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Appalachian Ohio families will have more access to mental health services for their kids, thanks to a certain Cincinnati Bengals quarterback and Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
The Joe Burrow Foundation and the central Ohio-based children’s hospital teamed up to launch a new mental health training program for school-based health centers in 20 school districts in rural Appalachia, where mental health needs can often go unmet due to a scarcity of providers.
“In some cases, families are driving an hour to get to a primary care provider,” explained Robin Burrow, mother of Joe Burrow, former southeastern Ohio elementary school principal and secretary and treasurer of the foundation. “And that’s a primary care provider, let alone someone who has the knowledge to handle a mental health issue… so providing that access in a school-based setting at a high-quality level is a game changer for people in a rural area.”
The program, known as the Burrow Blueprint, will give primary care teams in these school health centers “the tools they need” to address student mental health needs including education, training and peer-to-peer support.
Topics covered in training will include common diagnoses like anxiety, depression and ADHD via a curriculum developed by Nationwide Children’s experts. Providers will also be able to consult psychiatric experts and provide follow up care for more serious situations under the program.
Nationwide Children’s will provide technical assistance and online training modules for the providers located in these Appalachian school districts, no matter what health system or practice they’re affiliated with.
Heavy investment, bright future
In March 2024, Gov. Mike DeWine announced a $64 million investment in the region as part of the Appalachian Children’s Health Initiative, awarded to the Appalachian Children’s Coalition. The investment is directed toward dozens of projects under the coalition’s umbrella, spanning 36 communities across 20 Appalachian counties in Ohio, including school-based health centers.
Thus far, that investment has resulted in five school-based health centers that have already served more than 3,000 patients, over half of whom are on Medicaid. Fifteen more are expected to open by mid-2026 in partnership with local health systems and other providers, and all will have access to the Burrow Blueprint at no cost, according to the foundation.
Nationwide Children’s, a pioneer in the school-based health center space, first tested a similar program in one of their own centers. They saw significant success, according to Mary Kay Irwin, senior director of school health services at Nationwide Children’s.
Approximately 97% of students with behavioral health concerns served at a school-based health center were able to be fully cared for at that center and did not have to be referred out, possible missing vital education hours, according to Irwin.
“School-based clinics can certainly save lives and change lives, and we’re certainly going to see a lot more of it with this program being implemented,” said Jimmy Burrow, Joe Burrow’s father, former Ohio University football coach and foundation vice-president.
Medical business and health care reporter Samantha Hendrickson can be reached at shendrickson@dispatch.com