MORGANTOWN — WVU Medicine Children’s and the Cook Center for Human Connection have teamed with an former NFL quarterback’s association to expand their efforts to provide families across the state access to mental health services.
Super Bowl-winning QB — and West Virginian — Jeff Hostetler joined with Cook Center president and CEO Anne Brown, and WVU Medicine Lead Faculty Social Worker Amanda Newhouse to explain the enhanced outreach.
WVUMC and Cook Center announced a partnership in July to provide families with 24/7 free, anonymous access to mental health resources and support services through Cook’s ParentGuidance.org website. Cook Center describes itself as a nonprofit dedicated to preventing suicide, providing mental health support, and nurturing human connections; its current focus is supporting children, families, and schools with mental health resources.
Brown said they provide the tools and services for parents — taking in the whole umbrella of that term to include foster parents, grandparents and other caregivers — to address the mental health needs of the children.
“QB United gets eyeballs on the initiatives,” she said. “QB United will really help us build awareness. … It’s one thing to have the resources, but if people don’t know that they’re out there and they don’t know how and where to find them, then we’re not doing the good that we want to do.”
Hostetler explained that QB United — a collective of 57 current and former NFL quarterbacks — launched its initial program lest year. “We wanted to bring awareness to suicide prevention.”
They produced a short video on the topic that reached more than 225 million people.
Millions of Americans are devoted to football, he said, and quarterbacks are often looked up to and held up as role models. When those role models share their vulnerabilities and challenges, they can help reduce the stigma of talking about suicide issues, and help people feel comfortable knowing they aren’t the only ones who struggle and it’s okay to talk about it.
“Our goal is to continue to expand that and to bring other quarterbacks alongside,” he said.
WVUMC provides an array of pediatric behavioral health services. Newhouse said, “We are beyond excited at WVU Medicine to have this partnership.” Initiatives like this are pivotal in reaching parents across the state. “This is really going to open up access.”
And the state Department of Education is also a new partner, making the resources for the program possible.
“It’s all joining together to provide resources that will help our families, help our kids, help our teachers, help our parents get though some really difficult times, educate them, give them resources to be able to feel comfortable with where they’re at, to know what to say, what not to say,” Hostetler said.
ParentGuidance.org offers resources through two avenues. One is free online courses on a variety of courses on such topics as behavior, anxiety and depression, bullying, child development, parent support, grief and loss, suicide prevention and more.
WVU Medicine physicians James Berry and Kari Law both provide courses on the site.
The other avenue is personal coaching. Through the portal, parents can sign up for and be assigned within 24-48 hours a dedicated coach who will listen, answer questions, offer guidance and support, and more.
“A coach is someone that helps make you better when you’re willing to have the help,” Brown said. And Hostetler added, “Great coaches always put their players in the best position to be successful.”
One of the great advantages of the program for rural West Virginia. Brown said, is that it can all be done online or on a cell phone, when needed, without long drives to a medical center or months-long waits for an appointment.
The initial sign-up has to be done online at ParentGuidance.org, she said. And she acknowledged that areas of West Virginia remain unserved or underserved for internet service, but communication after that can be via phone or text.
Newhouse also noted that many schools have opened up time and space to serve children’s mental health needs.
Cook Center has outreach in 7,000 school districts in 48 states, Brown said. But West Virginia is the first state to provide these services for every family.
Newhouse said, “These are difficult conversations to have, and they’re scary conversations to have. And to reach out for help can be very difficult.” Through this program, parents can reach out soon and receive receive early intervention.
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