Demand for mental health services is at an all-time high, and Prep has adopted a new way to provide for students this year. After several schools in the Archdiocese discovered Care Solace being used in other school districts and states, its proposal occurred quickly last year. It became less of a financial burden for schools in the Archdiocese as they According to Mr. Johnston, the counseling department chair, “It is still an expense for the school but it’s a lot less than it would have been, and all schools in the Seattle Archdiocese who want to participate can”.
Care Solace acts as a connector to mental health services and can be accessed by any Prep student or staff. The services can also be accessed by any of their immediate families and will give individuals referrals to professionals within 72 hours of inquiry. “It is an organization that connects people to services that can beyond mental health support, it does a lot more like connecting people to education Psych testing providers,” Mr. Johnston said.
The Care Solace program considers location, insurance, requested service, age, gender, background, and more when making recommendations. The most important part, however, is that Care Solace finds physicians and therapists with genuine availability, and this is uniquely critical in a mental health service. “One of the things we find with mental health is that the biggest obstacle is finding someone with availability,” Johnston said, “the demand has gone up and I don’t really know if the supply has matched that”.
Another unique aspect of Care Solace is that the program will check in with its users after making referrals to ensure that they can schedule appointments. This is another great method of combatting the lack of availability of mental health resources in society today. This accessibility is key according to Mr. Johnston: “My mantra is that therapy can be useful to anyone. We do preventative maintenance to avoid physical manifestations of illness, and, to me, it’s kind of the same thing with mental health”.
Since being established this year, Care Solace through the Archdiocese hasn’t been advertised to students much as it is meant to be a private service for Prep faculty, students, and their families. There is also some resistance by students to use mental health services according to Johnston. “We have put it out to students and parents, but I think that there could be more around the PR of it and the other part of it is that I still feel like there’s stigma we’re fighting,” said Mr. Johnston. He hopes to emphasize the organization more to the Prep community in years to come.
If you would like to be connected with any form of mental health services or counseling through Care Solace, your counselor or anyone in the counseling office is available to get you connected. You can also visit https://caresolace.com/site/archseattle to use the services in a completely anonymous way.
