For the past four years, Kerry Alonge’s son, Shawn, has met once a week with a counselor from private mental health care provider Centerstone to talk about his problems and things that would agitate him at school. The counselor taught him calming techniques to help self-regulate, Kerry Alonge said.
Having someone on site who could talk to her son about his mental health and help walk him through behavioral issues, sometimes as they were happening, was beneficial, she said.
But those sessions stopped abruptly after the Hamilton County school board voted Aug. 21 to not renew the district’s agreement with Centerstone Community Mental Health Centers to provide school-based counselors. The services, using other funding sources, came at no cost to the school system.
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Between work and school schedules, the Alonge family couldn’t make therapy outside of school hours work, Kerry Alonge said, and Shawn has been going without the services. Her son, she said, says he misses having somebody to talk to.