Supporting the Mental Health of Students. Because you matter.

Our Mission

Our community partnerships will promote staff awareness and increase understanding of mental health supports and resources so all students will develop life-long resiliency.

The Story of Cardinal Care Mental Health Supports:

In 2014 a need was identified to start a School Based Mental Health Program (SBMH) here in Chippewa Falls. SBMH refers to the delivery of mental health services in a school provided by an outside agency. The services are administered to students as needed as determined by a licensed therapist from an outside agency.

In the 2014-2015 school year, SBMH was started with one therapist from one agency. Our program has now grown to partner with multiple agencies and multiple therapists to help meet the needs of our students.

In 2017-2018 our district created a District and Community Leadership Team in order to brainstorm ways to bring our community therapists into our buildings more to work with our staff. This is called an Interconnected Systems Framework. The goal is to find ways to give our staff resources to use with students to help teach our students resiliency. This is where our mission statement came from. Our mission is that our community partnerships will promote staff awareness and increase understanding of mental health supports and resources so all students will develop life-long resiliency.

In 2018-2019 our district partnered with REALiving in order to offer a Student and Family Assistance Program. This is where each of our students or their family members can receive four free counseling sessions (four per family).

In 2019-2020 the CFAUSD was awarded the Project AWARE grant. This is a 5-year statewide grant that we share with the School District of La Crosse and the Lakeland Area School Consortium.

In 2021-2022 Group Health Cooperative of Eau Claire gave a generous donation to fund 4 free parent coaching sessions as part of our Student and Family Assistance Program. In 2022-2023 that expanded to also include youth coaching.

We also offer mental health resources within our school buildings such as screening, interventions, and access to school staff members. Our self-care resources focus on mental health and resiliency for staff and students.

TESTIMONIALS

“The group was very good, and it calmed me down a lot. When you feeling stressed this class is a time to just relax and think about everything and it soothes your mind.”   “I liked that every time I needed to relax or talk about something I would not get judged that place was a free spot.”   “Being in the relax group really helped me become calm, and know what to do in times when I’m overwhelmed. The Relax Group also helped me focus on everyday tasks, and the group gave some incredibly good advice :)”
Student feedback about a Relax Group
As a parent having the School Based Mental Health available has been very helpful with my child.  The process has gone smoothly from the initial contact to being able to choose a therapist that may work best with my child to the therapist working directly with my child.  This is also helpful that they are able to come directly to my child at the school so that they are missing less school and I as a parent need to miss less work as well.  Overall the whole experience has been a positive one for both myself and my child.
CFAUSD Parent
School-based mental health services allow a child to receive much needed services regularly without the inconvenience of scheduling around after school activities or parents having to take time off work.
SBMH Mental Health Therapist
“I liked how they gave me strategies and not just one but many so I could choose what I liked and didn’t like!”
CFAUSD Student
You made this process super easy and helped me every step of the way to ensure that my student is set up for success. In following up with me and making sure we were taken care of shows that you care about the students and their wellbeing. Thank you so much for making this as easy as it was, I truly appreciate everything!
CFAUSD Parent
As a therapist, having the School Based Mental Health available for students is very important in many aspects. School is an area where children spend a great amount of their time and the schools are able to work with the therapists to help in any areas that they may be struggling in.  The schools have all been very open with working with me as a therapist and the children are able to still get services that are needed for either home or school issues without having to miss more time at school since the therapy is able to be done right at the school settings.  Being able to provide this service for families is a great asset for everyone involved.
School Based Mental Health Therapist