CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – The Cedar Rapids Community School District (CRCSD) is launching a new program to provide free telehealth services for mental health, which will be available to all students within the district.
The Washington High School committee launched the effort Wednesday afternoon.
District officials say telehealth services are needed because the services currently in place are insufficient.
“It's just not enough to meet some of the needs we're seeing among our students,” CRCSD Superintendent Dr. Tawana Glover said.
Larry Johnson is a Tanager Place employee and a school-based psychotherapist at Washington High School. He sees kids at the school five days a week.
“I usually work back-to-back days, so I get up at 5:30 a.m. to work out because otherwise I'd be spending a lot of time in a chair,” Johnson said.
He agreed that the telehealth program would go a long way in expanding the reach of mental health services in the district.
“This gives a whole different group and demographic of students access to things they didn't have access to before,” he said.
Johnson recognized the irony of turning to technology to combat anxiety and depression, which everyone on Wednesday's panel agreed is caused by technology in the first place.
“Kids are feeling isolated. They feel like they don't belong anywhere. And I think the devices, the technology that we're talking about, are part of the problem,” Johnson said.
He added that addressing mental health issues is complex work, but ultimately he has very clear guidelines.
“Anything that we have access to, any other tools that we have in our tool belt, I say we should use them. I say we should use them. Anything that helps kids,” Johnson said.
One of the panelists on Wednesday was University of Iowa basketball star Hannah Stuelke, who serves as the face of Hazel Health, the company CRCSD is partnering with to provide these services.
She said if something similar had been available when she was a student at the University of Washington, she would have used it.
“I think it's really hard, especially for younger people, because some people say, 'You're young, you don't need to do this. You haven't been through so much yet. Yes, we have been through it. We've been through enough that we need someone to talk to,'” she said.
The program was made possible by a $1.5 million grant from UnitedHealthcare, which will fund the program for one year, after which the district will seek funding sources to continue the program.
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