De-Funding of Full-Time Mental Health Social Workers and Therapists from DCPS and Charter Schools

[Anonymous]

Needs to be in the Post and the City Paper and all the local Listserv he. This is terrible! My son needs and receives counseling services at school.

[Anonymous]

My kid too! Seems like nobody is listening.

[Anonymous]

See it's more important to divert resources for the entire homeless population of the DC metro region. Simple Bowser thinks she will "eradicate homelessness" and win the Nobel Peace Prize. We have an unpopular, corrupt, and ineffective mayor who is delusional enough to believe she can launch this mayor thing into something better.

And by the way, I want to help the homeless too, but not in this manner. This will just increase homelessness down the road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:See it's more important to divert resources for the entire homeless population of the DC metro region. Simple Bowser thinks she will "eradicate homelessness" and win the Nobel Peace Prize. We have an unpopular, corrupt, and ineffective mayor who is delusional enough to believe she can launch this mayor thing into something better.

And by the way, I want to help the homeless too, but not in this manner. This will just increase homelessness down the road.

+1

[Anonymous]

This isn't the schools job. Obamacare covers this. What a waste

[Anonymous]

If you think it's easy to find mental health providers that are good, take insurance, have openings, etc, you're dreaming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you think it's easy to find mental health providers that are good, take insurance, have openings, etc, you're dreaming.

+ 100000000

[Anonymous]

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/06/the-struggle-of-seeking-therapy-while-poor/484970/

"A black, working-class man would have to call 80 therapists. A middle-class white woman would only have to call five"

As you may guess, this would be even worse for families or teenagers from these school whom will lose their therapists.

I am outraged. When you really think about it, this should be front page news. Helping others with therapy in DC is one of the only things that are keeping this city together.

[Anonymous]

Middle class white woman here. Had to call more than five.

[Anonymous]

It's awful. There's a shortage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Middle class white woman here. Had to call more than five.

How many? Six?

#areyouserious

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Basically, special interest groups and the director were involved with this decision... I see no evidence of public or council engagement prior to this decision. See below:

Response from SY 16 Oversight Committee Questions: Pages 173-174

During FY16, the DBH director convened an interagency group known as the Behavioral Health Working Group (BWG) to re-envision a comprehensive plan with a strategy for expanding early childhood and school based behavioral health programs and services to all schools by School Year 17/18. The BWG was comprised of several District agencies including DBH, DOH, DCPS,DCPCS, Friends of Choice in Urban Schools (FOCUS), child advocates and other community
partners...

Once approved, a Stakeholder Engagement Plan will be established and implemented during the SYR 16-17 for education and engagement regarding the re-visioning of the DBH clinician’s role within the framework of the re-structured school-based behavioral health model. This stakeholder communication, education, and engagement will occur prior to the projected SY 17-18 rollout of the re-visioned scope of services and role of a DBH clinician in the schools.

Looks like that Stakeholder Engagement Plan worked... lmao.

Why no media coverage on this??? Pat Collins would have a field day

[Anonymous]

I just checked out the petition and they have like 900 signatures and if you google it you find absolutely zero press about this. Its probably not even true.

YOU GUYS LOST! Give up! Wake me up when we get a new Panda at the Zoo or when the Nats opener is. you can make fun of me if you want but people dont care about therapists doing therapy for black people, give them case managers so they can be told how to live their lives correctly and maybe google maps to find their missing children.

[Anonymous]

any updates?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle class white woman here. Had to call more than five.

How many? Six?

#areyouserious

Another upper middle class white woman here. I called over 25 (every doctor listed on my plan's website) and found only one who had space for me and also took insurance. Went to him for a while, then he moved his practice to MD .

Many of them spoke with me for a while before telling me they weren't accepting new patients. It made me feel like they were deciding whether or not to accept me, then I didn't make the cut.

Aside from the very real issue of finding and paying for a private provider, removing the mental health care clinicians from DCPS and DCPCS is one of the worst ways to save a buck. Having these services on site allows the provider to work with the teachers, get to know the school environment and issues, allows the student to not have to leave school and parents to leave work early every week (which also puts the struggling student even further behind), and many other benefits.

There are so many other things that would have been better ways to balance the budget: cut spending by political officials on cars, expense accounts, etc.; cut funding to the soccer stadium (Bowser and Gray really screwed us long term with this one); increase parking enforcement to increase ticket revenues and also help neighborhood residents. And these are just off the top of my head and I'm not an expert. I'm sure there are MANY alternatives to ceasing this much needed support to DC children.