With a nonprofit’s help, schools bolstering mental health services

Triangle Family Services, a decades-old nonprofit, wants to stop young people from killing themselves.

“When considering our mission and our role in the community, we felt like we could not just sit by silently and not help be a part of the solution,” said Lisa Lowe-Hall, president and CEO of Triangle Family Services. “We started brainstorming how we could wrap our arms around those kids and get ahead of suicidal ideations by really focusing on prevention by providing kids and young adults with the tools and resources they needed to recognize signs.”

One solution was to place therapists in public schools. This past year, Triangle Family Services assigned a therapist to work in eight Johnston County schools.

The district’s chief school counselor is a liaison to Triangle Family Services, said Danielle Butler, chief programs officer for Triangle Family Services. “So when a school counselor sees a child in need, they’ll reach out to our liaison and then she will send us the referral,” she said.

Once Triangle Family Services receives a referral, the therapist will reach out to the student or to the student’s parents to schedule a clinical assessment, Butler said. If the assessment recommends counseling, the student can meet with the Johnston County therapist in person or speak with one of Triangle Family Services’ other therapists, Butler said.

Therapy isn’t solely for suicide prevention. The therapist, for example, can help students with attention disorders or those struggling with the transition from middle school to high school, Butler said.

“A lot of times the referral comes and it says, ‘Hey, this kid is struggling in school,’ ” Butler said. “We really want to get to the root of what the issue is. A couple students … we’re currently working with recently had a parent pass away and so we’re dealing with grief.”

With just one therapist at work in eight schools in Johnston, the district would like Triangle Family Services to add more, Butler said. Wake County schools have expressed interest too, she added.

“To be fully transparent, we’re not the only provider within the school systems,” Butler said. “But I think that it says a lot that they (Johnston) reached out to us and said, ‘Hey, we have additional schools that we want to get connected with Triangle Family Services.’ It says something that Wayne County accepted our proposal and is looking for therapists in their schools, and they’re moving that process pretty fast.”

The public schools haven’t always welcomed outside help, Butler said. “When I first got to North Carolina in 2005, I was doing outpatient therapy,” she said. “We weren’t allowed in the schools. We had to meet the kids at the end of school, after school, and in their homes in the evenings or on  the weekends.”

But since then, the suicide rate among N.C. youths ages 10-17 has more than doubled, according to a report by the N.C. Child Fatality Task Force. From 2002 to 2021, the rate climbed from 2.1 per 100,000 people to 5.7, the task force reported.

“I think the schools have finally recognized that they don’t have the capacity to meet the needs of some students and so they have looked to partner with organizations to provide these,” Butler said. “And I think that says volumes about Triangle Family Services.”

The post With a nonprofit’s help, schools bolstering mental health services first appeared on Restoration NewsMedia .