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MSPP sponsors
mentor-based services
(July
2007 Issue)
By Jennifer Chase Esposito
A new project at a new center for child development at the Massachusetts
School of Professional Psychology (MSPP) is pairing high school
students with elementary-age students to help address the state's
growing shortage of mental health services for young children.
Working as "child associates" (CA) who help prevent emotional,
learning and adjustment problems in students grades two and three
in schools around Boston, high schoolers at the West Roxbury (Mass.)
Education Complex, have been mentored to do so by MSPP graduate
students and faculty at the Richard I. and Joan L. Freedman Center
for Child Development.
This new facility exists through a gift from the Freedmans. Joan's
prior work in Worcester public schools as a school psychologist
and adjustment counselor and Richard's position as a longtime member
of the MSPP Board of Trustees taught them that the best places to
provide necessary support to emotionally troubled children through
innovative play, therapeutic relationships and classroom interventions,
is in a school setting.
The Freedman Center's program is based on the Primary Project,
a nationally known preventative mental health program developed
in the 1950s which utilizes young adults or adults as child associates
in a school setting. According to a report by Children's Hospital
Boston and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Children, some 70 percent of kids in need of mental health services
in the Bay State don't receive them because of a lack of professionals
to treat them or even the transportation to get to care. And of
the 20 percent of kids suffering from diagnosable mental disorders,
even more find it difficult to concentrate through a whole school
day when home and playground issues play out through their minds
more than math equations.
"The resources that are available are disproportionately allocated
for intensive, costly programs and services for children with very
serious needs," says Bob Lichtenstein, Ph.D., executive director
of the Freedman Center. "Little, if any, money is allocated for
prevention, so schools are a logical place to implement preventative
mental health programs.
"Whether it's due to lack of funding, restricted insurance, insufficient
well-trained, culturally competent mental health professionals or
the reluctance to use such services because of the stigma of mental
illness, there is a real crisis in children's mental health," Lichtenstein
continues. "The services for those children with more serious needs
are often unavailable."
Lichtenstein, who formerly worked for Connecticut's State Department
of Education where he managed the Primary Project there for 30 school
districts, says the Freedman program has several goals. While graduate
students at MSPP get to hone their skills and become more familiar
with a school-based preventative mental health model, they can be
resources for high school students participating in community service
... all while practicing their child development, communication
and interpersonal skills on the children who are selected to participate
in a program.
Children at risk of, but not experiencing social-emotional or school
adjustment problems, meet weekly during the school year with a CA
- initially an MSPP graduate student, and later in the year, with
high school students trained in collaboration with MSPP faculty
and students. Each week, the child and CA engage in an individual
child-led expressive play session. MSPP graduate students also act
as Primary Project coordinators, under the guidance of the MSPP
faculty.
During the individual play sessions, the young children choose
among such activities as toys, art and construction materials, games
and high interest books. According to MSPP, in that playful setting,
children become aware of their feelings, experience a sense of acceptance,
enjoy supportive interaction with the CA and develop positive feelings
about their school experience. There is no enrollment cost to parents.
"It would be wonderful if Primary Project were adopted more widely,"
says Lichtenstein. "There are about eight states that have implemented
Primary Project on a broad scale. More important, though, is the
general concept of delivering an array of mental health services
in schools.
"There are a number of excellent school-based programs that deliver
mental health services and incorporate prevention strategies. Schools
should use whatever approaches address their needs, are proven to
be effective and can be implemented in ways that can be sustained
over time.
The Freedman Center's Primary Project program has been rolled out
only in the Kilmer School in Boston and the Fisher School, Walpole,
Mass. It's the only program of its kind in the country to use solely
high school students as child associates. Data analysis for the
past school year should be available by the end of the summer.
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