Vanderploeg Featured in Article Addressing School Safety in Connecticut

An article published on March 19, 2018 by the CT Mirror, "How safe are CT students at school?" reviews the complex issue of school safety & strategies that some CT schools are using to address behavior & mental health issues. 

 

In the article, CHDI President and CEO, Jeffrey Vanderploeg shared his thoughts on school discipline, trauma, and the importance of early intervention. He also encouraged schools to use Connecticut's Mobile Crisis Interventions Services (formerly known as EMPS), which provides children's mental health crisis services free of charge to all children in Connecticut through a network of fourteen provider sites across the state. 

School staff also need to know that help is a phone call away when student behavior does reach a crises level – such as throwing chairs and desks at staff, as teachers testified last week had happened in their schools. By calling 2-1-1 a mental health professional can be called to a school, typically within 45 minutes, to help diffuse a situation and set up students with long-term supports outside of school.  Awareness of this Mobile Crisis Intervention Service is growing. The number of responses to schools jumped from 2,818 in 2011 to 5,637 last school year. The goal, Vanderploeg said, is to avoid having the police or an ambulance called when a student is in crisis.

- Excerpt from CT Mirror article  "How safe are CT students at school?"

Learn more about our work to support school mental health, address trauma, and improve CT's mobile crisis intervention services and outcomes. 

 

Read the CT Mirror article featuring Jeff Vanderploeg.