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Partnership expands mental health resources for schools

For Immediate Release Mar 8, 2018

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana University’s Indiana School Mental Health Initiative has partnered with The Lutheran Foundation to provide online resources to support schools and community partners as they address students’ social, emotional, behavioral and mental health needs. 

The Lutheran Foundation’s statewide LookUp Indiana website provides information along with a resource directory of mental health provider agencies searchable by name, city or ZIP code.  The Indiana School Mental Health Initiative has worked with the foundation to design one aspect of the website that focuses on school-age issues. The LookUp website offers educational information in the form of videos, articles, resources and talking points.

Indiana School Mental Health Initiative logo

“The best place to proactively address the social, emotional and mental health of our children and youth is through our schools,” said Christy Gauss, school mental health facilitator with the Indiana School Mental Health Initiative. ”We also now know through educational neuroscience research that our students’ social and emotional development is essential to promoting their cognitive and academic development.”

Since 2017, the Indiana School Mental Health Initiative has provided training and resources to school personnel focusing on the social, emotional, behavioral and mental health needs of Indiana’s students. The initiative encourages a local Systems of Care approach, in which schools collaborate with local community stakeholders, including youth, agency partners and families, to collectively define challenges and provide relevant and appropriate options around prevention, intervention and service options.

About the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community

The Indiana School Mental Health Initiative is at the Indiana Resource Center for Autism, one of six centers within the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community. The institute, an Indiana University research center, works to put good ideas into everyday practice in schools and community settings to improve choices and quality of life for people with disabilities and their families through research, education and service.

About LookUp

In 2016, The Lutheran Foundation launched LookUp, a website-based initiative designed to provide mental and behavioral health information, and reduce the stigma associated with these serious health issues. Visitors can search for providers throughout Indiana, read information, browse recent news and blog posts, check for upcoming events and find 24/7 help. By connecting those touched by mental and behavioral health issues with life-changing resources, Look Up serves as a statewide clearinghouse delivering community-wide hope and healing.

Media Contact

Indiana Institute on Disability and Community

Joel Fosha

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