CINCINNATI — For more than 150 years, The Children’s Home in Cincinnati has provided educational and therapeutic services to children and their families in need. Not only are they providing those services at their facility, but at the schools as well. 

What You Need To Know

  • Children's Home of Cincinnati is offering its therapy services in the schools

  • Instead of having to set up an appointment at the facility, children can do their sessions during the school day

  • It's helping students at Monfort Heights Elementary like Zoey Powell

  • Through this collaboration with the schools, the Children's Home hopes it will help break barriers for children and their families

Colleen Culley is the Children’s Home mental health therapist. For nearly three years she has helped provide resources to help children improve their well-being. It’s a profession she chose to help others.

“As I came about my own challenges with mental health, and I had loved ones experiencing mental health, I realized that I really wanted to be that one of one support person for people,” said Culley. 

Culley interacts with several clients throughout her day. She stays busy from the time she gets in to work to the time she leaves. 

“I usually come in around 7:45 a.m. and prep my sessions,” she said. “Sometimes I have a morning meeting and then I start sessions about 9 a.m. and they just keep going until the end of the school day.”

At the start of each session, Culley does an emotional assessment with client Zoey Powell and her mom. That’s because she is working with her to help better manage her anger. 

“Today we are illustrating how a situation in which Zoey might feel angry at home and how mom might respond to her and try to help her calm down,” she said. 

Activities like these help Zoey better understand how to manage her emotions. This is just one of the countless ways she says she is learning how to improve her mental health. 

“You can use a bunch of strategies to calm down and it’s okay to be mad or sad or just scared,” she said. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 20% of youth in the United States right now are dealing with a mental, emotional, or behavior health condition.

Research done by the National Center for Education Statistics found that only 38% of public schools provide treatment to students with mental health disorders. That’s why the Children’s Home hopes this partnership with the schools will help eliminate barriers for families and provide better access to children in need. 

“It also gives me the opportunity to collaborate with the teachers and the Dean of Students and things like that to kind of support the student in an even bigger way,” she said. 

While insurance picks up most of the costs, some school districts also help pick up the tab to help pay for the services. 

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