Program Aims to Provide School-Based, Virtual Behavioral Healthcare

Led by Hallowell-based MCD Global Health (MCD), an effort that began in the spring of 2022 aims to provide students at Woodland Elementary and Woodland Junior-Senior High School in Baileyville, Maine, with access to virtual behavioral healthcare resources.

Through a community assessment by a Community Health Ad Hoc Committee in August 2021, Baileyville residents indicated a level of urgency surrounding access to behavioral health services.

This indication along with a $500,000 matching grant from Point32Health Foundation led to the start of a behavioral health teletherapy program in the spring of 2022. Through this program, service navigators supply students and their families with resources to confirm access to behavioral health services, through either telehealth or in-person care. Aside from the schools located in Baileyville, Maine, the program also treats students affiliated with the AOS school district across the country.

Since its start, the program has matched 30 students with behavioral health providers and aims to reach 80 by the end of July 2023.

"What began as an idea for a community center has evolved to become exactly what the community itself determined was urgently needed to improve the health, wellness, and quality of life in the small rural town of Baileyville," said Kate Perkins, deputy director for U.S. program development at MCD, in a press release. "Within the first month, 10 students were accessing new behavioral health services via telehealth. Elementary school and junior/senior high school parents quickly began requesting access to maintain students' existing therapeutic relationships and minimize disruption to class time."

Using the grant from Point32Health, MCD obtained additional funding from Pull Up Fund, Maine Health Access Foundation, (MEHAF), Bingham Program, and Elmina B. Sewall Foundation, ultimately acquiring $1.5 million worth of resources.

 "This program responds to the urgent behavioral and mental health needs of young people in a meaningful way and illustrates how change can happen when committed community leaders come together," said Patricia Metta, superintendent of AOS 90 school district, which includes the Woodland Elementary and Woodland Junior-Senior High School, in a press release. "We are excited as we expand this program to other schools in the district so students and families in surrounding communities have the same opportunity to access behavioral health teletherapy services without leaving the convenience and comfort of their schools."

Previous efforts have also involved the implementation of telehealth in school settings.

For example, in March, the Harris County School District in Georgia began working with Mercer Medicine to increase access to students and school faculty through a telehealth initiative.

Largely driven by the goal of eliminating the need for a student or school employee to depart from the premises to attend an in-person appointment, this effort aimed to determine the efficacy of telehealth in treating this population.

If needed, this initiative would allow a student or employee to schedule a virtual visit with Mercer Medicine following a visit to the school nurse.  Through telehealth, a nurse would be able to review a patient’s vital signs.