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Four Rivers Behavioral Health Provides Recommended Depression Screenings For Teens

PADUCAH, KY – Recently, the US Preventative Services Taskforce recommended all children between the ages of 12 and 18 be screened for depression at every doctor’s visit. Four Rivers Behavior Health can provide these screenings and offers on-site screening services at school systems throughout the region.

The organization, for many years, has had a presence in school systems throughout the corporation’s nine-county service area. Four Rivers Behavioral Health has counselors on site at Paducah City Schools and McCracken County Schools as well as counselors in each of the school systems in the company’s service area.

In addition to being able to provide depression screening services to students, Four Rivers Behavioral Health is in the unique position of begin able to offer counseling services to the student, if in fact it is determined they are suffering from depression. Further, those counseling services also are available on-site at the school.

Wendy Lay, the Site Administrator for the Center for Specialized Children’s Services at Four Rivers Behavioral Health said, “Once depression is recognized in a student, we found it was sometimes difficult for parents to follow up with appropriate therapy. That was one of the factors that played a role in bringing our counselors to the schools. We can offer those services right on school campuses.”

Coupled with the ability to offer counseling at school, Four Rivers Behavioral Health has the only Board Certified Child Psychiatrist in the region, giving the organization the ability to offer additional services beyond counseling, if warranted.

Lay continued, “Teens today are bombarded with stress and pressures that just weren’t there 20 or even 10 years ago. In addition to depression, we also find a lot of anxiety related issues. To have children deal with those issues now, at an early age, puts them in a position to better handle problems in the future. So, the hope is that we will see more grounded students in college, and in the workplace in years to come.”

Site-based services are an important part of Four Rivers Behavioral Health’s overall approach to mental health treatment. Many mental health disorders make even getting to a therapy appointment a challenge. Four Rivers Behavioral Health has taken the lead in bringing the help to the consumers, as opposed to having them come to the therapist.

In addition to schools, Four Rivers Behavioral Health offers site-based services at nursing homes, hospitals, community day programs and more.

Currently celebrating its fiftieth year, Four Rivers Behavioral Health is a private, not-for-profit agency that provides comprehensive mental health, substance abuse and developmental/intellectual disability services to clients in Ballard, Calloway, Carlisle, Fulton, Graves, Hickman, Livingston, McCracken, and Marshall Counties.

 

 

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