Health department using grant to partner with schools on mental health, vaping education

Jun. 14—The Howard County Health Department is making funds from a state-issued grant stretch, hosting immunization fairs at local schools and partnering with local organizations to educate school staff on best mental health practices for students.

In its third year of the School Liaison Grant, the health department is working with the Kokomo Thriving Center — Indiana Wesleyan University's regional campus (IWU) — Turning Point System of Care and Purdue Extension. The grant is worth $330,000 annually.

IWU launched boot camps this month through its life coaching program. These two-day sessions aim to equip educators with the skills to identify mental health issues in students. The purpose is to have teachers, staff and administrators catch issues before they become more severe, while also giving students healthy coping skills.

"The goal is to reduce the stress level, reduce anxiety levels," said Kristina Sommers, public health emergency coordinator.

Liz Kerns, director of venture development for Kokomo Thriving Center, said the skills educators learn in the life coaching boot camp can improve student success as well make for a healthier work environment.

The life coaching sessions can be applied to a teacher's continuing education hours and will count as three credits toward IWU's life coaching program.

Kokomo, Northwestern, Taylor and Western school districts had people sign up for life coaching.

IWU pivoted last year, rebranding its Kokomo campus as the Kokomo Thriving Center. It was part of a larger rebrand of IWU regional campuses. Regional IWU campuses now offer programs that are tailored to the needs of each individual community.

The health department is working with Turning Point to expand its peer recovery coach program to more schools. Turning Point has three recovery coaches within Kokomo School Corporation at Maple Crest Middle School.

Recovery coaches help students with behavior problems and serve as a liaison between those students and teachers.

Vaping education for high schoolers is also included through Turning Point.

The School Liaison Grant will cover the salaries for peer recovery coaches at Northwestern and Western.

"We're expanding something that's already working in the community," Sommers said.

The third tier of the health department's partnership involves workshops for students who teach Indiana Employability Skills Standards and Competencies.

Students will learn skills based in four areas: mindsets, work ethic, learning strategies and social and emotional skills (SEL).

Concepts include lifelong learning and self-confidence (mindsets), perseverance and time management (work ethic), decision making and problem solving (learning strategies) and collaboration and regulation (SEL).

All these can be thought of as skills any person needs to function in a workplace. Employability skills is a recently added Indiana state standard.

Kerns said Purdue Extension will help facilitate student workshops for younger students, using books to show SEL skills.

Taylor, Northwestern and Western will offer student workshops.

The partnerships come after the health department spoke with school officials about what they needed.

"It was incredibly well received," Kerns said. "The schools have led the conversation."

Schools can pick and choose which programs they want.

The School Liaison Grant is meant to improve public health and enhance education and community services.

The health department used grant funds to host immunization fairs at local schools, partnering with community organizations such as Bona Vista and Community Howard Regional Health, to offer other services at the events.

The health department administered 100 vaccines to 38 students. About half came at Eastern's immunization fair.

"Public health has lost a lot of trust during the pandemic," Sommers said. "People don't trust the vaccines."

Grant funds were also used to give schools Narcan, Stop the Bleed kits and hygiene products for students.

Spencer Durham can be reached at 765-454-8598, by email at spencer.durham@kokomotribune.com or on Twitter at @Durham_KT.