On the night of January, when the director introduced the staff of Generations Family Health Center, a non-profit healthcare group that provides services at the school, visitors looked into the zoom screen with a bright smile.
The plan was for a generation-licensed therapist to work in the space on the third floor of the school. Students can be referred by teachers and family members or come on their own, and treatment sessions are scheduled during class hours. The therapists use federal funds as needed to claim insurance based on a sliding rate scale, so there is no cost to the school and little to the family.
Then chills entered the room when board members began asking them questions. The smiles of the visitors have faded.
Do they advise students on contraception and abortion? (They don’t give medical advice, but they may discuss it when it comes out.) If the children are referred and don’t want treatment, are they forced to do it? (No) Are students exposed to ridicule and stigma by being seen by peers receiving treatment? (Hopefully not.) Can my parents get treatment without my knowledge?
Probably the answer, yes.By law, Connecticut clinicians We can offer 6 sessions of mental health treatment to minors Without parental consent in tight circumstances — If a minor seeks treatment, it is considered clinically necessary, and if notification to the parent is required, the minor is discouraged from receiving treatment. increase.
This provision is rarely used. Michael Morrill, a member of Putnam’s school board, has hosted a school-based mental health clinic for nine years and has treated hundreds of students in the nearby town of Putnam, where children without parental permission. Said he had never been treated.
But that was a big problem for Nomeferon, one of Killingly’s board members.
