change in a child who gets on the bus every morning and says hello and has a pleasant attitude and all of a sudden that child isn’t doing that anymore, that’s a concern,” founding director of IRMHI Steve Bain said.

Bain said first contact personnel are not making a diagnosis or starting an investigation. The concern will go through the school's individual reporting process and guidelines.

The second part of the initiative is helping school counselors, and teachers help students handle grief and loss.

Bain said many students in rural areas have experienced the loss of a friend, family member, or teacher during their time in school.

“Kids are just like adults. If they don’t have a way to process the grief, it becomes complicated grief very quickly,” Bain said.

Bain said that 246 out of 254 counties in Texas are listed as health provider shortage areas. That means there aren’t enough mental health professionals to go around.

“We’re trying to help make people become more aware of mental health or potential mental crisis because we don’t have enough counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, especially in the rural areas. It needs to be a team effort,” Bain said.

Bain said the sooner personnel can get to a student and find out what's wrong, the less likely that student will have to go through a more intense intervention that may be limited or not available at all.

Bain added that so far, he and the co-principal investigator, Chris Garza, have received good feedback on the training, with many saying they feel more confident about how to report a concern. They developed the initiative months ago together.

The initiatives were funded through a $50,000 grant from the King Ranch Family Trust, $18,000 from the Coastal Bend Community Foundation, and $30,000 from Healthy South Texas.

Those living in Kleberg, Kenedy, Jim Wells, Brooks and Willacy County will be able to work with both initiatives.

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