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Rural Health Outreach Grant Program (West Wendover, Nevada)
| Topics |
Children
Job training and adult education
Limited English proficiency
Mental health
Networking and collaboration
Youth
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| States served |
Nevada
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| Description |
Four consortium members - the City of West Wendover, the Primary Children's Hospital Child Protection Team, Brigham Young University (BYU) School of Social Work, and Valley Mental Health - created the Rural Health Outreach Program to provide local access to mental health services and to provide a school-based program teaching resiliency and social skills to school-aged children and their parents in West Wendover. The program was conducted in the four local schools - two elementary schools and two junior high/high schools. |
| Services offered |
Conducting the resiliency and social skills program in school during the school day proved to be challenging but successful. One licensed social worker (LCSW) and three Masters in Social Work (MSW) graduate students from BYU traveled to West Wendover to conduct classes and provide clinical therapy and group therapy to children and parents. BYU provided qualified, bilingual students for the project and the students fulfilled the fieldwork requirement for their studies at BYU. Project staff made home visits to participants at the beginning and end of the school year to complete the child's social skills assessment - used for evaluation - and to receive parental consent for the child to participate in the program. In two of the four schools, the project was delivered as a pullout program meaning that teachers, counselors, school administrators, and parents referred students who were having difficulty. In one of the schools, the program was taught in a regular class and all students in that class received the program. |
| Results |
An evaluation conducted by the University of Utah College of Nursing showed that there was significant improvement in the behavior and social skills of all the students who participated in the school outreach program. School counselors also noted better attendance by the students enrolled in the program on the day the program was conducted. There is also evidence of better academic performance in students enrolled in the program. |
| Replication |
As part of their coursework, two of the BYU MSW students who conducted the school outreach program in the West Wendover program spent their summer placement in Mexico and Russia where they successfully piloted our school outreach program model, showing that this project model does work well in other settings. Collaboration among consortium partners and relationships with State and county agencies responsible for delivering mental health and social services to the community is crucial to initial training of program staff and project implementation. |
| Source |
Outreach Sourcebook, Vol. 9, 1999-2002, Office of Rural Health Policy
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| Contact person |
Lauara Snyder, Project Director
West Wendover City
P.O. Box 2530
West Wendover, NV 89883
Phone: (775) 664-2081
Fax: (775) 664-2244
E-mail: lauara@yahoo.com |
| Date added |
July 11, 2005 |
Summaries of success stories are provided by RAC for your convenience. Please contact the success story contact person directly for the most complete and current information.
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