Cape Girardeau Public Schools secures grant to boost mental health support, eliminate counseling waitlists

The Cape Girardeau Public Schools Foundation recently received the full amount requested for a grant that will support the district's mental health initiatives.

The foundation was awarded $22,975 from the Community Foundation of the Ozarks Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation Regional Grantmaking program. Foundation executive director Amy McDonald, who was aided in writing the grant by district assistant superintendent of Special Services Mandy Keys, expressed her excitement for receiving the grant and what it can do to help the school district.

"It's an amazing blessing," McDonald said. "I love my partnership with the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. We've partnered with them, and I've received several grants from them, and this is just such a blessing. The maximum you could ask for was $25,000 and I asked for $22,975. That was the budget I came up with, and we received full funding."

McDonald said the district currently has a waiting list for counseling services. The grant funds will eliminate the waitlist by allowing the district to provide counseling services during the summer, which was previously unavailable. Community Counseling Center and Great Oak Counseling will offer additional counseling services.

"I hope this grant allows us to get rid of that waitlist, or at least minimize it, and it'll offer a continuity with our current counselor that's on staff, so that she can see students during the summer," McDonald said.

In addition, some of the funds will go toward Hope Squad resources that aim to teach students about peer-to-peer communication regarding mental health and how to address and share that information with an adult. McDonald said she hopes to have two Hope Squad speakers and trainers initially visit Terry W. Kitchen Junior High School. The Hope Squad is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to "elevating mental well-being through peer-to-peer suicide prevention programming."

The district will also offer "Family Mental Health Evening Events" to educate parents and children on the current state of mental health, particularly in the Cape Girardeau Area, as well as services and resources available to help. Topics include instruction on various mental health diagnoses in parent-friendly verbiage, mindfulness activities for parents and students and advocacy for mental health support. Free transportation is also being offered to and from counseling sessions on an as-needed basis, as well as to the evening events.

"It touches everybody," McDonald said. "Everybody has had, or is going through, some mental health issues. (It's important) just to help these students. Some of our students have some severe stuff going on at home, and just having the counseling available to them and not being on a waitlist (is crucial). Because when you're at your lowest of lows, you don't want to be on a waitlist. So I am hoping that this truly does help fulfill a need within the district."

McDonald said she has experienced what it's like to have someone close to her die by suicide, and emphasized the worth of putting extra funds into helping curb the issue of youth suicide, which is the No. 2 cause of death in youth aged 10 through 24, according to a December 2023 study by the Jed Foundation.

"I have had friends that have committed suicide from college," McDonald said, "and if this grant helps one kid, it is totally worth it."