Watching a child in your life struggle with mental or behavioral health concerns can be distressing, leaving you unsure of where to turn for help.
At The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, our commitment to providing expert, immediate and accessible mental health care extends well into the Columbus, Ohio, community, including to the youth in nearby schools. Established in 2019, our Behavioral Health School-Based Program seeks to address the dire need of reducing barriers to mental health treatment for students.
The school-based program is designed to help students overcome social, emotional and behavioral issues impacting their education, relationships or daily living. Our partnerships with central Ohio schools are built on collaboration and flexibility, allowing us to provide quality care that meets the unique needs of each school. We become an integral part of each school with whom we partner.
Mental and behavioral health school-based programming
Independently licensed psychotherapists, who are employed by the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, are embedded in each of the schools we serve. These mental health specialists work alongside school staff to identify students who might benefit from treatment.
We provide confidential, evidenced-based mental health treatment to students for a variety of mental health concerns. At this time, these mental health services are free as they are funded by each school district; however, treatment is offered year-round during breaks and summer.
Treatment and services we offer
- Mental health education (psychoeducation)
- Health promotion
- Collaboration and consultation with school staff and community providers
- Professional development for school staff
- Diagnostic and risk assessments, including consideration of social and economic situations that could affect a student’s health
- Treatment planning
- Individual and group psychotherapy (talk therapy), including limited family therapy interventions
- Suicide prevention
- Crisis intervention and management
- Psychiatry services (i.e., medication management)
- Link to higher levels of care or more or specialized mental health resources
The treatments we offer and the process by which we provide them can vary somewhat from school to school since we work to tailor programming to each school’s needs. For example, the mental health team that works with the Olentangy Local School District also includes a psychiatrist to provide prioritized access to medication management.
Schools we partner with
Mental health experts from the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center work with a number of middle and high schools around the central Ohio area. School systems we work with include:
- Metro Schools (Metro Early College High School, Metro Middle School)
- Olentangy Local School District (Olentangy High School, Olentangy Berlin High School, Olentangy Liberty High School, Olentangy Orange High School)
If you’d like to see your school on this list and would like to partner with Ohio State’s adolescent school-based program, please contact Matthew Onorato at matthew.onorato@osumc.edu with the subject line: school-based services.
We’re always looking for new schools to partner with because we recognize how important it is to work toward ensuring all children have equal access to the mental health services they need.
Mental health conditions we treat in schools
We’re able to address a variety of social, emotional and behavioral concerns through the partnerships we’ve created in these area schools. Those concerns could include:
- Anxiety disorders
- Depression and other mood disorders
- Poor social skills
- Disruptive behavior
- Disordered eating
- Interpersonal relationships
- School refusal or attendance issues
- Trauma and stress-related conditions
- Self-harm or thoughts of hurting oneself
- Suicidal thoughts
We’re also equipped to manage other conditions not on this list. It’s important to remember some concerns require specialized treatment not appropriate for our school services, but we’re experts in recognizing when more advanced care is needed and will make referrals and recommendations.
How to access our school mental health services
Knowing what the process might look like for the child in your life can make the experience a bit easier. We try to make accessing the care that your student needs as easy as possible.
Here are the steps to accessing care:
- Referrals are typically made by staff members of the school mental health team such as school counselors, school social workers, school psychologists or intervention specialists. Concerned parents should reach out to the school counselors to have their child referred to the Ohio State program.
- The mental health team may utilize a tier system to triage cases and determine appropriate services or level of care.
- Priority may be given to students with barriers to receiving mental health services in the community and to students whose mental health concerns are interfering with their ability to access their education.
- Referrals to the psychiatric provider must be handled by a psychotherapist, whether the student sees the psychotherapist or not.
Benefits of our school-based programs
Since we began our program in 2019, we’ve identified various benefits of being in schools. Children and families can get the care where they need it, and schools and communities grow stronger with healthy students.
Ohio State’s school-based program also:
- Improves access to care – Students receive the treatment they need at school, during the school day and free of charge. No transportation is needed, and other barriers are also removed. We continue programming throughout school breaks and summer.
- Allows for early identification – Because of the close and unique relationship school staff have with our treatment providers, we’re able to identify issues and intervene earlier, which leads to better outcomes.
- Provides immediate care for students in crisis – Our program offers crisis management, unlike most outpatient mental health settings, since students can access care when they need it, even outside of their appointment times.
- Reduces absenteeism – Students who have proper mental health treatment miss less school, and when they receive care during school hours, they miss less class time.
- Leads to better collaboration with school staff – We work side by side with teachers, school administrators and other staff to ensure each student has what they need. For example, our mental health professionals can attend necessary disciplinary or individualized education program (IEP) meetings.
- Reaches underserved populations – Being in the schools allows us to work with students who wouldn’t otherwise be able to receive mental health treatment.
- Provides a continuum of care – For students aged 18 or older, we can provide a seamless and quick transition to more advanced care at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, if necessary.