"More help will now be there for families of young kids. Spokane County commissioners are giving more than $316,000 to three daycares: Little Scholars, Parkview Early Learning, and A Bright New Beginning." Both Little Scholars and Parkview Early Learning are members of Spokane Alliance. 

Spokane Alliance is a nonprofit coalition of churches, unions, and community groups representing more than 20,000 adults in Spokane County, has been working with Kerra Bower of Little Scholars, and many others, to allocate ARPA money coming to Spokane, Spokane Valley, and Spokane County. 

‘Building relationships’: Mental health clinicians coming to support local daycares

KXLY - by Ester Bower - Dec 27, 2022

 

SPOKANE, Wash. — Soon, there will be more team members at the Little Scholars Early Learning Center, putting an emphasis on mental health.

Parents say it can’t come soon enough.

“Mental health in children is so needed more than people realize,” said Sarah Struthers, a mother of three children.

Struthers knows the struggle, as over the years, she knew her daughter wasn’t where she should be in daycare, but couldn’t figure out what was wrong.

“We have struggled for seven years almost now. My youngest is autistic and has severe ADHD, so me and Little Scholars — everyone who works here has struggled to get her the help she needs.”

More help will now be there for families of young kids. Spokane County commissioners are giving more than $316,000 to three daycares: Little Scholars, Parkview Early Learning, and A Bright New Beginning.

All are ready to try a new approach.

“What we’re talking about is building relationships,” said Kerra Bower, owner of Little Scholars. “What we’re talking about is having a mental health clinician and technician on the premises to really support the staff member and their classroom.”

They’ll be looking for solutions if they see a child falling behind or dealing with underlying issues. They’re also looking out for caregivers who are there for kids, but have their own issues.

“It’s really saying, we need to look at the whole picture. We need to support these providers 110% and then look at these outcomes,” Bower said.

Outcomes focused on building successful students, long term.

“If we do it right at this level and we set the foundation correctly right now, we’re going to have less issues in our K-12 programming,” Bower said.

Hiring is underway for these new positions, and Struthers can’t wait to see families benefit from the support.

“More than you can even imagine,” she said.

 

Watch the video and read the original article here.