County officials signed a memorandum of understanding with a local school corporation that gives parents of students access to online mental health resources.

The Bartholomew County Commissioners on Monday approved a two-year pilot agreement with Flat Rock-Hawcreek School Corporation to provide free access to resources at parentguidance.org.

The county is paying for it using $15,000 of Health First Indiana funds, per the Bartholomew County Health Department’s Amanda Organist.

“It covers topics like anxiety and depression, bullying, grief and loss (and) suicide prevention,” Organist said. “Resources like this are needed locally according to Mental Health Matters.”

A 2021 Mental Health Matters survey found that 22% of local children ages five to 17 identified their mental health as fair or poor, four times higher than the national average, according to Organist.

“This will provide parents and students with some access to help with that.”

The county is paying for the access through 2026 and then Flat Rock would be responsible for funding, according to county officials.

The commissioners this past March approved a three-year agreement to provide all Bartholomew County residents access to another mental health platform called CredibleMind.

With CredibleMind, participants take short assessments and are provided more than 20,000 resources to help guide them in handling their mental health issues.

“There is a huge lack of accessible care for mental healthcare for all ages, but particularly for kids,” Commissioner Tony London observed. “…The fact that (Parent Guidance) is geared towards our younger people, that’s even more important. There just aren’t enough providers out there and they’re getting overwhelmed, so we need a little bit of everything.”
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