Free mental health care to Van-Far school district

VANDALIA (MO) — The Van-Far School District is the first to partner with the Noble Health Foundation, providing a program for all students grades 7th-12th to receive up to five free online counseling sessions with Missouri licensed counselors.

“The best way to describe it is: think of it like an emergency assistance program for teenagers. So, anything that would involve like long-term therapeutic care or psychiatric care or things like that, that’s not in their purview. But a kid that needs acute support, you know death in the family, feeling isolated, things of that nature, that’s the rollout for that,” said John Fortney, Van-Far School District Superintendent.

According to Fortney, while mental health services have been a need in schools all along, the pandemic highlighted the demand.

“I think definitely the pandemic has shined a light on mental health and the need for those kinds of supports in teenagers and in kids,” Fortney said.

https://krcgtv.com/news/local/free-mental-health-care-to-van-far-school-district-students