This fall, the Meadowlark Day Program held an official ribbon cutting ceremony, to celebrate the unique mental health program for Salem-Keizer students in need. Trillium Community Health Plan and the school district had an existing partnership to provide lower levels of mental health care in some schools. But for some kids, their challenges from depression, anxiety, PTSD and other disorders are so steep as to make it impossible for them to be able to get any educational benefit in school.

Meadowlark is a 10-12 week program that gives kids intense treatment as well as instructional support every day, so they don’t fall further behind. We get the details from Chris Moore, the director of mental health and social-emotional learning for the district, and from Chiharu Blatt, Trillium’s vice president of community services in the Willamette Valley and Central Oregon.