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Submitted photo

LAURINBURG — Scotland County School District representatives met with community and behavioral health leaders from local providers, universities, and insurance companies to discuss how to work together to more effectively meet students’ growing mental health needs. The meeting was organized by the i2i Center for Integrative Health.

The stakeholder’s wide-ranging conversation included ideas for how to more effectively engage parents and families in their children’s mental health challenges and empower them to find the care their kids need.

“The partnership with the i2i Center for Integrative Health will provide our School-Based Mental Health Counselors with additional supports and resources to assist students before a mental health crisis occurs. Further, we are looking forward to learning techniques that will allow us to assist a student quickly and immediately during a crisis,” said Dr. Patricia Powell-Patrick, the Director of Support Services for Scotland County Schools.

The meeting’s goal was to strengthen the local “System of Care” for behavioral health needs. System of Care is a nationally recognized framework designed to help the school district, families, providers, and community groups better coordinate information, quickly identify resources, and provide students with individualized care.

The i2i Center will summarize the discussion and provide meeting participants with an action plan to continue improving the local System of Care.

Ann Rodriguez, i2i’s Executive Director, and Scotland meeting coordinator, noted that the “first step in addressing the student mental health crisis is awareness. Getting students the help they need requires awareness of the community’s resources, the capabilities of the organizations that have those resources, and the roadblocks to coordinating those resources most effectively. This conversation was a strong first step toward creating that awareness for Scotland County stakeholders.”

In North Carolina, nearly 20% of children are experiencing depression and 25% have anxiety that is impairing their daily activity which greatly impacts their ability to learn.

About the i2i Center for Integrative Health

i2i partners with funders to create collaborative and evidence-based initiatives designed to produce a more effective whole-person healthcare delivery system. i2i focuses on improving the quality of behavioral healthcare, intellectual and developmental disabilities care, and substance use care. The organization is headquartered in Cary, NC. Learn more at i2iCenter.org.

About the Scotland County School District

The mission of Scotland County Schools (SCS) is to serve and improve the life of ALL students by preparing them for the future in order to build and sustain a strong community. SCS values high expectations, relationships, accountability, equity, and safety. SCS staff, students, and community members adhere to the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) Framework because we understand that we are all better together. Scotland County Schools’ 5,500 students and over 1,000 team members are served through ten school campuses in Scotland County, North Carolina.

Partnering with NC System of Care is funded through #StrongSchoolsNC. The i2i Center for Integrative Health is partnering with the NC Departments of Public Instruction and Health and Human Services.