Five middle schools in Baltimore County will soon participate in a pilot program for a mental health hotline for students.
The 24/7 hotline, called the Cigna Student Support Line, will launch later this month and be available for students at five public middle schools in Baltimore County. Students experiencing mental health concerns will be able to talk to Cigna staff trained in crisis management, get assessed for crisis intervention, or have non-crisis calls directed to counseling or other resources. The hotline will be available in English and Spanish.
Notably, Cigna will not charge the school district for the hotline pilot program.
A Baltimore Sun article noted that the participating schools were selected based on need. “Data from the pilot program will determine whether to expand to the entire district” according to the article. From the article:
Last month, the county rolled out a behavioral teletherapy app called TalkShape that high schoolers can use to speak with mental health counselors online, schedule in-person meetings with school counselors, and access wellness programs. The two-year contract is priced by usage on a per-student, per-month model with a spending cap of $1.8 million. The anticipated cost this fiscal year is $625,000.
Baltimore County is also working to provide age-appropriate mental health services for elementary school students.
The five Baltimore County middle schools to participate in the launch are:
- Franklin Middle School in Reisterstown
- General John Stricker Middle School in Dundalk
- Northwest Academy of Health Sciences in Pikesville
- Perry Hall Middle School in Nottingham
- Stemmers Run Middle School in Essex
The new initiative was announced at a November 28 Baltimore County Public Schools press briefing.
