TRAVERSE CITY — Funding from the American Rescue Plan Act allotted by Grand Traverse County will assist the most important faculty district in northern Michigan develop its psychological well being choices and make medical companies extra accessible for college kids.
In 2021, the Grand Traverse County Fee obtained $18.2 million in American Rescue Plan funds from the federal authorities. At their final assembly of 2022, the county fee determined to allocate $10 million of these funds to 27 totally different proposals from the neighborhood, together with two that can impression TCAPS college students, workers and fogeys.
Traverse Metropolis Space Public Faculties was assured $10,000 in ARPA funding for its highschool Peer-to-Peer program and $150,000, in tandem with Northwest Michigan Well being Companies, to open a baby and adolescent well being heart at Traverse Metropolis West Center Faculty.
TCAPS’s peer-to-peer programming is predicated on the Peer-to-Peer Despair Consciousness Program developed by the College of Michigan’s Despair Middle. This system is constructed on the premise that teenagers usually tend to speak to and take heed to different teenagers than adults in terms of their struggles with psychological well being.
People from UM’s Despair Middle got here as much as Traverse Metropolis in early September and performed coaching for employees and college students at Traverse Metropolis West Senior Excessive Faculty and Traverse Metropolis Central Excessive Faculty. These trainings are supposed to educate college students about psychological well being circumstances and issues in order that they’ll establish circumstances like despair or nervousness of their friends, attain out to them and encourage them to hunt assist.
TCAPS obtained a $45,000 grant from Rotary Charities of Traverse Metropolis to assist cowl the price of implementing the Peer-to-Peer program at WSHS and CHS. The overall value for this system is estimated at $67,000, TCAPS Communications Director Ginger Smith stated in an electronic mail.
The peer-to-peer programming is already in full swing, however the college students concerned requested for a greater area the place, underneath workers supervision, college students can collect or sit alone to loosen up and really feel extra snug through the faculty day in the event that they really feel overwhelmed.
TCAPS requested $22,000 in ARPA funding to conduct minor renovations at every faculty to construct these rooms and furnish them. They have been rewarded $10,000 from the county, however additionally they obtained $2,000 for tools and provides for this system by way of the Traverse Metropolis Rotary Good Works grant.
This primary yr, the Peer-to-Peer program is in a pilot part, and TCAPS will determine whether or not or to not develop it past the highschool stage, Smith stated in an interview.
“We’re doing every part we are able to to take away the stigmas related to psychological well being and behavioral well being issues,” Smith stated. “That is simply one other step … to open up the dialog and make it a norm, make it so that you could say, ‘Hey, I’m not proper with my emotions, and right here’s why.’”
This work falls in step with a aim listed in TCAPS’s strategic plan to “Develop and implement buildings and programs of help to extend psychological and emotional well being and social nicely being,” she stated. It additionally aligns with TCAPS’s well being and wellness initiative, which was carried out after TCAPS obtained the Rotary Charities Programs Change Accelerator Grant in 2021, she stated.
TCAPS additionally will profit from a $150,000 ARPA grant to Northwest Michigan Well being Companies.
Within the fall, NMHSI obtained a $170,000 grant from the Michigan Division of Well being and Human Companies to create a baby and adolescent and well being clinic at Traverse Metropolis West Center Faculty. This funding from MDHHS is steady to pay for salaries, however extra funding was wanted to renovate the area out there at WMS.
TCAPS and NMHSI labored collectively to file a request for $150,000 in ARPA funding from the county, which was rewarded in full.
TCAPS has but to begin the bidding course of on the renovations on the center faculty required to construct the well being heart, however the plan is for the middle to open within the fall of 2023.
The clinic might be staffed by a nurse practitioner, a medical assistant and a behavioral well being therapist, and it’ll open three days every week, stated Heidi Britton, NMHSI CEO.
WMS was chosen as the situation for the clinic as a result of it has essentially the most bodily area and most concentrated scholar physique within the district, however it will likely be open to all TCAPS college students, Britton stated.
The clinic could have a board with college students on it who could have a job in overseeing the clinic’s companies and insurance policies.
This mannequin for a clinic, which MDHHS has been offering funding to colleges and well being companies to develop for years, is “good”, Britton stated. It removes obstacles that individuals face when making an attempt to entry care, and it reduces the quantity of sophistication time that youngsters would miss, Britton stated.
It additionally will permit youngsters to have the ability to start to grasp the healthcare world and discover ways to speak about their medical wants and advocate for their very own care at an early age, she stated.
“After we met with the group there at TCAPS, everybody was fairly enthusiastic about it,” Britton stated. “Everybody is aware of it’s such a constructive factor to place into a college district.”