FRANKLIN — Depression. Anxiety. Attention Deficit Disorder. Problems at home.

        In Warren County's Franklin City Schools — unlike most schools — a full-time licensed counselor and case manager work daily in the classrooms to identify these and other mental health and emotional issues in students.

SCHOOL-BASED PROGRAMS

The national movement toward school-based mental health programs started more than a decade ago in California.     Pioneers in the effort are University of California-Los Angeles professors Howard Adelman and Linda Taylor. Through their federally funded “School Mental Health Project“ at UCLA's Center for Mental Health in Schools and a sister center at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, Mr. Adelman and Ms. Taylor have been working on helping schools integrate mental health services.         The two professors have Web sites for schools — smhp.psych.ucla.edu or csmha.umaryland.edu.

        The goal of the year-round program, Schoolworks, is to help behaviorally challenged children cope and ultimately perform better in school. It is the only school-based mental health program of its kind in Warren County and one of just a handful in the Tristate.

        “We're in the schools every day. We meet with the kids and teachers,“ said counselor Corina Mosher of Mental Health Recovery Services of Warren & Clinton Counties,

        the agency that runs the 6-year-old program.

        Ms. Mosher said it's the day-to-day, hands-on approach and relationship building with students and staff that make Schoolworks a success.

        Parent Teresa Jones of Franklin said Schoolworks helped her 15-year-old son, Dusty, “immensely.“

        “Without this service, I think Dusty would have been shuttled through the system as a troublemaker,“ Ms. Jones said.

        Dusty was identified three years ago through Schoolworks as having a learning disability, behavior problems and depression. As a result, he received therapy, medication and access to special educational resources, said Valerie Robinson, a licensed social worker who is the agency's school-based mental health coordinator.

        Schoolworks, which started as a pilot program, has seen about 175 children since it began. Franklin City School District, a 3,055-student district, has a high school, junior high and six elementary schools.

        Case manager Carol Peterson said the services provided are more comprehensive than regular school guidance counseling and outpatient therapy because social workers are in the schools.

        “It's more effective when you're meeting with kids on their own turf and they're around their peers,“ Ms. Peterson said.

        The program is free to students. What insurance companies don't cover, Mental Health Recovery Services picks up.

        Mental Health Recovery Services of Warren & Clinton Counties is funded with federal, state and local dollars. For Schoolworks, the agency receives additional grant funding from the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati.

        The three-year, $200,000 grant runs through 2003 and is being used to assess and further develop Schoolworks. An assessment conducted the first year of the grant overwhelmingly supported the need to have social service workers in the schools daily.

        “School staff repeatedly said in the assessment that when they needed help with students, they needed it immediately,“ Ms. Robinson said.

        Five other agencies in Clermont and Butler counties, Northern Kentucky and Southeastern Indiana also received school-based mental health service grants from the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati.

Danger in the X
Emergency readiness uncertain
Black Family Reunion a chance for city to heal
Crowds downtown get unruly
No cookie, but plenty of support
Colleges jazzing up dorms
Obituary: Evalyn Jean Tilford Claugus, history teacher
Tristate A.M. Report
UC lists phases of 9-11 activity
Virtual school plans overhaul
BRONSON: Budget blunder
CROWLEY: Political skinny
HOWARD: Some Good News
SMITH AMOS: Risky business
Flames help fire community support
Missing girls found two miles from camp
Social workers are in classrooms
Clinic found liable in death
N.Y. fair warned of carnival ride danger
Recent violence has sheriff wary of biker rally
Callahan backs House speaker
Ft. Mitchell tries to hang onto history
Law lets kids with asthma have inhalers
Schools have high hopes for new year