ROWAN COUNTY — Students at several Rowan-Salisbury Schools now have access to expanded mental health services thanks to a partnership with Novant Health that began this school year.

“It’s an additional resource for us to be able to use,” said Carol Ann Houpe, the RSS administrator for student and family health. “Whenever a student is going through any type of crisis where they may be (considering) hurting themselves or others or talking about that, that is when we would want to initiate this crisis support program.”

The program will pair students presenting crises with a therapy professional at Novant Health. Houpe said that a staff member who observes problematic behavior would contact school health services, who will then make the determination to contact Novant Health.

An assessment would then be administered remotely with a Novant mental health professional. Houpe said that parental consent would be required, adding that the partnership is really three-pronged between the school system, Novant Health and the student’s parent or parents or legal guardians.

Schools partnering with Novant Health to provide this service began across the state in Brunswick County.

Melika Neal, a therapist and project coordinator with Novant Health, explained that the program started in 2021.

“It was initially for us to offer crisis support services to five Brunswick County Middle Schools,” Neal said. “During that first half of that school year, we provided services, and they asked for us to expand to their entire school system.”

According to Neal, before the partnership, when a student presented with a crisis, specifically suicidal or homicidal thoughts, they would be sent directly to the emergency department. She added that that method could exacerbate the symptoms.

“That can be trauma-inducing,” Neal said. “It could be further stigmatized asking for assistance for any mental health issues.”

With the new partnership program, that initial assistance can be administered remotely, removing the need for a hospital visit.

“We complete the same exact behavioral health screening that a patient would receive if they arrive at any Novant Health emergency department,” Neal said. “We offer that same screening to students who we assess remotely. Now we meet the students where they are … mitigating students having to go to the hospital for services.”

How did it find its way to Rowan County?

Neal said she was speaking at a philanthropy event about the services her organization offers when Brian Canavan, chief philanthropy officer of the Rowan Medical Center Foundation, heard about the program.

“Canavan wanted some additional information regarding our services and raised funds through the philanthropy foundation for us to offer those services in Rowan-Salisbury Schools,” Neal said.

The partnership with Rowan-Salisbury Schools started taking shape and at no cost to the school system.

“We are very thankful that Novant Health has always been very supportive of our school system, and they have always looked for ways to provide additional support,” Houpe said. “This is one example of how they do that.”

The partnership continues after that initial assessment.

“Not only will we offer this screening to Rowan-Salisbury Schools, we offer case management support if a student is not necessarily in crisis but just needs to be connected to some community mental health resources,” Neal said. “We have bridge therapy, case management, assessment screenings and further psycho-education for the families to navigate their child’s mental health.”

The bridge therapy proved particularly useful in Brunswick County.

“A lot of students would be waiting six to eight weeks to get in for their appointment,” Neal said. “(Our services) provide therapy to bridge that gap.”

While the coronavirus pandemic has likely added stressors for school-aged children, the need for mental health services long predates the first utterances of COVID.

Neal pointed out that expanding telehealth services spurred by the pandemic has made services and resources more accessible to people in need.

“COVID was a catalyst with the telehealth sector expanding and developing to meet those needs,” Neal said.

Telehealth capabilities reduce the time it takes to pair a student in need with a healthcare professional.

“It is a more efficient and quicker process because they don’t have to wait for a member in the community to arrive at the school,” Neal said.

With the pilot rollout, the following schools will be able to access the remote mental health services: Isenberg, Knollwood, Landis, Mt. Ulla, North Rowan, Overton and Rockwell elementary schools; Erwin, Southeast and West Rowan middle schools; and North Rowan and South Rowan high schools.

“We have a tentative plan to expand to 12 additional schools by the second half of the school year and the last set of schools before the end of the school year,” Neal said.

Neal also mentioned that they are also discussing expansion to private and charter schools.

“I don’t have a specific timeframe (on those) as we are in the beginning stages,” Neal said.