Inspiration is often born of necessity. When the shelter in place order began last spring, teachers and staff at Irene M. Hunt School noticed a drastic increase in the mental health needs of students. “We were dealing with a lot of crises,” says Bryanne Guthrie, the school’s lead clinician, “increased hospitalizations, a sharp increase in parents making more CPS calls and having to have law enforcement involved, and a general level of overwhelm was felt by all our students.”
The Hunt School staff sprang into action, creating a "Rapid Response Team" – a preventive system in which students who are not yet in crisis but are showing risk are identified, then a focused plan of intervention and support is quickly put into action. Guthrie says, “We wanted to better serve our students and their families during this time of crisis, using our core strengths of being proactive and being a multidisciplinary team.”
According to Ken Taylor, campus supervisor and behavior specialist, “We became more than a school. We reached out with gift cards to increase engagement, dropped off food, and checked in frequently on students and their parents. I am so proud of our program. We didn’t skip a beat! Families were in crisis and we responded – because that’s what we do.”