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District awarded two-year suicide-prevention grant, will conduct needs assessment and implement best practices
Summary
The district received a two-year grant from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to assess suicide-prevention services, identify gaps and implement best practices with Educational Development Center support; initial site visit praised existing supports and outlined a phased self-assessment and implementation plan.
The district has been awarded a two-year suicide-prevention grant from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the committee heard on Oct. 8. Sherry Lewis, who presented the update, said the grant will fund a district self-assessment, gap analysis and implementation of best practices across six components of suicide prevention.
Lewis said the grant will pair the district with a technical-assistance provider from the Educational Development Center (EDC). During a recent site visit, the EDC representative toured all four school buildings and reviewed existing services. Lewis said the district already has numerous supports in place, including multi-tiered systems of student support, SOS screening at the high school, a student support center, small-group counseling, canine therapy, and the recent CARTWHEEL wraparound therapeutic program that provides counseling, family supports and medication management through insurance and a district-held reserved slot for families in need.
Over the first year, the district will complete a self-assessment guided by the Department of Public Health/EDC framework and then identify gaps to plan filling those gaps. Year two will focus on implementation of selected interventions, which may include staff training, program purchases or other practices backed by the EDC guidance. The grant is administered by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health; Lewis said the award is $5,000 per year and that additional training funds may become available through related programming.
Committee members discussed the need for strong day-to-day teacher observation and advisory structures to identify at-risk students early. Lewis and other administrators said advisory time was being used daily at the high school to give teachers consistent contact with students and that the district already partners with island organizations such as Fair Winds, the Family Resource Center and A Safe Place. The district also introduced the Myo behavioral health screener and said it is expanding measurement tools across buildings.
The district will solicit representation from teachers, counselors, administrators, parents and students for the grant-planning process and said it will report findings and recommendations to the committee as the work proceeds.
