N.H. schools get $9.75 million grant

Three New Hamphsire school districts are splitting a $9.75 million federal grant that will improve mental health services in their educational facilities.

The five-year grant, which begins this fall, is being provided by the Office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to implement Project AWARE (Advancing Wellness and Resilience in Education). Schools in Berlin, Franklin and School Administrative Unit #7 (Colebrook, Stewartstown and Pittsburg) are participating in the program.

This project has two major components, according to Mary Steady, M.Ed., administrator of Safe Schools Healthy Students, an office of the New Hampshire Department of Education.

The first component involves an overall statewide improvement in community mental health services. “We’re developing an interconnected system, bringing mental health into the school system,” said Steady, who is directing the project.

“Community mental health centers are providing treatment but they don’t [participate in programs] where there are prevention and workshops.”

The Department of Education has assembled a team of more than 50 stakeholders who meet monthly to develop a statewide program for improved mental health systems. The team, which will assist Steady in managing Project AWARE, includes community agencies, such as NAMI New Hampshire and Granite State Federation for Families, as well as state agencies and community mental health centers.

The superintendents of the three school systems are now members of this team.

“We get together once a month, talk about children’s behavioral health and [discuss] how to best use our resources,” explained Steady.

One of the guiding principles is the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports framework, which was developed by the U.S. Department of Education and strongly endorses the multi-tiered community approach.

“It addresses the underlying causes of school violence [and other issues] by changing the system,” noted Ken Norton, LICSW, ACSW, executive director of NAMI New Hampshire. “It helps kids get back on track rather than just removing them from the schools.”

The second component and the core mission of Project AWARE, focuses on recognizing signs of mental illness and learning how to make appropriate referrals. This process requires administering Mental Health First Aid, an eight-hour course, to at least 125 adults annually – including teachers, coaches, school employees and others – in each of the three school districts.

“The trainer is able to teach other adults how to recognize the signs of mental health difficulties so that a referral process can be put in place with the right social services,” said Corinne Cascadden, M.Ed, superintendent of the Berlin school system. “We’ll be training everybody who is working with kids.”

Through this new grant and the ongoing efforts of the Department of Education, New Hampshire is taking a comprehensive and strategic approach to safety and mental health in its schools. “We felt we had a strong need for this project,” Cascadden said. “We really needed help with social services and mental health support because we were seeing an increase in the number of students who were having behaviors that were out of the ordinary.”

In addition, the benefits of the Project AWARE grant are extending beyond the three school districts. Berlin, Franklin and SAU #7 are serving as pilot programs for the entire state.

“Those pilot schools will inform us about what’s happening there,” said Steady. “We’ll take that data to make decisions at the state level. We’ll be finding out what works and what policy changes are needed.”