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The Outreach program is a collaboration between Child Guidance & Family Solutions and the Akron Public Schools. Outreach provides counseling, prevention, and community psychiatric supportive treatment at selected schools. The purpose is to make the school experience more successful and prevent the need for more intense behavioral health services later. The goals of the program are to make services and appointments more accessible and convenient for the child and family and to coordinate behavioral health treatment more closely with educational staff.
The Outreach program received a new, improved design for 2005 with 5 case managers all assigned to one school within the Akron Public Schools. Previously case managers rotated among many schools. Now that the managers are “planted”, they work primarily with students in the Emotionally Disturbed (E.D.) Special Education classrooms. Clinical case management services can now be provided to all the clients in those classrooms. With parental permission, prevention services can also be provided to students that are in the classroom but not currently Child Guidance & Family Solutions clients. This enables the staff to conduct prevention group sessions to the whole class, work with the teacher on behalf of any student in need, and to intervene earlier with non-clients. Case managers establish a relationship, identify those students who do need more clinical services and help facilitate getting those clients services as needed.
The successes abound. From beginnings which include multiple school suspensions, violent outbursts, anger, self harming activities, case managers work with these students toward appropriate methods of expression, coping skills, and good grades. Students display resilience, confidence and improved self-confidence. One young lady has hope for her future as she says that she is a new person that is going to make it.
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