As the Hamilton County school board prepares to consider new agreements with mental health providers next month, the previous long-standing provider is working to clarify its services and the reasoning behind school-based care.
Nashville-based Centerstone Community Mental Health Centers had provided school-based mental health counseling in Hamilton County Schools for more than a decade until an August board vote cut the service off immediately. An effort to bring back the center’s services failed at September’s school board meeting.
This school year, Centerstone was servicing around 1,000 students across 50 district schools with plans to expand into seven more schools, Regional Vice President Dan Mansfield said. The services came at no cost to the district and were largely paid for by TennCare and a state mental health grant for uninsured Tennesseans.
The center has continued to provide services to as many students as possible outside of school hours since the board’s vote, but it has not been able to reach all the families it had previously been serving, Mansfield said.
“We are hopeful for some resolution, but the sad truth is that over the past six weeks, there are dozens and dozens, if not hundreds, of families that are going without treatment to my knowledge,” he said in a video interview.
(READ MORE: Hamilton County Schools to seek bids for mental health services)
The board’s decision to not renew the agreement with Centerstone has been met with both backlash and support, with some calling the center’s services a lifeline for students while others say they oppose outsourcing students’ care to outside groups.
The latest update in this weeks-long saga came Wednesday when Hamilton County Schools announced it was putting out a request for proposals from organizations that provide school-based student mental health services. The proposal request says the district intends to partner with multiple organizations to provide these services, allowing parents to choose the option that best meets their needs. It is looking for organizations willing to partner at no cost to the district.
Centerstone will participate in that application process, Mansfield said.
Ahead of that bid process — as well as another expected vote Thursday on an updated agreement with Centerstone — the center held a virtual press conference Monday at which it addressed some of the common concerns and claims it had heard about its school-based services.
Here’s what to know:
PARENT INVOLVEMENT
Several community members who opposed Centerstone being in local schools have emphasized that parents need to play a central role in their children’s upbringing and expressed concerns about parents not being fully informed about the counseling their children received.
School staff had referred students and families to Centerstone, and written parental consent was the first step before a child received services from the center, Mansfield said. Parents and guardians also reviewed, discussed and signed the written versions of the care plan to ensure full transparency, he said.
Under Tennessee law, children ages 16 and older with a “serious emotional disturbance or mental illness” have the same rights as adults with respect to outpatient mental health treatment and confidential information.
“Even under this mature minor law, Centerstone advocates for parents and guardians to participate within the course of treatment for all age groups,” Mansfield said. “In addition, we support parent guardian rights to access and review all health records of their children.”
STAFF VETTING
At August’s school board meeting, some board members said they had reservations about putting people who didn’t go through the district’s hiring process in schools.
Centerstone counselors are background checked, fingerprinted and hold master’s degrees, Mansfield said. If the school system would like to do more to evaluate Centerstone’s employees, he said, the center can accommodate that.
IDEOLOGY
Some of the community members opposed to the board renewing Centerstone’s contract have said the center pushes ideological content beyond mental health.
Therapy does not promote any particular ideology, Mansfield said.
“Our mission is to provide compassionate, evidence-based mental health and substance use services to anyone in need, regardless of their individual background, identity or circumstances,” he said.
Mansfield said the only concerns he’s seen were raised at the board’s August meeting or within the media in the weeks since, but he has not received any phone calls or emails with specific concerns about items on Centerstone’s website or its staff.
If there’s specific concerns that need to be addressed, he said, he’s open to having those conversations.
One of the concerns that had been raised on social media was related to LGBTQ+ resources posted on Centerstone’s website, including a comic published by the center titled “Spark Unmasked,” which addressed matters of identity and belonging among LGBTQ+ youth.
The comic, which was available on Centerstone’s website, has since been taken down.
In response to claims that there was “inappropriate LGBTQ content” on Centerstone’s website, Mansfield said some of the center’s content is tied to past grant-funded programs. Content from programs the center no longer operates sometimes remain on the website, he said, but it is not used or distributed as part of its school-based services.
“Any inappropriate content is never shared with children, teens or families that we serve,” he said.
On Centerstone’s publications page, where the comic previously appeared, there is a link to LGBTQ+ resources at the bottom of the page. On Monday afternoon, that link led to an inactive page.
WHAT’S NEXT
On Thursday, an agreement with Centerstone will be on the school board’s agenda for the third meeting in a row.
The updated contract — added to the agenda by school board member Ben Connor, D-Chattanooga — states that Centerstone will prioritize scheduling sessions during non-instructional time, and parents must approve in writing any classes their child misses to attend counseling.
Board members will also vote Thursday on forming a review committee to score all the mental health providers’ submissions to the district’s request for proposals. Those proposals are expected to be voted on at the board’s Nov. 20 meeting.
Contact education reporter Shannon Coan at scoan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6396.