Cheboygan Intermediate Schools will soon be opening a behavior health counseling services office in its building through Thunder Bay Community Health Services. Cheboygan County Commissioner John Wallace recently reported to his fellow board members that he had attended a Youth Task Force meeting in late February and the new Cheboygan Intermediate Schools clinic was discussed. “This is made up of all kinds of people and persuasions in the community, education, mental health, everything,” said Wallace. “But they are going to put a behavior health counseling service clinic in Cheboygan Schools, patterned on the one that has been successful in Onaway.” The clinic will offer behavioral health counseling services including mental health screenings for depression, anxiety and other symptoms, comprehensive behavioral health assessments, crisis interventions and case management. It will also offer individual and family counseling, prevention, intervention and treatment and help students enroll for assistance for Medicaid and other health insurance programs. Wallace said he believes it won’t be long before all of the schools in the county offer similar services to help students. The behavior health counseling services were made available at the school beginning March 11. To receive services, students may be referred by a parent, teacher or school official, or they may refer themselves based on relaying their needs to a school-based counselor. When students have appointments at the clinic, they may be escorted to and from these appointments by school-based health center staff, depending on their age or condition. Appointments are encouraged, but students are also able to be seen on a walk-in basis. Diana Lissfelt will be providing behavior health counseling as well as outreach services in the clinic to help support and address the needs of student and families. Lissfelt graduated from the University of Michigan with a master’s degree in social work and has achieved an additional 2,000 hours of supervised post-graduate work and Michigan Certification Board of Addiction Professions, MCBAP, as well as Certified Advanced Alcohol and Drug Counselor, CAADC, status. Doctor Steven Meno, director of Behavior Health Services for Thunder Bay Community Health Services will provide clinical services and serves as clinical supervisor of the behavior health consultants. Meno graduated from the University of Detroit with a doctorate degree in clinical psychology and is a member of the American Psychological Association and the American Association of Sociology. He is also recognized by the National Register of Health Service Psychologists, according to a fact sheet distributed by Thunder Bay Community Health Services. No student will be denied access to any service provided by the clinic due to the inability to pay. Thunder Bay provides assistance with enrollment for Medicaid or other health insurance programs. Discounts for services will be made available to the students for as low as $10 per visit for those who qualify based on family size and income. This information can be obtained from school-based staff. Because it is a health-care center, there may be a charge depending on the services provided to the students. Whenever it is available, the student’s insurance will be billed. Like many health care services and clinics, the confidentiality between the student, parents and staff of the clinic is assured. The students are encouraged to involve their parents in their health care decisions and parental consent will be needed for all non-confidential services. Thunder Bay Community Health Services states it feels that the purpose of the school-based clinic is to help reduce the high-risk behaviors some students exhibit, and it is important for the students to feel they have a confidential relationship with their counselor. Wallace said it looks like this new clinic will be a good thing for the school. He said the clinic in the Onaway school has been successful. “They are revisiting problems they have had before,” said Wallace. “Remember when they used to have a school nurse and they had a school counselor? This is all kind of coming together right now.”
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