Pinellas County's ‘Care About Me’ program offering mental health services to hundreds of students

'Care About Me' program helps Pinellas students

FOX 13's Kailey Tracy reports.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Since its start almost a year ago, Pinellas County’s Care About Me program has served more than 1,000 residents, with about 200 of them being students at Pinellas County Schools.

Pinellas County's 'Care About Me' program.

The program connects residents who aren’t in a crisis to mental health, substance abuse, and addiction providers, streamlining the services.

What they're saying:

"It is allowing us to help families learn to navigate and get their student mental health services, and really to provide a warm handoff," said Vicki Koller, Managing Officer of School Social Work Services for Pinellas County Schools.

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"Talk to anybody in Pinellas County government, and they’ll describe me as a super fan because, as a social worker, I've been in this field for 34 years," Koller said. "I’ve been in the school system for 24 of those, and trying to find resources for families can sometimes be a struggle, and this has added such a rich resource."

Pinellas County School District.

Local perspective:

The county and the school district partnered up, offering the program in schools.

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"We've sent some of our Care About Me staff to several of the different school events to increase awareness and outreach," said Karen Yatchum, Pinellas County’s Human Services Director. "I think that training all the social workers has just gained more popularity, and I think the ease of use of the system has really helped with increased referrals from the schools," Yatchum said.

Advertisement for Pinellas County's 'Care About Me' program.

According to Yatchum, they’ve had a mix of students requesting the program and parents, teachers, and school staff referring students. They have to have the parents’ consent first, though.

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"We're able to circle back and say, ‘We connected with this youth. We connected with this family, and they're connected to services.’ So, we're really able to close that loop, and the schools didn't have that before," Yatchum said.

Big picture view:

Anyone who lives in Pinellas County can call or text 1-888-431-1998 to get connected with the program.

Portion of Pinellas County's 'Care About Me' program website.

"Behavioral health is part of health care. The more that we normalize it, the more that we encourage access when there is a need. I think it's really important," Yatchum said. "So, I think it's important to meet people early, to catch things, to work on symptoms and behavioral health as early as possible. So, early intervention is important. I think it's great that it's in the schools."

The program currently has 14 providers and is adding two more.

The Source: FOX 13's Kailey Tracy collected the information in this story.

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