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What’s available for youth mental health concerns?

Editor’s note: This is the fifth in an ongoing series about youth mental health. The series will culminate with a Screen-Free Week for the whole community May 4-10.

It may be overwhelming to figure out where to start if you’ve never sought treatment for a mental health illness before, but there are several organizations looking to help.

Whether it’s through Freeborn County, Mayo Clinic Health System, schools or other organizations that have formed to offer services, here is information about some of the resources available for youth in the area:

Freeborn County

Freeborn County’s Mental Health Center offers five therapists, most if not all who see adolescents, and more than half who see children over the age of 6, said Erin Lowe, a licensed independent clinical social worker with the county.

Lowe said if someone wants individual therapy for a child ages 6 to 18, they should call the Freeborn County Mental Health Center at 507-377-5400, and the parent would start with paperwork. She said currently the waiting list is about a month out.

The county takes most insurance types, and if a person does not have insurance, there is a sliding scale.

With individual therapy, the therapist connects one-on-one with the child without the parent in the room, Lowe said. How frequently they meet depends on the person. On average, that means every other week; however, if the therapist identifies a need for a weekly session, they would try hard to get that child in.

The county also offers case management to any child who has a diagnosis. The diagnosis would need to have been made within the last six months, or if they do not have one or their diagnosis is older than six months, they can help the child with that.

She said the purpose of case management is to help families in Freeborn County connect with services and assess whether those services are being helpful. They also help families navigate the system and find out what services may be helpful for their youth.

It is often used as a stepping stone to get people lined up with services, though there are some families that have case management for a much longer time.

This service has no cost to the families, though if the individual has insurance through the government, the county can bill that insurance.

The Mental Health Center also offers family therapy and family counseling with two therapists and one counselor for residents of Freeborn County who have a child in their home and who would like to work on relationships between family members.

Lowe said this is also a free service to residents of the county.

She also provides parent child interaction therapy for children 18 months to kindergarten, which is a therapeutic intervention to teach parents how to interact with their children to have a better relationship. Usually it results in the children listening better at the end.

Similarly, they also provide parent management training for parents of children 7 to 14, which teaches parents how to better manage their parenting so their children will listen better. This is also free for Freeborn County residents.

Lastly, she said the county offers a parenting group at 1:30 p.m. Wednesdays at the Department of Human Services building at 203 W. Clark St. where there is a different topic discussed each week.

Lowe said if a child or youth is clearly hurting and they are going to hurt themselves or they are going to hurt someone else, caregivers should take their child into the emergency room or call 911 if the parent does not feel safe enough transporting the child on their own.

She also emphasized parents of children with mental health concerns to seek support for themselves as they work with their children.

Horizon Homes Inc. South Central Mobile Crisis Team

Providing services to Freeborn County youth since 2015, Horizon Homes has the South Central Mobile Crisis Team, which offers “immediate, compassionate support to individuals experiencing mental health or emotional challenges,” said Abby Malterer and Tina Olson, mental health professionals with the organization. Services also include crisis assessment and intervention, problem-solving and coping strategies, referrals to appropriate local resources, family education and support, crisis prevention planning and continued follow-up care.

They said they serve both youth and adults facing many concerns, such as overwhelming stress, thoughts of self-harm or harm to others, difficulty managing daily tasks, significant changes in mood, anxiety and motivation, as well as experiences of hallucinations, delusions or issues related to substance use.

The crisis team, which is made up of mental health practitioners, is available 24/7 and provides services not only in Freeborn County, but Blue Earth, Brown, Faribault, Le Sueur, Nicollet, Rice, Sibley and Watonwan counties.

The women said on average the team stays with the individual for an average of an hour to an hour and a half, depending on the person’s needs. They also set up follow-up visits to continue to work on interventions, resources and referrals. Through their mobile assessment, they can refer to rapid access psychiatry, provide referrals for therapy, case management and connect with resources for partial hospitalization programming if needed.

People should go to the emergency room or call law enforcement for immediate safety concerns, including thoughts of wanting to harm themselves or others with an immediate plan and intent. For anything else, they are encouraged to call their line or mobile crisis team at 877-399-3040 and they can help people connect with resources.

While their crisis residential program Horizon Homes offers in Mankato is for 18 and older, their mobile team is able to help with referrals for youth to children’s crisis residential facilities if that level of care is needed, they said.

More about the mobile crisis team can be found at https://www.horizonhomes.org/south-central-mobile-crisis-team/.

Independent Management Services

Independent Management Services, which is based in Austin, also provides services for youth in Freeborn County.

According to its website, therapists provide individual, family and group psychotherapy for all ages and a variety of diagnoses, including anxiety, depression, Schizophrenia, Bi-Polar Disorder, Oppositional Defiance Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder and others.

It also offers Children’s Therapeutic Supports and Services.

It can be reached at 507-437-6389 during business hours.

Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea

A communications representative with Mayo Clinic Health System referred people to the Albert Lea location website: https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/locations/albert-lea/services-and-treatments/psychiatry-and-psychology.

The website states it has specialists who provide assessment and care to adults, teenagers and children who have mental, addictive and emotional disorders.

Care includes counseling and treatment of mental conditions such as mood disorders, anxiety and dependency.

Albert Lea Area Schools

Chris Dibble, principal of Albert Lea High School, said the high school has three school counselors and four school social workers, and the school’s full staff is trained in identifying signs of struggle and trauma in student behaviors and is able to make referrals to the school social work team.

At Southwest Middle School, there are two social workers and a counselor. The staff is also trained in identifying signs of struggle and trauma and can make referrals as needed.

He said throughout the year during their advisory period, students and their advisory teachers circle up to talk about different social and emotional topics.

Each week, staff teams meet and a social worker or counselor is present, where they can discuss any students who may be struggling mentally or who need a check-in.

They also have a student support team that meets once a week, which includes the school social workers, the counselor, dean of students, the MTSS coordinator and due process lead who discuss any students who have been referred. They then come up with a plan to address with the students, whether that be weekly meetings, a lunch group with the counselor or a lunch circle with a social worker.

Other resources

Stellar Wellness Counseling in Skyline Plaza offers professional counseling services in Albert Lea and Owatonna, dedicated to promoting mental well-being and providing support for individuals and families, according to the company’s website.

The team assists with anger management, self-esteem and body image, coping skills, resilience, emotional regulation, behavioral issues, anxiety, stress management and more for youth and teens.

When discussing needs for mental health services for youth, Melanie Sanchez, a therapist at Stellar Wellness, said in the future, she hopes to arrange a support group of some form that is targeted toward youth and that would last six to eight sessions.

While she acknowledged that there are options for therapy and services in the community to address youth mental health, there is a need for more, as some places have a longer wait times of more than three months.

“More resources would be great,” she said.