School Based Mental Health Grant

 The State of Minnesota has offered grant money to increase the availability of both school-based mental health services and crisis services.   The local collaboratives have joined with Northwestern Mental Health Center (NWMHC) in securing state grant funding to improve CTSS services in the region, to replace the LCTS funding with other money, and thus to help sustain the SSW positions in all schools in the six-county region.

As the only full CTSS provider in the region, NWMHC is serving as the host for the SBMHS grant, and will be providing support and supervision for grant-funded activities.

Current funding for School Social Worker (SSW) positions generally relies upon a combination of LCTS, School District, SPED, and possibly some direct County Social Services money.  The State of Minnesota is gradually reducing LCTS money, exposing the SSW positions to significant underfunding.  Although not at all certain, it appears that in three years there could possibly be no more LCTS funding available for these positions.

It is our effort to attempt to establish sustainability for the schools based on the following goals:

• Expand mental health and skills building services to more children and families in every community in the region.

• Provide expanded crisis services to children throughout the region.

• Allow school social workers to continue serving students and families in their schools.

• Give school social workers the opportunity to advance to Mental Health Practitioner or to Mental Health Professional status as appropriate utilizing the clinical supervision available with these grants.

The new grant funding is different in that the State is offering the money on a “fee-for-service” basis only.  This means that the funding is available only through a billing process for services rendered, which increases the paperwork burden for local providers.  Fortunately, the majority of services to be billed are services the local SSW is probably already providing.

Other services provided for in the SBMHS grant include clinical supervision for achieving MH Practitioner status and for MA billing, support for the Northstar Summer Program for year-round CTSS for children, and support for training SBMHS social workers.  The training will include strategies for maximizing the funding available through effective billing practices.

The Crisis Services grant offers support for crisis intervention activities on a “fee-for-service” basis as well, but with reduced paperwork requirements for SSW.

If you have any questions regarding the School Based

Mental Health Grant, please contact:

Jessica Shockman, MSW

School Based Mental Health Services Coordinator/Mental Health Practitioner

NWMC, Inc.

503 Bruce Street

Crookston, MN 56716

(218) 281-3940

jschockman@nwmhc.org

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 Last updated on July 23rd, 2009