Integrated Mental Health Services in the Schools

A partnership between Alegent Health and Omaha Public Schools (OPS) has been designed to address mental and behavioral health issues that affect school-age children. This partnership further works to breakdown learning barriers that are often associated with such behaviors.

The project, titled “Integrated Mental Health Services in the Schools”, is a comprehensive, multifaceted approach that brings mental health professionals and services into Omaha elementary schools for the benefit of teachers, students, and family members. The program was piloted at Kellom, Indian Hill, and Wakonda public elementary schools and at Holy Name Parochial School during the 2006-07 academic year. Met with tremendous success, the program has been sustained at each of the schools and is looking to expand to include one OPS Middle School.

The Integrated Mental Health Services in the Schools project began with each school assisting in the hiring process of a school liaison. Although employed through Alegent Health, each school was able to select from a pool of qualified candidates the individual who best matched their schools specific needs. This liaison is a licensed mental health professional (LMHP) that provides classroom observation, intervention, and student therapy in addition to teaching parenting classes and offering therapy services to families.

The second prong of the program included the implementation of HeartMath technology at each of the schools. HeartMath has three tools that are proven to reduce stress, boost performance, and enhance well-being while empowering students and teachers to self-manage their behavior. These tools include:

• Freeze Frame: Freeze Frame is a hardware and software program that translates heart rhythm patterns collected through a finger sensor into graphics that users can then correlate to their current attitudes and emotional state. In addition, by playing the interactive games, students learn to stabilize their emotions and balance their nervous system at will.
• Resilient Educator: Teachers are often seen as the safety net for students who bring to school with them family, neighborhood, and societal issues. This responsibility weighs heavily on the ability of the teachers to instruct in academics. The Resilient Educator is a training program that helps educators boost performance, improve school relationships, and strengthen resiliency. The program’s proven techniques are easy to learn have been shown to help rekindle educators’ motivation and energy.
• TestEdge: Many students are unprepared for the pressures of exams. With TestEdge tools, techniques, and strategies, students learn to overcome anxiety, resignation, and discouragement, while at the same time improving listening and focusing skills. These “emotional-refocusing” tools lead to improved achievement.

The final prong of the program incorporates life coaching offered through Alegent Health’s Life Coaching Center. Life coaching is designed to build on student and staff improvements made through the HeartMath tools.

The success of Integrated Mental Health Services in the Schools is far reaching. Principals share that parents who have previously not been active in their child’s education are returning phone calls and keeping appointments with the family liaison. One school shared that a student who was out of medication and typically would have been suspended or sent home due to uncontrollable behavior, instead used Freeze-Frame to help them stabilize and refocus on positive emotions and as a result, stayed in school.

The Kim Foundation is pleased to support this partnership. We must address the health and well-being of our children today, so we can be assured of the promise that they hold for us tomorrow.

For additional information on the Integrated Mental Health Services in the Schools project please contact Terri Khan, Project Manager at tkhan@alegent.org.