New program gives extra support for students in need

After five years of planning, continuation schools in Pleasanton, Dublin and Livermore will receive funds from Proposition 63's Tri-Valley Adolescent Health Initiative to increase mental health services among at-risk youth.

In the Tri-Valley, mental health issues, such as depression and substance abuse, accounts for 28 percent of hospitalization among youths between ages 15 and 24.

"Mental health has not always been something that people want to talk about," said Josh Thurman, policy analyst for Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty. "You have to acknowledge that there are issues."

This March, Alameda County and the Hume Center began providing additional counseling services to the area's continuation schools, including Village High School. The Hume Center is a non-profit organization that provides behavioral health services to under-served populations.

While the program is still in its infancy,  James Nguyen, School-Based Health Center Manager with Alameda County, said the heart of the program entails  having a trained clinician work with the entire school community, including students.

Nguyen said the clinician works mostly with teachers and staff to become more comfortable recognizing behaviors students might have in order to develop a blueprint for referrals to other mental health providers.

In addition to individual weekly counseling, family and in-home work, Pleasanton Unified School District Senior Director of Pupil Services Kevin Johnson said the program includes a counselor training component for "dealing with at-risk students."

The additional services couldn't come at a more crucial time. The February suicide of an Amador Valley High School teen brought heightened awareness to teenage depression, causing various officials to reconsider the effects of school and familial pressure on Tri-Valley youth.

"(The suicide was a) wake up call to parents," said Jamie Hintzke, who is a community relations coordinator for the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency School Health Services. "A lot of people wanted resources, but did it quietly."

Hintzke, who is also a Pleasanton school board member, noted that plans for the additional counselors were in place well before the suicide.

Students at Pleasanton's two mainstream high schools, however, will not be receiving the new counseling services.

Because funding for the program comes from the Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment federal and state matching plan, all sources contacted for this article concluded that the Tri-Valley is too large an area to provide all students with these services in such difficult economic times.  

"The only way to get reimbursed for services is if the client is full-scope Medi-Cal," said Nguyen. "And there are a slightly higher percentage of these at continuation schools."

Data compiled by the initiative in 2009 showed approximately 228 youths between 10 and 18-years-old were receiving Medi-Cal benefits.

While the county struggles to provide services based on Medi-Cal reimbursements, Thurman thinks the small number of Pleasanton schools participating may work to the student's advantage.

"We thought that if we started small there, then gained the trust of the community and of the district, we could move onto the more mainstream schools," he said.

But beyond funding, there are other  problems surrounding implementation in the district.

"It's breaking through to the general population because … mental health is something that this community just hasn't talked about. This is an affluent area and people want to assume that everything is fine," said Thurman.

In fact, members of the Youth Planning Board have expressed a community perception that there is a cultural norm in Pleasanton that is slightly out of touch with reality.

"Pleasanton has its own vision and direction of where it's going. The challenge is how to align Pleasanton goals with [the initiative]," said Nguyen. "If people in the community don't quite agree with the value of the broader initiative goals, there might be a bias. There would need to be a lot of conversation, a ground swelling consensus."

To Hitnzke,  initial conversation is the biggest hurdle Pleasanton residents must overcome in order to have a district-wide program.

"If we were really going to do something more, there just needs to be a plan, more conversation. We need to really identify the problem and communicate about that," she said.

While the services have been doing really well in helping continuation kids, Hitnzke said, it's not the full picture.

"Is the district doing anything wrong? No. Can we be doing more? Pobably. Do we really know what we need to do? Not really. I'm weary about throwing money at things without proper planning," she said, advocating more data collection.

The Hume Center post-doctorate student counselors at Village High School have already begun this process of collecting data. Village Counselor Terese Ghilarducci  said Hume Center staff are currently doing assessments and observations for their summer activity and fall programs.

Though Nguyen expects the 2010-2011 year to be a pilot, he said the Tri-Valley Adolescent Health Initiative/Hume Center program to be up and "running full steam ahead" by fall.

At that time, there will be a meeting with school principals and their districts, Alameda County and the Hume Center to discuss improvements and effectiveness.

Correction: The original version of this story identified Jamie Hintzke as a health consultant for Alameda County. Hintzke is community relations coordinator for the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency School Health Services and a board of trustee member for Pleasanton Unified School District.