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Contact: Gail Donovan
Donovan Communications
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BROOKLYN CAREWORKS/MS 88 DISCUSS NEED
FOR FUNDING OF SCHOOL-BASED MENTAL HEALTH PROGRAMS

BROOKLYN, NY—January 7, 2008—Members of the management team from Brooklyn CareWorks and MS 88, met recently with Assemblyman Jim Brennan, and representatives from the City’s Department of Education and state and local mental health agencies to discuss the need to fund mental health programs in the public schools.

“Brooklyn CareWorks began placing therapists in elementary, middle, and high schools in the New York City Public Schools more than 25 years ago,” said Dr. Pamela Straker, president and CEO of Brooklyn CareWorks. “During that time, we’ve been able to help thousands of children overcome their personal and school-related problems by providing them with the tools they need to thrive and succeed.”

Dr. Straker explained that these programs, however, are considered satellites of community-based mental health clinics and required to collect fees for services just as any health clinic would. This means mental health agencies like Brooklyn CareWorks run deficits when operating on-site school programs if children don’t have Medicaid or another health insurance; they have private insurance but it doesn’t cover the full cost of treatment; or when parents don’t provide the documentation required by insurance providers. The New York City Department of Education, New York State Office of Mental Health, and New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene do not fund this school-based mental health program.

“Government funds that made school-based programs economically possible for many years were cut several years ago, and many agencies like ours have been struggling to make up the funding difference since then by shifting resources and downsizing programs,” Dr. Straker said. “Additionally, some of the other support services provided by our on-site therapists, such as teacher consultations, can’t be billed to insurance carriers.”

Ailene Mitchell, principal of Brooklyn’s MS 88, which has nearly 1,000 students, praised the services that Brooklyn CareWorks offers students in her school and said she would be willing to seek grants and identify school resources to enable the agency’s three therapists to continue operating on-site at the public middle school.

“I have a community of adolescents who really need these services,” Ms. Mitchell said. “I want to keep these services. We have really wonderful people here.”

Josephine M. Santarpia, who has been the guidance counselor at MS 88 since 1980, said to maintain Brooklyn CareWorks’ therapists in the school she would work with the agency’s staff to ensure that uninsured students sign up for health insurance through state-run programs, and that those with insurance provide the proper documentation when seeing a therapist. Ms. Santarpia pointed out that mental health services are more critical today than ever because the issues facing children today are more serious than they were when she first became a counselor over 30 years ago.

Ms. Santarpia said the conditions counselors see today in the City’s public schools include: self-cutting, which is a sign of physical or sexual abuse and depression; suicidal thoughts; trauma from witnessing violence or sexual abuse or harassment, or having a family member who suffered a violent death; psychological abuse; children without parents who are in foster care; and gang-type behavior. Also cultural differences affect the well-being of children if parents are from countries with cultures that don’t acknowledge mental health problems and aren’t open to counseling.

“The children act out in class because they are depressed and angry,” Ms. Santarpia said. “They say, ‘I want to hurt him because I am hurting.’ A lot of kids need medication. The parents are working and aren’t in the house. The kids find structure in this school because it’s strict, but they also feel love here from their teachers and other adults.”

Anita Appel, LCSW, director for the New York City Field Office of the New York State Office of Mental Health, said, “This was a very positive problem-solving meeting to talk about a way to continue to provide a much needed service in the schools that is financially solvent for the agency. I feel very strongly in providing services to children in schools where they are, and want to support the agency. This meeting provided many options to creatively problem-solve.”

Founded in 1907, Brooklyn CareWorks (formerly Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers) offers borough-wide mental health services to Brooklyn’s most vulnerable residents through its clinics in Bushwick, Canarsie, Flatbush-Sheepshead Bay, Williamsburg-Greenpoint, and downtown Brooklyn, programs on-site in the borough’s public schools, an outpatient drug and alcohol treatment program, a prevention program serving at-risk children and their families and senior programs. Thousands of adults, seniors, children and their families are helped during more than 60,000 visits to these programs each year. More information about Brooklyn CareWorks’ programs is available
at www.brooklyncareworks.org.