Mental Health Services to be Available at Boonsboro Schools

January 29, 2010

BOONSBORO — Mental health services are to be provided at Boonsboro High School and Boonsboro Middle School soon, possibly next month, according to the executive director of Washington County Community Partnership for Children & Families.

Executive Director Stephanie Stone told the Washington County Commissioners during a meeting Tuesday night at Funkstown Town Hall that the partnership received a $76,200 grant from Maryland Physicians Care for the project. The commissioners voted 5-0 to accept the grant.

Maryland Physicians Care is a Medicaid managed-care program, said Ray Grahe, chairman of the group. The program provides grants to communities to help improve health services.

Stone said school-based mental health centers at Western Heights Middle School and at South Hagerstown and Williamsport high schools had been successful. A needs assessment study indicated the Boonsboro area could use a similar program.

The money for the program will be funneled through the partnership, which is a county department and will monitor the program, Stone said. Villa Maria, one of the leading providers of behavioral health and special education services in Maryland, will provide the mental health services, Stone said. Washington County Public Schools will provide the space.

The Boonsboro schools-based mental health center project also received $225,000 from the Governor’s Office for Children to renovate space at the high school for the mental health services, Stone said. She said she hopes the renovation work will be done during the summer when school is out.

The mental health services can begin before the renovation starts, Stone said.

The goal is to eventually offer medical services at the school-based program in Boonsboro, just as the other three schools do, Stone said. The programs at the other three schools are provided through a partnership between the Washington County Health Department, the school system and the community partnership, officials said.

The Governor’s Office for Children also is giving $182,000 to the Family Center, which is housed in a former school building off West Washington Street in Hagerstown’s West End, Stone said. The money is to be used for renovations, Stone said.

The Family Center helps parents in their teens and early 20s become better parents, encourages them to continue their education and helps provide child care, Stone said.