Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 1: If Not Now, When?
586 Plays2 years ago
This inaugural episode of the series features a conversation between Coalition Board Chair, Julie Hueller of the Racine Collaborative for Children’s Mental Health and Board Treasurer, Kathy Markeland of the Wisconsin Association of Family & Children’s Agencies. Julie and Kathy discuss some of the foundational building blocks for growing student mental health systems by exploring the story of the community partnership in the Racine Unified School District.
Their conversation highlights the role that the Coalition plays in sharing best practice and advancing state policies to help Wisconsin communities advance school mental health initiatives. By leveraging the elements of the comprehensive model and expertise of Wisconsin networks, schools across the state are showing that school mental health works!
Show Notes
Coalition for Expanding School-Based Mental Health in Wisconsin
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction - School Mental Health website
Wisconsin School Mental Health Framework
Wisconsin Association of Family and Children's Agencies
Spotlight on Racine Collaborative for Children's Mental Health Partnership
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to School Mental Health Works, a quick dip monthly podcast featuring dialogues on school mental health as viewed through the lens of the array of stakeholders who play a role in the comprehensive model of school mental health services in Wisconsin. Our mission is to share the successes and challenges experienced by a range of partners in Wisconsin as communities continue to collaborate and show that school mental health works.
Goals of the Coalition
00:00:26
Speaker
This series is a product of the Coalition for Expanding School-Based Mental Health in Wisconsin, a statewide coalition with a mission to advance and support expanded, comprehensive and integrated mental health services within the school setting through school, home and community partnerships.
00:00:44
Speaker
Future episodes will feature discussions between mental health providers, school professionals, and parents as they consider each of the six components of Wisconsin's comprehensive school mental health system model. Episodes will feature coalition representatives and invited guests, each bringing a unique perspective and experience within Wisconsin's systems for supporting school mental health.
Meet Kathy and Julie
00:01:23
Speaker
My name is Kathy Markland, a coalition board member who works with community mental health providers. And today I am pleased to be joined by our coalition board chair and school mental health expert extraordinaire Julie Hiller, manager Racine Collaborative for Children's Mental Health. Welcome, Julie.
00:01:39
Speaker
Thank you, Kathy. I don't know about being expert or narrow, but we'll see how we do today. First of all, it's really great to be here with you, Kathy, and welcome to you. And it's also great to be together to kick off our first episode. We're so excited to launch our podcast.
00:01:55
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, this has been a long time in the making pulling this together. So let's start. And I'm going to just do a little chit chatting with you, Julie.
Julie's Background and Racine's Mental Health Origins
00:02:04
Speaker
Can you share a little bit about the Racine Collaborative for Children's Mental Health and how you and the collaborative found your way to the coalition?
00:02:11
Speaker
Awesome. First of all, I just want to give you a little bit of background about who I am in my career. So I really want to say mental health has been a passion of mine. I have spent my entire career in the mental health field. So I by trade am a registered nurse. And I have worked in a variety of roles in the healthcare setting.
00:02:29
Speaker
from inpatient mental health and addiction care units. I was a nurse educator, administrator, and fell in love, fell in love with community outreach, collaboration, and connection. That really was something that was really, really important. So back in 2012, we want to talk about our Racine community a little bit and how we got started as the Racine Collaborative for Children's Mental Health. We have a huge community asset here in Racine called the Johnson Foundation at Wingspread.
00:02:57
Speaker
which is a convening agent for issues that arise in our community. And we were starting to hear a lot in our community back in 2012 about children's mental health and having issues with kids accessing services. Maybe our systems were broken and not functioning well. And where was collaboration? And so we kind of came together as a community at the Johnson Foundation to really talk about what we wanted to do.
00:03:25
Speaker
And there was a group that came together and said, yes, we need to fix this problem. Youth are our most important asset in our community, and we want something different for them. And so we really sat. And if you looked at, you know, 2012 when we started, we spent a lot of time just getting to know each other.
00:03:40
Speaker
this collaboration wasn't there we all had kind of functioned in our silo and back in those days i was working in a health care field so you know health care organizations kind of ran the mental health services in the community and we had a lot of other partners that we really didn't know that well and so we really spent time getting to know each other by 2015 we kind of figured it out and we said hey
00:04:00
Speaker
What about if we had school-based mental health services? What would that look like? And how would we do that? So a team came together with support of Racine Unified School District. And one thing that I do appreciate about our school district is they came to the table with us early.
00:04:15
Speaker
the collaborative and they said we need help with this we can't do this by ourselves. And so I think it's one of those communities where we didn't have to go out and sell mental health and mental health is a problem and here this is why and we were really fortunate to really have that moment in time that we wanted to react to things. So as we started to launch in 2015 our first school-based mental health clinics
00:04:36
Speaker
in our elementary setting, we had to say to ourselves, wow, we got a lot to learn here. You know, it started that conversation across the country because other school districts were starting to kind of tip their toe into this work. And the amazing thing about this work was we all started questioning like, what's the quality? How do we judge it? How do we evaluate? What are those systems that need to be in place? Like, do we just bomb in a clinic and say, hey,
00:05:00
Speaker
And then we don't have the support structures for it. So we really started to really think about things. And so coming to the coalition at that point and being in the space with others who are doing the same work and kind of struggling in the same way was really helpful. And that's what kind of gravitated us toward our coalition for expanding school-based mental health in Wisconsin.
The Power of Partnerships
00:05:20
Speaker
Right. I'm so glad that you laid that great foundation for us, Julie, because I do think that your story, Everything Collaborative, really talks about all of how the partnerships develop. I love the piece around just how much time you spent getting to know each other. That is that critical component of really thinking about what real collaboration is going to look like and how you actually have to make time to build that.
00:05:48
Speaker
Same thing on the coalition side, I will say that we really spend a lot of time over the past six years that we've been formed as a coalition, six or seven years that it's been now really taking time to get to know one another and really taking the opportunity to share perspectives and try to come to mutual understandings about
00:06:08
Speaker
from our different world views in those different places where we stand, how we come to do this work, and really, and I appreciate too that you talked about how we know that we're having impact. How do we know that we're moving the needle and that we're really making an impact for mental well-being for our students and for our school communities?
00:06:28
Speaker
So as someone who has represented providers of mental health services for nearly two decades now, I will say we have really seen exponential growth in the number of community-based mental health providers really coming into collaboration with schools. And when I think about our providers at
00:06:45
Speaker
WAFCA, the Wisconsin Association of Family and Children's Agencies, we were really early adopters and adapters in really searching for that best practice model for building sustainable, supportive relationships with our school districts, really to increase that access to therapeutic services for students who need that level of support. And not all students do, but that critical component of having a mental health provider accessible within the school setting
00:07:12
Speaker
making that therapy opportunity more accessible to more youth that may have other barriers that keep them from reaching those services otherwise. Really, I think about our investment is really about trying to figure out how to bridge that divide, that space between collaborators
00:07:33
Speaker
where we come to a shared understanding of what our mutual expectations are in in doing this work and really lifting up our communities at large through a school through the through the kind of that that nest of the school where we're helping our youth move along but really really helping to amplify mental well-being across our communities. I want to get back to your direct experience though Julie because I do think the Racine story is just so so telling and you all have been at this work really
00:08:01
Speaker
from really are a nascent provider of thinking through these questions. As a coalition community, we often talk about the building blocks of the school mental health systems. And I think your story helps us to see that by really putting that in a story form, right? So recognizing that schools are pivotal partners and communities all can start in a different place. So let's go back and talk about where Racine's really started with this work.
00:08:31
Speaker
First of all, I want to say this and to your point, Kathy, having your community mental health partners at the table with you needs to be your first step. And I'm going to
Framework for School Mental Health Systems
00:08:41
Speaker
say that because all in our journey, they were with us side by side. But the one thing that I do want to say for us and our personal story was back in 2015, so I'm going to drag you all the way back. This question of school based mental health quality was right at top of people's minds. And so when we look at
00:09:00
Speaker
the work that was being done through the Center for School of Mental Health at the University of Maryland. So we went across the nation to the University of Maryland. We went to other universities that said, who's doing this work and oh my goodness, we need some help. So in 2015 through their School of Medicine,
00:09:18
Speaker
They created what they call the Collaborative for Improvement and Innovation Network, which we call COIN, simply put. And so they went across the United States and asked school districts, hey, you fill out this application and do you want to be part of our initial COIN exploration? Like how do we set up quality? What does that look like? And they wanted to learn from school districts. So Racine was one of eight school districts across the country that was accepted into the first cool parts.
00:09:44
Speaker
of COIN. And what I want to say that our journey, and it's really no different than building a comprehensive mental health system day through DPI, but I'm going to drag you back into the SHAPE system. So the SHAPE system was a school mental health assessment and performance evaluation system. And it was the model at the time where it really kind of took you to do a personal like district wide or school building assessment. And what it really did is it helped you focus on a couple of key things.
00:10:14
Speaker
So I call it like a spoke on a bicycle tire. All these pieces kind of have to sing together. So it talked about teaming. And I'm one. First thing I say to other school districts, come to look at me, who's your partners and go find them. And that's the first thing I always say to people. Now you really want to look at your needs assessment and that resource mapping, right? Like what do we need and who's doing this work and really look at your communities. Extend back out, get out of that school building and go to your community and really figure out what's all happening in your community.
00:10:41
Speaker
And then also what we talked about too is our support system. What's our tiered support look like? What are we doing for all kids? What are we doing in that tier two space? And some kids need just a little bit more and then starting to build your tier three systems. And then also really big in this idea, like how are we going to long-term fund this? And I'll be honest, Racine started 100% on grant money. We went out to our community business partners and we say, guys, this is what we're thinking about doing and then we need some help. And so we spent some time on fund development,
00:11:11
Speaker
and sustainability that way. And then to Kathy's point, data telling your story, what's your impact, and how do we further get your story out there. So other funders look at that, not only from a state perspective and perhaps a federal, think big, go federal, and really start to think about how do we want to sustain our programs. And so for us, that's really the support we needed to really start our journey in school-based mental
Statewide Coalition and Overcoming Barriers
00:11:35
Speaker
health.
00:11:35
Speaker
That's great. I zoned in on one thing that you said, Julie. Who are your partners? Go find them. I think that's a piece that we have continually returned to when we think about
00:11:51
Speaker
helping to guide schools as a coalition, thinking about how we're elevating what best practice looks like, continually returning to that question of collaboration and what does that collaboration look like, and really thinking about how the school
00:12:06
Speaker
finds ways to integrate the community resources into the school community, but also how the school community is looking outside and thinking about what is wrapping around in that broader community. So I think from a provider perspective, we really look at this and see that there is so much opportunity to really
00:12:25
Speaker
enhance the therapeutic value that we're able to deliver from a mental health provider perspective when we're in collaboration with the schools and when we're able to be in relationship with them. And so much of our work at the coalition has been focused on figuring out how we best structure those relationships and how we can serve as consultants and trainers within that school space as well, that it really opens up a window for that mental health therapy
00:12:49
Speaker
resource to be used to do psychoeducation and really think about contributing to that full continuum of supports. I was thinking, too, as you were talking, Julie, one of the things that we talked about in prepping for this today was about how we get into the lingo of the school mental health comprehensive model, right? And you went in and you dove into talking about tiers, right? Tier one, tier two, tier three. And we think about that a lot. And I just for our listeners want to share
00:13:16
Speaker
This is something we'll be diving into a lot more in coming episodes as well, but also channeling you to resources to help to explain some of this a little bit more too. When we talk about the shape system, when we talk about the comprehensive model, where do you find out more about these pieces? I want to continue on and really get back to talking a little bit more about the coalition which you're chairing now.
00:13:41
Speaker
how the coalition plays a role in expanding school mental health in Wisconsin and why is the statewide collaboration valuable. This work is very localized but it also has a statewide piece to it and I just would like you to share a little bit more from the chair's perspective how you've seen that evolve.
00:14:00
Speaker
So, first of all, excited about collaboration. But, you know, as a statewide coalition, it's valuable because as we raise our voices together, great things can happen. You know, we're isolated by ourselves and said, you know, this system is broken. We need policy change around this. There's just things that as you create a different system in the school, that there's going to be issues that need just some further guidance.
00:14:23
Speaker
And having that statewide expertise, I say, to kind of plug into is really, really helpful. So a couple things that when you look at the role that our coalition plays right now is addressing those barriers. We're going to hit barriers and we're not going to understand how to deal with those things. So how do you get funding? How do we start to look at the importance of school mental health? We can't build a comprehensive mental health system without some funding changes or at least some funding to the table.
00:14:52
Speaker
coalition can be helpful with that. We think about how we started with our school-based mental health grants, you know, we started really small and now it's growing. And so the other thing too is connection with others that are doing this work, because we learn best from each other. That's how I learn. I'm not saying that I know everything about everything because I don't. But you know, when I can reach out and talk to partners, I can call people from the coalition and say, hey, what do you think about this? I got this crazy idea and I just want to bounce this off. You know, help me think this through.
00:15:21
Speaker
love that piece of the coalition. And so all the members are always there to help each other. I think the other thing too is really that learning about what other school districts are doing. I mean, you know, then it's not a secret. We don't need to keep our secret. You know, back in 2012, we love to keep everything harnessed and we're not sharing with anybody because this is my piece of the pie, right? And I'm going to do good things and it's only going to impact us. I love going to the state and saying, tell me what school districts are doing. Tell me what's really working well for you.
00:15:51
Speaker
and I have learned a lot from other people just about how they're doing things creatively and it may work in your community and your community may not be ready for it but you know what it's always in your mind and how do we grow to those things so I really love that piece of it because I think that best practice
00:16:06
Speaker
Collaboration and i think that's what your community mental health partners bring in you know i think from a school we can only do so much right and we're not therapists and we're not clinicians and having somebody who has that best practice evidence-based smile these are the things that work.
00:16:23
Speaker
working on developing staff capacity to deal with children differently in the classroom setting. And it really comes around those tier systems, you know, what do we want to do for all students? How do we do that prevention work? And I love prevention. What's early intervention work? I may need some guidance and consultation with my community mental health partner on this, because I'm not sure, you know, what's going to work right for our system. And that's what we did well in Racine. We had those collaborations. We had our mental health partners at the table.
00:16:50
Speaker
And then we were able to set up those treatment supports that we needed in the school setting a lot easier. And people understanding this is my role as a school counselor, school social worker, school psych, and this is my role as a mental health provider. And I think really having time to have those discussions
00:17:07
Speaker
was really important. There was another learning that we were able to share when you become involved in a coalition setting. You're able to say, OK, that's normal. OK, I'm experienced. My school social workers are feeling like their feet are getting tapped on a little bit here. OK, let's talk about that. So coming to that coalition piece of it is really good. And I think the last thing that has really been helpful to me is really to look at what are those policy changes? What do we need to do in advocating for budget changes?
00:17:33
Speaker
to help support funding for schools and school mental health.
Sustainability and Funding Challenges
00:17:37
Speaker
And so this is a real rich time to get your voice at the table to really say, hey, this is something that's really lacking right now. And what are we going to do about that?
00:17:45
Speaker
Yeah, I agree 100% that really reflecting on that advocacy piece that we've been able to identify things that are really structural that we can take on as a group collectively that were really barriers for folks trying to do this work locally. That's been huge for the coalition to be able to really think through those systemic pieces and start to start to
00:18:10
Speaker
Amplify those issues in a way that helps to make them understandable to our policymakers and to the folks who have some controls over making some of those putting some of those pieces and places in place I think the other thing I wanted to just as you were talking Julie that I was thinking about was how this work is
00:18:28
Speaker
It's not necessarily linear, and you referenced the spikes on the spokes on a bicycle wheel, and I really like that visual image of thinking about how we invest in the work. I also like the idea of sort of the circular motion of it, because I feel like as many times as we on a coalition level return to these conversations, there's always something new that I'm learning and a deepening
00:18:52
Speaker
of my understanding of how these pieces work in concert with one another when we think through the elements of the comprehensive model. So I'm really looking forward to the future dialogues that we're gonna host here where people are really able to do some of that diving in and sharing those elements because I know that there's always so much more to learn and it's more about being in that cycle of continuous learning than it is to think that you're on some kind of clear path that's been laid out for schools. And I think it can be overwhelming
00:19:21
Speaker
if we don't present it as a way that you start where you are and move forward from there. As we look ahead, we're always trying to focus our energy on where those current challenges are. As you think about the biggest challenge or barrier or issue facing our school mental health systems across the state right now, Julie, what would you say that barrier is?
00:19:50
Speaker
Right now, I think for me, you know, as we look across the state, I think some people would kind of emulate my thinking on a little bit, is the sustainability and the funding. You know, a lot of money right now is being tossed into the state from federal sources, state sources, around school mental health, because it's so important. And it's really, eyes have been raised on mental health, and I love it because we can do a lot of work in this space.
00:20:13
Speaker
But for me right now, I'm looking at what do we do after some of this initial funding goes away. So I kind of look at target date in my head and what happens in maybe December of 24, right? And I really get a little bit concerned about how do we continue to build this? How do we start to, as a statewide coalition, share our stories of success? How can we build on that impact to continue the sustainability of funding?
00:20:37
Speaker
from different sources, not only looking from our federal sources, our state sources and our local sources, but what does that braided funding start to look like so that we know we're having a great impact? I know when we're seeing we're having a great impact for our kids and we're growing our services every year because we know there's such a need and we haven't met the need of all students and that's really important to us. So I caution, I want people to come aboard with us and I want people to see the coalition as that place of support
00:21:06
Speaker
And if we can share impact with each other to say this is the right work that's coming out of the work that we're doing, this makes that sustainability funding a little bit easier for us. So I'm really looking forward to the next journey in the next 18 months. Yeah, I agree with that. And really, when we think about, I
00:21:22
Speaker
I kind of had a sense that you were going to talk about sustainability and funding as being one of our big challenge spaces as we look ahead for really figuring out how this becomes an integrated, continuous component of work that we're able to support and do within our school communities.
00:21:38
Speaker
Really, that is the next space that we need to be ready to move into. I'm excited about things that are in the works. As I look back, we've been able to accomplish in that space to really ensure that this work is supported and funded through Medicaid, for example, as a really critical funding source and expansion of
00:21:59
Speaker
consultation being able to be paid for through Medicaid. So it's a critical funding source within our schools. But of course, we know we have a lot more work to make sure that we continue with insurance as a critical channel of support for our families. And really, again, making that as much as possible, making that universal access when children are identified and needing a level of support, that they're able to access that in a timely way through our systems. So lots of great work left to be done there.
00:22:29
Speaker
and excited for the future conversations that are coming.
Julie's Motivational Mantra
00:22:32
Speaker
So I'm really grateful, Julie, that you spent time with me today to kick things off with this new series. And I'm looking forward to what's coming next. As we're wrapping up today, I just wanted to invite you to share a motivational quote or a mantra that keeps you going in this difficult work.
00:22:50
Speaker
You are always positive, Julie, and I just so value that in you. I know you're a fan of Ross Green, so maybe there's a piece there that you'd like to share with folks today. All right, first of all, I always say this, my mantra really, and if you know me at all, it will be if not now, when. And that is so true with school mental health because now is the time to dig in and build your systems and get things to work for you.
00:23:16
Speaker
And you are right. I do love the work. I'm a big fan of Dr. Ross Green. And the one thing that I love about collaborative problem solving is this because a lot of times we see challenging behaviors occurring.
00:23:27
Speaker
Because it's when the demands being placed on a child outstrips the skills they have to respond adaptively to those demands. So think about that in all of us. I always say, if my bandwidth is at 20% and somebody gives me a problem at 50, something's going to happen here. And so I love his approach, though, working and problem solving with the child and saying, tell me how we want to fix this. Tell me what's frustrating you. Tell me about that.
00:23:52
Speaker
Instead of the adult trying to guess and think about, okay, this is what's going on. And so that I have valued because I see that playing out a lot in our school district. And I know that people can relate to when those demands outweigh the ability to cope with that issue, then we need to step in and kind of help support that student so that we can understand better about what's frustrating them.
00:24:16
Speaker
And so that's why I think he has a great roadmap and it's just a great tool. So I really appreciate his work. I kind of live it out in high school district all the time too is another sense of support for teachers.
00:24:27
Speaker
This has been great to have this time together today, Julie. Thank you for being with me in this inaugural episode of this new series. And if not, now when? So that's a great thought for us as we roll into this series, too. Now is the time. So we've known each other for a while, but it's always good to talk to you and have a chance to talk big picture.
00:24:50
Speaker
and set the stage for future dialogues to help programs keep advancing across the state of Wisconsin. So until next time, keep working at School Mental Health because School Mental Health works.
Subscribe and Resources
00:25:03
Speaker
Looking forward to future episodes? Make sure to subscribe on the podcast platform of your choice and leave us a rating so that others invested in better mental health for Wisconsin students can find us. We welcome your questions. You can find resources and learn more by checking out today's show notes and by visiting the coalition's website at schoolmentalhealthwisconsin.org. Until next time.