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Mental health initiative survives

Mental health initiative survives Mental health initiative survives

Conservatives vote “no”

The Marathon County Board of Supervisors last week Tuesday approved using a $72,974 grant from a Medical College of Wisconsin endowment to enhance mental health services in county public schools, but only after a group of board conservatives questioned the program and later voted against it.

The approval, a budget transfer that required a twothirds board vote, passed 26-12.

Voting no were supervisors Becky Buch, Kim Ungerer, Joel Straub, Tony Sherfinski, Gayle Marshall, Jasper Hartinger, David Baker, Chris Dickinson, Allen Drabek, Ron Covelli, Bruce Lamont and Bobby Niemeyer. The program, which began in Edgar School District, places mental health professionals in the schools, making it easier for students and their parents to get needed counseling without traveling to Marshfield or Wausau. The program, which is coordinated by the Marathon County Health Department, places mental health professionals in all 51 county schools, but not in private schools. Dickinson, Stratford, voiced the most sustained opposition to the program. The supervisor, who also serves as Stratford school board president, said today’s schools provide a plentitude of services–breakfast, lunch, after-school snack, dentists, day care and doctors— but that all of this help fails to remedy the problems facing youth.

He said a health department goal to reduce teen prolonged sadness to under 20 percent of the population by the end of the year was both arbitrary and unachievable.

Dickinson questioned “throwing money into a big bucket to achieve something we can’t achieve without long-term, consistent care.”

The supervisor, in what was a possible reference to the COVID-19 pandemic, said that young people have had a tough last couple of years and that adults had not helped their mental health, but, instead, made things worse.

Dickinson suggested that chronically sad or depressed teens need to only grow out of their problems.

“Freshmen and sophomores seem to struggle the most, but when they are juniors and seniors they chill out,” he said.

Kronenwetter supervisor David Baker, who said an unnamed teacher did not approve of the program, questioned whether the program undermined the role of parents or sought to cure gender dysphoria.

Lee Shipway, a licensed clinical social worker who helped develop the Marathon County School-Based Consortium, said state law demands that parents consent to any therapy given their children.

“If they don’t want their children in therapy, their child is not in therapy,” she said. “Parents are an integral part of services.”

Schofield supervisor Tony Sherfinski argued that society fails to provide children stable environments but, while mental health professionals attempt to help young people, they are not having success.

“You are standing with your finger in the dike, but you are losing,” he said. “You are trying valiantly, but you are losing.”

Marathon County Health Department director Laura Scudiere said that youth mental illness was a “wicked problem” with many causes that could be addressed by providing schools and parents with a variety of resources. “We want to help set up kids to succeed,” she said. Jeff Lindell, director of student services at D.C. Everest School District, told supervisors that a large number of public school students report mental health issues, including anxiety and prolonged periods of sadness, on risk surveys. In a 2019 survey, he said, for example, 48 percent of county junior high students report anxiety and 62 percent of ninth grade females experience prolonged periods of sadness.

Lindell said the major advantage of offering a counselor in a school is saving students and parents trips to counselors. Students are better able to keep up with their school work, he said.

Lindell said other states are following this same model. “Minnesota is miles ahead of us on this,” he said.

Shipway said the counseling services provided in the schools are paid for by parent health insurance and, if parents have no insurance, through grants provided by the United Way. Providers also donate services to poor students, she said.

The grant will pay for Marathon County Health Department program coordinators, she added.

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