October 2nd, 2018
By Phyllis Hanlon
In 2009, the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) opened the Roosevelt Benton Center and the Thomas C. Slater Training School (also called the Youth Development Center) as an “intake and assessment center for non-adjudicated youth,” according to Kerri White, MA, Rhode Island’s DCYF communications director. Last year, Eleanor Slater Hospital acquired and renovated the facility to serve a different population. White explained that, in conjunction with the Youth Development Center, the $62 million Benton Center was intended to house youth for juvenile detention; some of whom may have diagnosed mental health needs. Initially, the Benton Center [More]
Tags: youth, treatment, psychiatric patients, DCYF, mental health assessment, clinical social worker, pyschiatrist, correctional detention, Roosevelt Benton Center
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July 7th, 2018
By Phyllis Hanlon
According to the American Psychological Association (APA), school psychology has “…evolved as a specialty area with core knowledge rooted in psychology and education.” Once focused primarily on assessments, today’s school psychologists undergo advanced training, leading to deeper knowledge and understanding of developmental stages, culture, environment, and social emotional issues as they currently apply to school systems. Graduate students who choose to become school psychologists have two certification options, according to Sandra M. Chafouleas, Ph.D. Chafouleas is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor in the department of educational psychology, Neag School of Education. She is also co-director of the Collaboratory on [More]
Tags: youth, kids, education, mental health counseling, school psychologist, students, ethnicity, culture, sexuality, ability, emotional, behavioral
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February 7th, 2018
By Pamela Berard
Two recent grants will help NAMI Rhode Island, the state chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, continue to enhance mental health education programs for young people. A $15,000 Rhode Island Foundation grant will allow NAMI to increase training opportunities and add presenters for Ending the Silence, a classroom program that was first developed by an Illinois NAMI chapter and is now one of the national organization’s signature education and support programs. “We were trained up on this program for the first time last year and we saw the promise in it, because it offers some new things that [More]
Tags: adolescents, NAMI Rhode Island, mental health education programs, youth, middle school children, middle-schoolers, high school students, Ending the Silence, Parents and Teachers as Allies, mental health awareness
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February 6th, 2018
By Janine Weisman
Understaffing has contributed to “dangerous and unhealthy conditions for both youth and staff” at Maine’s only state juvenile detention center, an independent report finds. Seven vacant Juvenile Program Worker positions at the Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland led to the use of regular forced overtime last year when the report by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Children’s Law and Policy (CCLP) was compiled. The overtime was necessary to achieve a required staff to youth ratio of 1:8 during waking hours and 1:16 during overnight hours. The report made public in December was commissioned by the Maine Juvenile [More]
Tags: youth, juvenile detention center, Maine, understaffing, residential facilities, Long Creek Youth Development Center, forced overtime, transgender death, suicide prevention, kids, self-harming behavior
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