Free School Mental Health Support for Education: Introduction to Call-Up Program

Consultation Access Link Line to Utah Psychiatry (CALL-UP) is a free consultation service available to all Utah public schools. The consult service is designed to:

1. Optimize primary care providers’ ability and confidence to diagnose and treat mild to moderate mental health issues;
2. Improve quality of care and health outcomes for patients by affording early interventions;
3. Promote and improve mental health and physical health integration; and
4. Ensure appropriate referrals for individuals with serious behavioral health concerns.

Our conversation covers the services available, how to access the Call-up line, and ways to help improve student mental health.

Visit the Call-Up website: https://healthcare.utah.edu/hmhi/programs/call-up

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The Utah Association of Public Charter Schools is a non-profit organization that promotes excellence in Utah's public charter schools through advocacy, training, and technical support. Our podcast is produced, hosted, and edited by Gina James. Original music was composed by James Valentine.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome to Charter School Conversations, a podcast for the Utah Charter School community. I'm your host, Gina James, with the Utah Association of Public Charter Schools. We'll do a little board training, have conversations with charter school leaders, and touch on issues that affect us all. I hope you enjoy today's conversation. So today I want to welcome Chelsea Champi, who is a licensed clinical social worker, and Dr. Christy Kleinschmidt, who are going to talk to us today about the Call-Up program. So let's just jump right in. All right. So Chelsea, what is the Call-Up program?

SPEAKER_02 0:54

So first off, thank you for having us. We are excited to share this resource, which is what Call-Up is. It's a resource that's recently been expanded for school professionals. So we are a consultation line staffed by a team of child and adolescent psychiatrists, as well as myself as an LCSW, and I've been in schools the last 10 years providing both mental health and behavioral health supports for students. But we're part of a national group of pediatric mental health care access programs. They're called PMHCAs. And the ultimate goal is to increase workforce capacity for professionals directly working with youth mental health and behavioral health needs. So our job is to provide the goal of same-day consultations and support through de-identified student mental health cases. And that can include navigating your in-house supports for student mental health concerns, outside treatment options and different resources, and what referral pathways based on what that student might need.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

It is a lot. And does call-up services have anything else outside of their consultation line? Do they do services? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

So the consult line is the biggest part of our program, but we also have our care coordinator, and that's an amazing resource to also highlight. So when a consultation comes in, again, these are de-identified student cases, so they are FERPA compliant. So if you are struggling, you know, hey, I have a student with really high anxiety that's not coming to school regularly, and we've tried all the things we can think of and we're not sure what to do next. You can submit that consultation in to us, and our job will be to help identify again those in-house supports and maybe come up with new ideas that you haven't tried or tweaking some strategies to see if you can increase that student's attendance. But as part of that, let's say the parents saying, I know they need outside services, but I'm not sure how to access those, or we can refer with uh parent permission. That's the only direct part of our program. Everything else is geared towards the professional supporting the student, but our care coordinator with permission can reach out to the families and help them navigate outside resources. Um, so let's say that student needs to get into a day treatment, she can support and help that family navigate their insurance and what programs are available in the community. We also have our echo sessions, um, and those are ongoing training opportunities that we offer actually every Thursday from 12 to one. And we alternate between a school focus where the whole part of that is to identify and gain more tools and supports for school specific mental and behavioral health. So the primary audience we've been receiving is a lot of school counselors, social workers, administrators have come on. But we also have our child and adolescent psychiatry echoes. Those are really geared more towards the medical side since our consult line is also available for primary care physicians. Um, but anyone can join either side. It's been really cool to see like school nurses pop into our uh child and adolescent psychiatry side to really be able to navigate what they can do in their capacity to support uh student mental health needs as well.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

That's such a broad swath of services that are so needed to be. That's amazing. That's right. So, Dr. Kleinschemman, I want to ask you, Christy, as a child um psychiatrist, talk to me a little bit about why these supports in this program is so needed. What's happening to our kids that they need so much mental support? I mean, how how how can we help them?

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think, you know, all of us who work with kids really know that there is so much unmet need for mental health services for children and adolescents. I think just, I mean, still about 40% of kids who have identified mental health concerns actually receive that the help that they need. And so, you know, some of it is just, you know, under recognition, some of it is stigma in trying to seek help. A lot of it is, I think, just trying to navigate through the mental health system in general, right? Like it's really hard to know who do I take my kid to go, like for a parent, like who do I take my kid to go see? Like, where do I find these services? Is it covered by my insurance? When do I find the time to go in and see them? And schools who get to work with our kids every single day and sort of are the first-line contacts for these families, but also I think the first sometimes to identify some concerns that pop up as learning difficulties or behavioral difficulties in school or just kids not meeting their full potential. I think they're really prime to help just increase the supports at that initial contact. Um, the other piece, right, that um, you know, most people actually get their mental health care through their primary care clinicians. And so the other arm of the service that Chelsea mentioned is that we do do consultations with primary care folks out in the community as well. And so for the school clinicians to know, you can also let families know that like you can take your kid to a pediatrician or their family practice doc, and that doctor can give us a call and talk with the child psychiatrist specifically about what maybe they could be doing differently to help support these kids as well. So we're really trying to get out their first, you know, first point of contact, whether it's the school or even their like well child check with their primary care doc when they first identify some of these issues, just to try to get earlier intervention and recognition. So we don't have kids just continue to worsen and worsen and worsen without care.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Right. Cause it's important to get that care as soon as possible, right? To to get a treatment plan in place.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

And just to prevent suffering. Totally. Yes. And I mean, I mean, Chelsea mentioned this too, but I mean, we're really not encouraging, you know, we're not in any way, shape, or form like telling people to do mental health treatment in schools that's outside of their scope of practice, right? It really is within ways to support kids do better in school, like how can we better help you within your scope of practice, or can we connect this family to our care coordinators so they can get more resources outside of school? Or can we help the family really connect with their primary care doc just to get some different approaches for their care for their kids too?

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Well, that's a great point. That brings me to the question then. Okay, so how do school staff use this hotline? Like you kind of gave an example, Chelsea, you know, of a situation that might happen. So what does that really look like? And when should they call about a student? Like, you know, someone might be a little hesitant, like, well, we'll try these interventions or we'll try something, but but what's really, you know, what's your advice to the people in the frontline at the school seeing some of these things?

SPEAKER_02 7:44

Yeah. Um, really, and again, it's a really big scope. It's kind of like our thing. We're just a really big scope. Anytime you want to talk um or ask a question about a mental health concern, um, and you want to talk with, I mean, I I look at this as like a phone, uh, phone a friend where you can call and talk to a child and adolescent psychiatrist or an LCSW to be able to just answer any question that you have or to really reflect on a specific student. We are available and free. Um, just I don't know if we shared that earlier. We're also free. I was gonna say, how much is this cost?

SPEAKER_01 8:20

There's always a cost, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:22

Yeah, so thanks to state and federal funding, uh, the school expansion specifically was under a federal grant that we received and we were allowed to expand into schools. Um, but we are a free resource. So it's it doesn't cost to call. You can call us every day if you wanted to. Um, we're just we want to know, we want people to know that we're an available resource that's that's there. So we do have two options where you can contact us. We kind of have the general when you think of a consult line. We have a phone line. Um, and what that does is we are housed at the University of Utah. So when you call our line, you will be routed into their contact to the University of Utah's contact center, um, where they'll help fill out the consult information. They'll ask you the questions that we need to gather. And then they submit it to our program where we will then reach back out. So we are not sitting on the other line ready to answer right away, um, which is where we try to do same-day consultations, if not within 24 hours. But you can call if that's more comfortable for you. But the other piece that we really have been advertising and trying to share with the community is we have an online platform that allows you to create a free account. It's free, it's easy, it takes less than five minutes. But what this does is it allows you to go in and submit the consult information at your convenience. So our line is open Monday through Friday, 9 to 5. But I know in my own experience, I'm about to go to bed and I'm just like, oh, I'm so worried about this kid, or I'm I'm curious. I have these, you know, these thoughts are running through my head. You can send us a quick submission at whenever you go to bed. I mean, sometimes 2 a.m., I guess, and we will be able to answer that the next day. Um, and you can know that there's support that's going to be available for us just to be able to try and talk through what you can do to support that student situation. Um, the other really great thing about our online platform is we do have asynchronous messaging available. So if it is very hard for you to get onto the phone during the day, we can kind of chat back and forth on our platform, um, which allows you to be able to go back and check on the, you know, work with a student or handle a situation and then come back and see if that answer um has been given yet. And we can continue that conversation over the course of multiple messages. It's not just a one and done.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Sure. So is that you say when it's an online platform, is it an app or is it like a website that you would go to and log into?

SPEAKER_02 10:46

It is a website, um, and we'll be sending, I know you guys will be sending out some more information on how to get access to that as well.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Yes, all the links, um flyers for your information and links to the online platform, links to information about the program will be included in the information that goes out um with this recording.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

So you mind, Gina. I just want to I want to put just a plug-in, you know, we are also here just to help support staff in general. So even if it's not a student necessarily, but just oh my gosh, I just can't like manage this specific like trend I'm seeing, or if you know, so so I think it doesn't, I mean, we talk about it as a consultation for a student, but we're also happy to talk through just like issues that that people might be facing that is is more like a trend or just a general question. Um, so it doesn't have to be completely tied to just one student issue either.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

Sure. Well, that's super helpful because you know, certainly we want to make sure that the adults are taken care of as well as the students so that everybody can be functioning at their best and you know in school for academic success, but also just success in life, get everybody set up for a good life. Absolutely. I appreciate that. Uh so talk to me about how the Safe UT app um works in conjunction with Call-Up.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Yeah, so Safe UT, right, is is run through the state and um is is separate from Call-P, even though they're both kind of administered through the University of Utah. So we don't directly connect with Safe UT. However, I know Safe UT does loop back with school personnel, and we are more than happy to have those school contacts give us a call or a consult with any of those issues that they're that are brought to them through Safe UT, we're happy to help talk through that. Um, we don't get notified through Safe UT specifically. So we don't know, like we won't know that that student had been flagged. But if the school um reaches out to us, like that is such a great resource that we can provide as well to just help support these um school personnel that are just kind of, you know, kind of I I mean, I think often operating kind of individually in their school to try to hear some of these issues that come up. Go ahead, Chelsea, if I missed anything.

SPEAKER_02 13:03

No, I just as someone who's been an administrator of the safe UT of my school, sometimes you get, you know, you're you get the text message at 7 a.m. when the line comes in and you go, Oh, I have to address this right away when I get to school. And maybe your your brain starts spinning of what do I need to do? What's my next step? Um, and we're just a quick phone call away to be able to work through some of those problem solve with you, um, identify some next best steps to support and again connect with resources if that's what's necessary.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

Well, that's perfect. That that really works in in all all ways, right, to support our students because some of those safe you tea things, my understanding is can come from a student, you know, reported one student seeing something, going to the adult, and the adult who may or may not have that training to go, oh, these are the options of treatment or not not treatment, but these are the options of dealing with that situation or trying to help that student. And so to have you guys as a resource to go, okay, here's the situation, now help us deal with that, it really does kind of close that circle on making sure that student gets what they need.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

Yeah, I know with Safe UT, they're trying to launch and a lot of education still happening around it, um, but they're trying to launch this return to learn where if a student is seen in an emergency room for a mental health crisis or suicidal ideation, self-harm concerns, and they're discharged, schools may be getting notifications that that's happening. You might already be getting notifications and getting a re-entry plan. Maybe a school's not familiar with how to do that or the best practices. They can give us a call and we can walk them through that scenario of that student again. It's de-identified. So we can be able to really individually identify maybe what some supports could be for that student as they're coming back into school after a situation like that.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

Well, and I think that's important that you keep mentioning that it's not hitting any FERPA laws, it's just here's the situation. What is the standard of care to take care of someone in that crisis moment or in that situation? And I think that's great. Yeah, it it makes it just a lot more available. What else can we do to best support mental health in our schools? Just some final tips and tricks and thoughts.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

Right. We're gonna solve it all right here, right now.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

Um, a couple points come to my mind when I think about this, and especially with my background of being in schools, um, and the audience that this is geared towards as we share this information, is understanding how school climate and culture can really support or worsen student mental health. And I'm not talking about those specific kids that necessarily have an identified mental health diagnosis or concern, but for all students, we all have mental health. And so, really being mindful of how does it feel to be a student in your school and being willing to engage in those hard conversations about what needs to be addressed or changed. Um, and the other thing I really think about is that reminder of you don't have to do this alone. This is really big work. And we know when all resources come together to support a child or a family that they function better. They have better overall behavioral health outcomes. We're not just talking about the mental and emotional health, but physical health as well. And so making sure that we're involving parents and guardians, your school staff, um, community supports and resources. And then just remembering that call-ups here to help you support the students or the situations that you're seeing. Um, we want to help you navigate that and just be that other support to help with these concerns.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

That's fantastic. Um, Christy, do you have anything to add to that?

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Yeah, I mean, I think Chelsea spoke really well about I think, you know, she also mentioned sort of physical health. And I think just, you know, remembering that a lot of mental illness is kind of silently suffered initially. And so making sure that we're getting kids in to see their pediatricians or their family practice doctors yearly to get their well-child exams and to get screenings done, because a lot of times we're not picking up, especially in anxiety or like inattentive ADHD, until it's gotten pretty far down. And so, you know, screenings and then just being open and honest and talking about mental health issues. So it doesn't feel like it's this like stigmatized thing that we don't talk about, but it's just this um brain disorder that happens to lots and lots of kids, and it's nothing scary to talk about. We have lots of great treatments and approaches that we can do to help kids succeed, regardless of what's going on with them.

SPEAKER_01 17:38

I think that's a great reminder. And it seems like that within our state in Utah, and especially with the um Huntsman Mental Health Institute opening that and bringing in some of these federal resources, there's going to be a lot more supports for our students. You know, we have the Safe UT app that helps in a way. And then I really appreciate this call-up program to help, you know, those other adults in the building kind of know where do we go from here? Like, how are we navigating these other situations? So that's super helpful. Is there anything I missed about the program that we need to touch on?

SPEAKER_02 18:15

No, I don't think so. We're we're just ready to help you. So we're available. Um, we're open through the summer. So if teams are starting to get together, especially if there's administrators listening in and you're wanting to know what I can do like to kind of get involved with this program, we're happy to talk as well. Um, one of the things that I've been talking to a lot of schools about is if you have like an MTSS meeting or a child study team, that's what we used to call it, um, you can add us systemically just into when there's a concern coming up that a student might need higher needs. You can just use us as a regular ongoing resource so that we're not scary and we're just able to be used as needed. Um, but we're happy to answer any questions. You're welcome to give us a call or email us in the information that'll be provided.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

And this is literally our job and we love it. And so we love when people use us. So don't, you know, people say, oh, I don't want to bug you, or oh, I'm not sure if that's the right question. We will help you regardless, and we love to be used. Um, the more we're utilized, the better we can um change and you know grow our services to even address more needs in the community.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

Well, that's perfect because I think there is sometimes that, yeah, I don't want to bother anyone. We can take care of this ourselves, where it's like, no, this is what we're here for. Like we are here to do this. So we will help you do your job. It's great. Unfortunately. Unfortunately, right? Because there's there's enough issues, I think, that that will take that time. But again, we're just trying to support these kiddos that might have some issues or other adults in the building. So I really appreciate that. All right. Well, thank you guys so much for your time. We'll get this information out to our schools, and um, and hopefully you'll get the calls that you need to help support our students. Thank you so much. Thanks so much. Thanks. Thanks for listening in today. The Utah Association of Public Charter Schools is a nonprofit organization that provides training, advocacy, and technical support to promote excellence in Utah's public charter schools. Learn more about us on our website at utahcharters.org.