South Carolina granted Florence school district 1 and two other districts a $1.5 million dollar grant to address mental health issues at each school.
“We’re really excited that we were chosen to participate in this grant over the next 5 years to provide some leading mental health to our students here in our school district,” said Superintendent Richard O’Malley.
Florence school district 1 has 24 schools but are currently short staffed when it comes to mental health counselors.
“I think most of the teachers are facing things in the classroom that they have not faced in a long time like societal pressure and academic pressure,” said O’Malley.
The district currently has 18 counselors, but are short by 4 counselors. O’Malley said there’s an absolute need for this “Just given the numbers that we’ve had over the course of years and tracking the numbers of referrals, these are separate from guidance counselors and social workers. These are school based therapist that are dedicated to seeing students that have some of the most severe issues.”
A mental health counselor from iHope Christian Care said this new addition will provide immediate help for any students, teacher and staff going through difficult times.
“The more that someone can be close by, trained, ready and develop a relationship with the students so that when something feels like it’s going wrong they actually already know the person that’s responding. They see them around, they see them at lunch, whatever it might be,” said counselor Jessica Hayes.
The mental health counselors will be available at all 24 schools starting next school year.
