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Mental health service to aid at-risk youth in Washington County

Facility expands to Vincent area

Photo by Michael Kelly Marietta City Schools board of education vice president Russ Garrison talks with Reach staff members, from left to right, case manager Elizabeth Tokie, behavior specialist Lisa Campbell and tutor Trace Knotts at an open house for the new facility in Barlow on Thursday afternoon.

BARLOW — Some students in Washington County schools need specialized help and opportunities that teachers in large classrooms can’t provide. A Hopewell Health Centers program, Reach youth treatment centers, has set up a new facility in Barlow to help give those students a better chance at success.

The building, next to Seaman’s General Store on Ohio 550, was crowded with leaders of county organizations Thursday afternoon as Reach held an open house to show off the new operation and its staff and programs.

Assistant director Jamie Tuttle said the program, headquartered in Athens County, already had several student clients from Washington County and decided to open a center that would provide easier access for its existing clients and new ones.

“We have an agreement with the Educational Service Center, and we already have an established relationship with the schools,” he said. “We’re here to serve the children of Washington County.”

The program is tailored to children who have behavioral challenges in school. The students instead attend a small class at the Reach center, receiving intensive attention from behavioral specialists, with a focus on teaching students to manage their reactions.

Photo by Michael Kelly Annette Smeeks, office manager for the newly opened Washington County site for Reach youth treatment centers, checks brochures in the reception area of the site during an open house Thursday afternoon. The new facility is near the intersection of Ohio 550 and Ohio 339 in Barlow.

“The idea is to transition them back to school. We’re not academically centered, we’re behavioral,” Tuttle said. “They just need to know they’re not weird, they just need to learn to deal with that one thing that’s giving them trouble, whether it’s anger, impulsiveness… they’re all fighting a stereotype and have a bad self-image, because that’s what they’ve been hearing from others.”

Mike Wells, a behavior specialist who shares classroom instruction with colleague Grayson Allen, overseeing 16 students in their early teens, said it’s a chance to get to know the students individually and determine what sets them off and how they react to different environmental influences, like noises, and situations.

“You learn what triggers each individual, you get to know your class and you see the signs,” he said.

Allen said the class is designed for predictability and stability.

“There’s a schedule, and the kids know in advance what’s going to happen every day. One day we might have anger management, another we might have classroom clean-up to impress on them the need for order, and another we might cover impulse control,” Allen said. “The goal is to get them toward independence, to get them ready to return to a normal school setting, to reinforce that they have value.”

Photo by Michael Kelly LaTicia Jeffers, marketing communications director for Natural Freedom, an animal therapy wellness center, sits with Star, an eight-week old Golden Retriever puppy and therapy dog in training, in one of the rooms at the newly opened Reach youth treatment center site in Barlow on Thursday during an open house. Equine therapy will be part of the resources used by Reach.

Tuttle said each child is different and responds differently to the program, so students could be in it for anywhere from several weeks to several months. Although academic progress is secondary to teaching the students to manage their own behaviors, the classes get about an hour a day of academic instruction with materials provided by the schools.

In addition to the classroom setting, Reach also has a full-time nurse to address any medical needs, case managers, administrators and, through contract, an equine and animal therapist and a music therapy group. LaTicia Jeffers, the marketing and communications director for Natural Freedom Wellness Center, brought a puppy in training as a therapy dog to the open house. She noted that the Barlow Fairgrounds, where Natural Freedom’s horses will be, is a short walk away from the Reach center.

“The kids are always excited to work with the horses,” she said.

Ernie Cornell, the Reach site manager, said the program began getting Washington County referrals more than two years ago and began discussing the option of opening a new center in 2017. The center opened Oct. 22 and already has 19 student clients, he said.

“There are a lot of kids who need help with a wide range of needs, and these are not because of poor choices that they’ve made,” he said.

Photo by Michael Kelly Reach, a youth treatment center operated by Hopewell Health Centers, held an open house at its newly completed Washington County site in Barlow on Thursday afternoon.

With the new facility, he said, Reach can accommodate more than 100 children.

“The schools ask us, ‘Can you take this kid?’ and I say, ‘That’s what we do,'” he said. “To see these kids make strides, there’s nothing like it. Two words is all I need to hear from them: ‘I’m trying.’ That’s what I care about.”

Less than a mile away is the Warren high school-middle school complex. High school principal Ryan Lemley said the new resource is welcome.

“We’re super excited about this, and we’re just looking forward to fostering that partnership to help these kids,” he said.

Lemley said the school provides tutoring and other academic assistance to students in the Reach program, in addition to the materials provided for their classroom sessions.

“We’re not concerned about that, they’ll stay pretty well in tune academically,” he said. “We’re just excited for this opportunity.”

***

Reach Youth Treatment Center

* Location: Ohio 550 and 339, Barlow

* Staff: 12

* Services: Behavioral health, social work and counseling for children

Source: Reach

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