Anazao partners with West Holmes for services

Statistics show nine out of 10 people in treatment for substance abuse started using in middle or high school, a time when the brain should be engaging in major developmental tasks.

Anazao Community Partners is doing work inside local schools to stem that statistic while at the same time seeing students who may be struggling with either substance abuse, mental health issues or both.

ACP’s J. Greg Morrison is an Ohio certified prevention specialist and recipient of the Mental Health & Recovery Board of Wayne and Holmes Counties’ Shining Light Award for his work in the local schools, specifically West Holmes Local. He said he sees both middle and high school students there.

“I’m coming alongside kids there,” he said, “with parents in mind.”

More recently, his role has morphed into more of a trainer, teaching school staff the very programs he has made popular, according to Mark Woods, the agency’s executive director.

It all starts in sixth grade, seventh grade and eighth grade with two sessions of programming specific to middle school students. “We’re helping young people understand their developmental capacity,” Morrison said. “They’re learning to value their behavioral health and trying to take care of it.”

So these concepts are not completely foreign to students when they arrive at the high school as freshmen, when they will again see Morrison in the 10-session, semester-long Youth Development with Mr. Morrison class. Using the evidence-based and nationally acclaimed Botvin’s Life Skills program, the class is not only instructional, but also partially fulfills the state-required SAVE Students Act need for violence prevention and social inclusion programs.

The thread running through the program, Morrison said, is “See Yourself Better,” which in turn is bolstered by three pillars: focus, effort and heart. Students choose a way to better themselves — getting better sleep, exercising, managing emotions — and work on those throughout the course.

Each session also includes what Morrison calls a brain break — to not only help the students get relaxed, but also to help them learn to manage their emotions.

While Morrison loves teaching the class, he said he has gone from teaching the students to teaching the teachers. There are several prevention strategies Anazao can provide in local districts, Woods said, but the question has been how to build that same culture across not only West Holmes, but also the whole service array.

At West Holmes, Anazao staff have been keynote speakers during teacher in-service days. “Each time,” guidance counselor Dawne O’Donnell said, “it was both personal and impactful.”

O’Donnell said Anazao providers in the school seeing individual students for private appointments also has helped. In addition to providing case management and treatment in all four West Holmes buildings, Woods said the agency serves 21 different buildings across the Wayne-Holmes area in a given day.

“(It) takes away the barrier that was having a negative impact on how accessible counseling and case management was to our students. In the past we would recommend counseling, but students many times were unable to physically get there due to work schedules, gas money, distance or no transportation at all,” O’Donnell said. “By having the services in the school, students are seen either during their study hall or their lunch period. This makes it so much easier and less of a burden to families.”

Billing for those services comes from the students’ private insurance or Medicaid, United Way, federal funding, or the Mental Health & Recovery Board. No one, Woods said, is turned away due to an inability to pay.

There are a few wrinkles in the system. During the summer months, some students will be seen in a school building — if that building is open — or at a local Anazao office.

“Behavioral health needs don’t stop in May,” Woods said, though he added some of the school-year stressors are lighter during the summer months. Providers also have had to adapt to 50-minute or shorter sessions.

Woods said, “The proof’s in the pudding — the fact that we cannot keep up with demand. I could probably hire 10 people today and it wouldn’t be enough (to cover districts across the two counties).”

Whether it be for prevention services or treatment, O’Donnell said West Holmes welcomes Anazao. Morrison is appreciated and has become a part of the West Holmes family.

“We cannot say enough how much we appreciate and love working with our Anazao partners,” O’Donnell said. “They are a light in our building, and their relationships are vital to our school climate.”

This story was provided by the Mental Health & Recovery Board of Wayne and Holmes Counties.