{"id":119488,"date":"2025-09-05T00:06:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T00:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/119488\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T00:06:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T00:06:12","slug":"sfsd-avera-launches-on-site-therapist-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/119488\/","title":{"rendered":"SFSD, Avera launches on-site therapist program"},"content":{"rendered":"

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) \u2013 Five schools in Sioux Falls are participating in a pilot program with Avera Family Wellness to increase mental health therapists in schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Washington High School, Whittier Middle School, Cleveland Elementary, Rosa Parks Elementary and Terry Redlin Elementary will soon have masters-level, certified therapists in each of the schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cEach of those schools will have an allocated therapist that will work on a caseload of approximately 20-25 students,\u201d said Kim Sharping, student support services coordinator.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Currently, all schools in the Sioux Falls School District have a school counselor who helps with\u00a0 academic planning, short-term individual counseling, on-the-spot de-escalation, emotional management and works with staff families and administrators.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For long-term therapy and higher support needs, the district partners with Avera Health, Lutheran Social Services and Southeastern Behavioral Health.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we have students that maybe need some additional therapy beyond what the school counselor can provide, we\u2019re able to make those referrals,\u201d Sharping said.<\/p>\n

In the spring, the Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation was approached by an anonymous donor to help expand the mental health services in schools. The donation will go toward the three-year pilot program at Washington High School, and the middle and elementary schools in the surrounding area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Heidi Thomas with Avera Family Wellness said embedding therapists from Avera into the schools removes the barriers for families accessing mental health care.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really important for us to have an opportunity to really follow and data track these students along the way to confirm what we believe will be true in three and a half years,\u201d Heidi said. \u201cWe will see improved attendance, improved social\/emotional learning and enhance the mental health wellbeing of those students.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Dody Otten with the Sioux Falls Community Foundation said they will be sharing the donor\u2019s name once everything is finalized, but did say they \u201chave a deep passion for kids, especially those struggling with mental health.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe therapist is rooted in the schools,\u201d Otten added. \u201cWhen the therapist goes to work, the therapist goes to their school. They are part of the community, part of the culture. The intent is that the students will grow deeper roots of resilience as part of this program.\u201d<\/p>\n

The current counselor to student ratio for SFSD is 356 students to one counselor. Sharping noted that the American School Counselor Association recommends only 250 students to one counselor.<\/p>\n

The program is expected to start in the spring 2026 semester.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) \u2013 Five schools in Sioux Falls are participating in a pilot program with Avera…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[64,63,137,514,515],"class_list":{"0":"post-119488","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}