Adam Stonestreet didn’t always plan to become a therapist. The Charleston, WV native dreamed of becoming a writer, or perhaps a teacher. But therapy never even crossed his mind.

“I love to write, and I actually still write some when I get the chance,” said Stonestreet, who has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. “I always thought I’d be a technical writer of some sort, or an English teacher.”

But his first job out of college, working in a residential facility for teens with substance use disorders and behavior problems, led to a change in the direction of his career path. After seeing the impact of his work there, he knew he wanted to spend his professional life in a behavioral health setting, helping others work through their struggles.

Today, Stonestreet believes he’s doing exactly what he was meant to do at Community Care of Bridgeport, where he works as a licensed independent clinical social work therapist (LICSW).

“My favorite part of being a therapist is building a space where my clients feel comfortable opening up,” said Stonestreet, who lives in Fairmont with his wife of 10 years, Maria. “With therapy, it’s the trusting, safe space that helps people. With many other medical professionals, they’re often focusing on a procedure or a medication. With therapy, though, the therapeutic relationship is primary. I firmly believe that I cannot help a patient unless I have a good connection and trust with them.”

Stonestreet has watched CCWV’s behavioral health program grow significantly over the four years he’s been on staff. He attributes it largely to the quality mental health care CCWV provides.

“When I first started with Community Care in 2019, I couldn’t have imagined where the program would be today — in multiple sites, with all these therapists, and the large number of patients we serve,” Stonestreet said. “I was one of only a couple therapists in the company back then. But with the quality care we provide, we keep growing. That’s why I’m here, because of the excellent care we provide. I expect us to keep offering high-level care and to keep growing because of it.”

Although CCWV’s behavioral health program has grown at rapid speed over the last few years, and more people are seeking treatment for mental health concerns, there is still a stigma that surrounds mental health.

“We’ve come a long way in recent years, but the stigma is still there, and it’s especially prevalent in our area,” said Stonestreet. “In the Appalachian rural culture we live in, you don’t really talk about things like mental health struggles.”

Stonestreet said the only way to overcome the stigma, though, is by taking small steps, like talking openly and honestly about it. 

“What I’ve discovered in doing this is that the more my clients talk to their families and friends about their struggles, the more they realize how many of their loved ones also struggle,” said Stonestreet. “My clients often wish they would’ve had those conversations sooner… then they would’ve realized that mental health issues are more common than we may think.”

Stonestreet said he tells his patients that they can’t get over something by avoiding it.

“When we try not to think about our struggles or refrain from talking about it, it only makes it worse,” he said. “That’s how a lot of disorders develop. The only way to work through something is to talk about it in an honest way.”
​
Another step in overcoming the stigma of mental health is by training more qualified therapists who will, as a result, see more patients, making therapy more commonplace. Stonestreet plays a leading role in training interns through CCWV’s internship program. 

“We want to teach, and we want to make good clinicians who go into the world and do good work,” said Stonestreet, who oversees the program. “We believe we’re doing things well and that we have valuable experience to offer these students.”

Stonestreet said that burnout in the mental health field is problematic because therapists are underprepared to enter the field; in addition, there is a general lack of other resources to help patients, such as intensive outpatient programs and inpatient facilities. 

“At CCWV, we really give students the skills and hands-on training they need to begin working,” said Stonestreet. “And a high percentage of our interns end up working with us after graduation… we offer a very competitive entry position, and they enjoy their internships so much that they choose to work with us. It’s one of the greatest compliments you can give an internship program, when your interns want to work with you.”

One type of therapy Stonestreet hopes to train more therapists in is Parent-Child Interactive Therapy, or PCIT, a highly effective therapy treatment for children ages 2-7 that helps caregivers learn strategies to improve the parent-child relationship and promote positive behaviors in children.

“With PCIT, you see interaction between the parent and child in real time, and you’re able to correct it or coach desired outcomes in real time,” said Stonestreet, who is a certified PCIT therapist at CCWV. “You’re not just telling the parents to go home and try something — they do the activity or exercise in front of me, so I get to see in real time the effectiveness of this type of therapy. Research shows it is very effective… It’s certainly the most effective therapy I do.”

In the future, and with the continued growth of the behavioral health program, more CCWV therapists will be trained in PCIT. Another small step, Stonestreet hopes, in permanently removing the stigma surrounding mental health.

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, please reach out to a mental health provider. Help is available through Community Care’s behavioral health program. Please call 304-848-5770 or 304-269-9510, or visit www.communitycarewv.org/behavioral-health.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) also provides a free, 24/7 Helpline for those struggling or in crisis. It can be reached at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

By Melissa Parker
​
​On a recent weekend in February, Charles “C.W.” Dent II took the necessary certification to become a high school baseball coach. For some, this may seem insignificant. But for the 41-year-old Dent, it was the first step in finally realizing a lifelong dream that just four years ago seemed forever beyond his reach.

​“My dream was always to play college baseball, then become a teacher and coach,” said Dent, a Peer Recovery Support Specialist with Community Care of West Virginia. “My life didn’t work out that way. So to now be trusted with coaching and guiding kids after the things I’ve done and everything I’ve been through… it means the world to me.”

Growing up, Dent had what he called a perfect childhood. When he was 11 years old, his family moved to Bridgeport from Washington, D.C. A self-proclaimed sports fanatic, Dent took full advantage of the quality athletic programs the Bridgeport area had to offer. He was raised by hardworking and loving parents, was a good student and star athlete, and even secured a scholarship to further his baseball career at then Alderson Broaddus College. He had the whole world in front of him, he believed.

But despite his ideal upbringing and the anticipation of a bright future, during Dent’s first year of college, things took a turn that would change the course of the next two decades of his life.

​“When the girl I had dated all through high school got pregnant with my daughter, I decided it was the right thing to quit college, get a job and support the family I was about to start,” Dent recalled. “Our relationship didn’t work out the way I planned. We split up, I saw my daughter less and less, and I felt like I had lost everything I had going for me. My dreams of playing college ball and becoming a coach were gone, and now I had also lost the family I gave it up for.”
​

The next 19 years of Dent’s life were consumed by addiction… it was a rollercoaster ride of damaged family relationships, lost jobs, jail time, homelessness, and a loss of purpose beyond getting high. ​
​
A few years into addiction, he had three more children – twin boys and another son. Dent found the willpower to stop using hard drugs for 18 months. But when his relationship with their mom ended, he found himself right back in the throes of drug use.

“I love my kids,” said Dent. “But when you are so controlled by addiction, the amount of love you have for someone doesn’t matter. Your ability to be a father isn’t there. Nothing mattered more to me than getting high. It caused me to miss a lot in my kids’ lives – birthdays, kindergarten graduation, even my daughter’s high school graduation.”

Dent would soon be arrested for the first time, and upon his release find himself homeless, living on the streets of Clarksburg, in worse shape than ever before.

“I was homeless for about eight months, through the winter,” Dent remembered. “It was some of the most brutal living I’ve ever done. I’m not sure how I didn’t die. I would sleep in random places like bushes and abandoned houses. Sometimes I wouldn't sleep... I'd just walk the streets for days at a time.”

Dent was arrested again and entered a rehabilitation center for the first time. He was there for 38 days before walking out in the middle of the night to go back to the drugs. It would take a few more years of addiction, another arrest, and two more rehab stints, but things slowly started turning around in Dent's heart and mind.
​
“Throughout my addiction, I would have moments of clarity where I wanted to get clean, but the drugs always had too strong a hold on me,” Dent said. “But one day, my brother told me that my youngest son, who was seven or eight at the time, said he was pretty sure the next time he saw me would be in heaven. That crushed me. When he told me that, something changed inside me.” 

​Dent was set to go to rehab for the third time when, on his 38th birthday, he overdosed on a combination of heroin, meth and fentanyl, on his mom’s back porch. With the help of Narcan, a lifesaving, narcotic-reversing medication, paramedics were able to revive him, and he entered Harmony Ridge Recovery Center. It was there that Dent’s substance abstinence finally began.

“I jumped right into the rehab program because I was ready to get clean,” Dent said. “They encourage you to find a higher power, and I discovered my higher power is God. I never really cared for God much before then. I blamed Him for my problems. But now I was praying every morning. He helps keep my mind focused, to keep me from getting high. I like to think that God has been looking out for me for a really long time, especially with everything that’s happened in my life.”

Dent met his now wife Kelli just a few months after graduating from the program.

“Meeting her saved my life… that’s just the truth,” said Dent, who recently celebrated 41 months of being substance-free.

The couple married on the beach last June and together have six kids. “It’s been amazing knowing her,” said Dent, who now lives in West Milford. “When I tell you she’s the best, I mean it. She literally wants me to chase whatever dreams and goals I want to chase, and she supports me through it.”

Dent has spent much of the last three and a half years “building a life he doesn’t want to escape from,” as he put it. A big part of that is using his experience for the good of others.
​
“Helping others is the key to everything for me… helping others helps me stay sober,” said Dent, who frequently volunteers with the Young Men’s Association of Clarksburg. “I believe if you do good things, good things will come to you… that’s been the story of my life the last three years.”
​
Another important factor in his new path is that, through the rehabilitation programs, he learned new ways to cope with life when it doesn’t go as planned. That was especially crucial when his dad passed away from complications with pulmonary fibrosis in March of 2020.

“Watching my dad die was the most devastating thing I’ve ever been through,” Dent recalled. “He was a great man. He always had such pride in my athletic abilities. When I talked to him after I got sober, he told me to try to get it right this time. I promised him on his deathbed that I’d never get high again… that’s not something I take lightly.”

​“Having this job, having an office of my own, to be in a professional role where I get to represent Community Care at events like Recovery Advocacy Day and meet with legislators… I can’t even explain how much that means to me,” said Dent. “I know from experience that many people in early recovery have absolutely nothing… no support at all. I’m honored to be in a position where I can help guide people through their journey.”

Dent, in many ways, lost nearly two decades of his life, but those hard years shaped who he is today ­– a man whose primary ambition is to offer encouragement, hope and guidance to others, whether on the baseball field, to a room full of students, or to those in recovery.  

Today, Dent’s relationship with his children is stronger than ever. Some of his proudest moments are watching them play sports. And later this spring, he hopes to have something else to find pride in… the title of Assistant Baseball Coach for South Harrison High School… a dream finally coming true.


​If you are struggling with drug addiction, please reach out to a mental health provider. Help is available through Community Care's Addiction Recovery Program. Please visit www.communitycarewv.org/substance-use-disorder-treatment or call 304-473-2250.

In West Virginia, help is also freely available through https://www.help4wv.com or by calling 844-HELP4WV.

If you are suffering, know that you are not alone, that you are valuable, and that there is help available.

If you’d like to contact Dent about speaking opportunities, email him at Charles.Dent@ccwv.org.
​
Captions for gallery pictures above:
Picture 1: Dent with his four children on his wedding day.
Pictures 2 and 3: Dent embraces his sons after ball games.
Picture 4: Dent and wife Kelli on their wedding day at Carolina Beach. 
Picture 5: Dent, Kelli and their six children in a picture that he said is proof of the blessings of recovery. 

Community Care of West Virginia announced a partnership with West Virginia Wesleyan College to offer jobs to all new program graduates.

In a press conference Friday, West Virginia Wesleyan College announced a new Master’s Degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, funded through a $1.2 million investment from Aetna Better Health of West Virginia and Community Care of West Virginia.

In addition, Community Care of West Virginia will support the program by offering job positions to each student who completes the program.

“This is a great opportunity for West Virginia Wesleyan to work with key partners to serve our community while providing a degree that will ensure a successful career path for our students,” said Dr. James Moore, interim president of West Virginia Wesleyan College. “Both Aetna and Community Care of West Virginia should be commended for making this great program possible.”

Aetna and Community Care of West Virginia collaborated to identify the greatest needs for the regions they serve and found that West Virginians need mental health care. 

“A key part to Aetna’s mission is helping to build resources in the communities we serve,” said Todd White, CEO of Aetna Better Health of West Virginia. “West Virginia Wesleyan will be able to deliver the advanced education needed by organizations like Community Care of West Virginia to have the highest quality of healthcare professionals to serve patients.”

West Virginia’s low population density creates a unique set of challenges in caring for the population. Additionally, West Virginia has consistently witnessed the nation’s highest rate of drug overdose deaths. Once they’d identified the problem, the answer was clear: a higher education institution with a long history of advanced degrees in healthcare was needed to develop the bridge to a solution.

According to a press release, West Virginia significantly trails the nation in mental and behavioral healthcare providers. On average, the United States has at least one mental and behavioral healthcare provider for every 400 people, whereas West Virginia only has one for every 770 people.
​
“Community Care of West Virginia is proud of the role our organization is taking in this effort,” said Dr. Liam Condon, a psychologist with Community Care of West Virginia. “Our commitment to hire each graduate of Wesleyan’s new master’s program will help retain high-quality healthcare providers right here in the region where they are needed most for our patients.”

(article courtesy of The Inter-Mountain)

​Community Care of West Virginia
Exceeds 500 Team Members
 
BUCKHANNON, W.Va. —Community Care of West Virginia (CCWV) surpassed a significant milestone by expanding its healthcare team to now include more than 500 people across its multiple locations. Community Care’s growth reflects its mission of delivering quality healthcare services to patients throughout its footprint in West Virginia.
 
Community Care started in 1979 as a single location in Rock Cave. The organization has since grown to include 16 health center locations, 51 school-based health sites, seven pharmacies, and one dental office. Community Care serves over 55,000 patients a year and has provided more than one million patient visits since 2019.
 
“It is rewarding to see all that Community Care has become,” said Trish Collett, Community Care Deputy CEO.  “Our growing team is eager to continue providing the very best care to our patients.”
 
The recent staff increase coincides with the development of expanded services and programs, including addiction recovery and behavioral health.
 
“We are honored to have the people that we do at Community Care,” said Collett. “In order to fulfill our mission of comprehensive health care, it is fundamental to have the experienced team of professionals that makes it possible.”
 
Community Care continues to recruit new team members at multiple locations across the region. To see different opportunities that are available, visit: www.ccwv.org.
 

On January 5, 2023, Community Care of West Virginia held a Ribbon Cutting and Open House at CareXpress of Buckhannon located at 77 W. Main Street. The location will be open for business at 8:00am on Monday, January 9, 2023.

CareXpress was formerly co-located at Northridge Plaza with CCWV's pediatric practice. The newly renamed Community Care Pediatrics of Buckhannon will remain at Northridge Plaza.

Community Care is grateful to community members, CCWV Board president Rosemary Thomas, CCWV Board member David Taylor, Tammy Reger and the Buckhannon-Upshur Chamber of Commerce, Buckhannon Mayor Robbie Skinner, representatives from the offices of Governor Justice, Senator Capito, Congressman Mooney, greetings from Senator Manchin, local government officials, Leadership Upshur, High Point Construction, Thrasher Engineering, Watkins Design Works LLC, and CCWV's dedicated staff for a successful Ribbon Cutting and Open House for this new location in Buckhannon.
​

Gassaway -- Right in the heart of the Mountain State sits Gassaway Baptist Church, where Thursday more than 900 West Virginians received a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

​Gassaway Baptist has served as a regional vaccine site for West Virginia’s central region, administering nearly 3,000 shots to residents since vaccines were made available. Serving a predominantly rural population, a team of healthcare, faith and emergency operations workers run the site.

These clinics are no small operation, and people have taken notice.

Clinic workers said Thursday while they are responsible for serving the state’s central counties, people from Boone, Monongalia, Kanawha, Raleigh and Taylor counties have trekked to Gassaway just on the good word they heard from friends about the site.

A woman from Ohio even called the church, they said, wanting specifically to be vaccinated in Braxton County.

Clinic workers, beaming with pride, described the community’s effort to create this well-oiled machine.

Gassaway Baptist sits atop a small hill overlooking a bend in the Elk River. The church moved into this facility during Easter 2014.

Driving up the hill into the church’s parking lot, members of the congregation working as volunteers direct traffic. Go left if you live with a disability and need to be vaccinated in your vehicle, or turn right to find parking and walk inside.

In rural West Virginia, a predominantly senior citizen population is often coupled with minimal options and spaces for large community health clinics. But at the newer Gassaway Baptist facility, the massive parking lot looks almost big enough to hold the entire county’s population of some 14,000 people.

Gassaway Baptist Senior Pastor Mark Stump, who has led the church for nearly 38 years, is often found at the front entrance. With a smile and a polite greeting, he opens the door for people and directs them to the action.

The church provided 22 volunteers performing a range of critical tasks on Thursday — a number of clinic leaders inside said this roughly matched the congregation’s normal turnout for these events. For an operation as time sensitive as COVID-19 vaccinations, traffic control is the first place where everything can go wrong.

“In small communities like ours it absolutely takes everybody working together,” Stump said. “This is who we are. This isn’t anything special, and I mean that sincerely.”

In December, the church helped build a tiny home for a U.S. Marine Corps veteran whose home burned down, leaving him homeless and living in his truck. Before the pandemic, Gassaway Baptist was all about building a healthier community, Stump said, and now that deeply held commitment to service is on full display.

“Jesus said ‘I didn’t come to be served.’ He said ‘I’ve come to serve,’ and so that’s the basis for everything we do,” Stump said.

Once inside, Ronna Dittman, of Community Care of West Virginia, and other healthcare workers greet people and point them to registration. People are helped in the church’s front hallway completing needed forms, then clinic workers will escort people into the gymnasium.

Trish Collett, chief operations officer for Community Care, said this second step is just as critical. Providers have been given the option to charge a fee for these vaccines, but she said that would just hurt the community and hinder the whole process.

“We made that commitment as a whole community that we would not charge the recipients of this vaccine an administration fee,” Collett said.

“We’re just shots in arms. That’s all we care about,” said Karen Bowling, president of Braxton County Memorial Hospital.

Just outside the gymnasium, a small team underneath a tent equipped with a propane heater run vaccines and forms in and out for people in vehicles.

Inside, on half of the church’s basketball court, six chairs sit a table-length apart where clinic workers administer the vaccines. Meanwhile, a team of workers sit on the sideline punching data into laptops.

Once the syringe leaves their arms, patients plop down in a chair on the far end of the court while workers set a timer and watch for adverse reactions.

Now they’re done. The entire process averages a 25-minute run time, workers said.

Gassaway Mayor Jeff Skidmore, a retired state police trooper running security for these clinics, said people “are just tickled to death” with the operation. Some spent weeks on waiting lists, just hoping they might one day get the call to go to Gassaway Baptist, where Skidmore’s been a member for 17 years.

“Being in the parking lot and talking to people when they go in and out of the building, they’re just so happy, it’s like they won the lottery,” he said.

Stephanie Jackson, a nurse practitioner with Community Care, administered second doses to her grandparents Thursday. It’s the first time she’s seen them in months.

Jackson said because she’s a healthcare worker, she’s been afraid of infecting her grandparents. On Thursday, she said she felt somewhat relieved, but was still aware of the months of work health care teams must put in to end the pandemic.

Her grandparents, Howard and Marie Singleton of Gassaway, said they felt lucky to be chosen for a vaccine — it was also pretty cool to have their granddaughter assist them.

The Singletons, both 79 years old, said they still plan to stay home, wear masks and only venture out for doctor’s office and grocery store trips. The pandemic is still raging across the world, they said, but they’re excited to be in the direction of back to normal.

“We feel young and we’re healthy enough that we do whatever,” Marie Singleton said. “We’re blessed. We don’t feel like we’re almost 80.”

In the kitchen at Gassaway Baptist is where some of the most important work is happening, however.

Church volunteers made and served lunches to clinic workers, offering them steak sandwiches, spinach salad and various desserts.

John Hoffman, director of Braxton County Office of Emergency Services, said without the kitchen volunteers, the all-day clinics would not be possible. Some of the most important work in emergency response is putting food into workers’ stomachs.

Hoffman, carrying around a black folder with the day’s operation plans, just makes sure everything is going accordingly. So far, his role has been very little, he said, because the various organizations have put together a seamless operation.

“Community Care has really been at the forefront and the lead of this operation,” Hoffman said. “Basically, all I’m doing is putting things in writing on paper as an action plan for everything that’s happening with the objectives listed. Who’s in what role positions? What is our safety plan for the facility? What is the medical plan if there is a medical emergency?”

Gassaway Baptist, Community Care, Braxton emergency operations, the Braxton County Health Department and Braxton Memorial, which is operated under WVU Medicine, have formed the partnership to make this clinic happen.

There were 62 people working Thursday at Gassaway Baptist: 22 church volunteers, 24 Community Care workers, 10 from Braxton Memorial, three from emergency services and three from the health department.

Crystal Conrad, Braxton Health Department nurse administrator, stepped into this job three weeks ago. The small rural health department, recognizing it needed every bit of the community’s support to run these clinics, reached out to potential community partners to make it happen.

“It’s a community partnership. We could not do this without everybody involved,” Conrad said. “The hospital, Community Care and the church especially — their volunteers have been absolutely incredible.”

Bowling, of Braxton Memorial, said any egos were kicked away early. For community health partnerships, too many of these in one building will cause trouble.

“The key was to sit down and say with your partners ‘who can do what, and who can contribute what?’” Bowling said. “Everybody here does it with love. We’re smiling, we’re happy, we’re just glad to be here.”

“The bottom line is these staff are committed,” Bowling said. “You think it’s easy to sit there and give one shot after another for seven hours? It is not. It is exhausting.”

With the early success of the clinic, the challenge becomes how to finish strong, Collett said. Vaccinating homebound people — especially in the hills and hollers throughout central West Virginia — will be a challenge, she said, but the county is far enough ahead with vaccinating residents at the clinic to start focusing on those people.

This work will continue for who knows how long, Collett said, but the organizations in the partnership are going to do whatever it takes.

“We’re trying to get back to that normalcy,” she said. “We’re not there yet ... but this is what it takes to get there.”
Dittman has been attending services at Gassaway Baptist for nearly 20 years, she said. While some may worry about the stamina of the church volunteers, she doesn’t.

“I can say, as long as they’re needed, they’re going to step up,” Dittman said.

Conrad spoke emotionally about the operation. Braxton County is her home, and she said it’s hard to describe the feeling of watching her community step up and answer the call to service in such a resounding way.

“I mean, I am so proud because it’s such a small county. I’m so proud with what we’ve been able to do,” Conrad said. “I was born and raised here. I’ve been here my entire life. So many of these people that have come through here are people that I have known my entire life.”

This circle of community partnerships — faith, health care and emergency operations organizations — is one every county or region in the United States is trying to establish, Hoffman said. To see it happening here in the heart of West Virginia, he said, is a testament to their team’s dedication to service.

“What’s happening here with this clinic is best practices,” Hoffman said.

“It’s kind of like all of the sudden a big, proud moment,” he said. “You just don’t think that you’ll be able to get something this well organized and this smooth in a rural area.”

As local officials work to develop a long-term plan to curb opioid abuse in the area, a psychiatrist says a program already used in some West Virginia schools can go as far as reducing the chance of children being incarcerated or developing substance use disorder later in life.

Community leaders in Cabell County released a “Resiliency Plan” at the beginning of the year, which envisions a pathway to the end of the substance use epidemic in the country. While giving money for rehabilitation programs and law enforcement are obvious parts of the plan, some more in-depth outlines include interventions to help children avoid behaviors that lead to the abuse.

PAX’s Good Behavior Game, which has been in use in elementary schools in north central West Virginia, helps students learn to self-regulate, giving them skills at an early age that reduce the chance of them turning to self-destructive behavior later in life by focusing on positive behavior rather than the bad.

Kevin Junkins, a psychiatrist working with Community Care of West Virginia, said he spoke with the state senate’s education committee about its success with hopes it will be implemented statewide, as have several states, such as Ohio.

“The kids have ownership of it and are setting the vision of what they want to see in the classroom,” Junkins said. “The Good Behavior Game works on enforcing the positive. It doesn’t work on shame or guilt. It works on re-enforcing the positive and using peer pressure to help the classroom be better.”

Decades of research forms an understandingThe idea of PAXIS Institute’s Good Behavior Game started in the 1960s when a teacher saw that disruptive behaviors by students were reinforced by peers and others. The teacher explored the idea that the same could be with positive behaviors via using competition.

Many institutions have studied and developed the idea further, including the University of Kansas and Johns Hopkins University.

Those programs followed students over decades and found students who participated in the game had decreased chances of having disciplinary problems, juvenile delinquency, incarceration and substance abuse later in life.

Over the decades of research, studies have shown the game reduced disruptive classroom behaviors in schools by 50% to 90%, giving teachers up to 25% more time for teaching and learning. The reduction leads to children being more engaged and a reduction in teacher stress levels.

The PAX Good Behavior Game program is less of traditional board game and more of a classroom setting.

It is a set of strategies created to help students learn self-management skills and collaboration needed to make a classroom a better learning environment. It centers on the Good Behavior Game, which was created by a youth violence prevention program called Peacebuilders.

Teachers and students create a word map of expectations for the year and behaviors they want to see more, or less, of throughout the school year. The map is posted and revised over time to keep it relevant. Children are tasked with self-regulation of the map. While teachers might step in to point out when a student is not following the list, they are taught to not nag or scold a specific student on the behavior to prevent giving attention to negative behavior.

They are taught to give a motor and verbal response when hearing a harmonica, that way their eyes and attention are to the teacher. Beating a timer for completing tasks is another idea.

It’s designed for first-graders but can be applied all the way to middle school classes.

The actual game ties it together. The class is divided into teams, and the teacher tasks students with finding out what bad behavior is occurring among their team.

“They will have to say there’s a (issue) on team one, and those kids will have to reflect on that and the kids will have to evaluate their behavior,” he said. “Some kids don’t have the ability to know these things. If there are kids who continue to (have issues), maybe they need extra intervention, maybe that helps to use early intervention.”

At the end of “game time,” the teams with three or fewer bad behaviors get rewarded with a “wacky” prize activity, such as dancing, singing or some other activity for a short period.

Schools seeing success in short periods Kevin Junkins, a psychiatrist working with Community Care of West Virginia, said it works because it allows children to define their own classroom, which causes them to be more active and invested in making change. It lets them be a part of something bigger than themselves, which oftentimes they never would receive otherwise.

“If we are causing a positive place at school, maybe the kids will start thinking maybe this isn’t a bad place,” he said. “When before they were thinking ‘why do I want to go to school when the only thing that happens is that the kids bully me and the teacher is always riding my back.’ ”

That positivity goes home to the parents, too. While children who misbehave are used to getting negative notes sent home, the program encourages teachers to send the positive.

“It might sound marginal, but to that family this is a really good thing,” Junkins said. “Sometimes the parents need that as much as the kids do. Now the parents are thinking, ‘Maybe my kid isn’t a bad kid.’ ”

Tristan Gray, principal for Tennerton Elementary in Buckhannon, West Virginia, said his school of less than 300 students has one of the highest rates of grand families in the state, which are typically formed when parents are unable to take care of their children and can lead to disciplinary programs.

Gray said when the school had training on the program two years ago, he was sold.

“I guess in some ways when you know, you know,” he said. “When you have been around it long enough to know some things are going to work and some things aren’t. You just get the feeling. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”

Gray, who has more than a decade of experience in his position, said attendance increased and the need for disciplinary action decreased after they implemented the program. Overall, the school has been a happier and more inviting place, he said.

The program breaks down to about $400 per teacher, which includes materials needed. Ultimately, it’s about $23 per student, Junkins said. Comparatively, teachers are seeing increased productivity throughout the day because of fewer class distractions.

Junkins called it a mental vaccination that will last a lifetime.

“We can give these kids hope to have a better future because we can get folks healthy in the workforce,” he said. “If you are creating folks that have self-regulated and who worked together, that’s the employee you want in the future.”

Gray said $23 was well worth it.

“You can’t guarantee you can rehab someone,” he said. “There is no promise in that, but there is a possibility you can ‘prehab’ someone. If you can put in preventative measure with a program that pushes positivity, who knows.”

Junkins said teachers have jumped on board completely in the past year.

Story reprinted from the The Herald-Dispatch. Link to the newspaper here.

Kimberly Becher moved eight times growing up in central West Virginia and switched schools 11 times. She watched her mom and stepdad work jobs they didn’t like and struggle to pay bills. She became a doctor so that she could live near where she grew up and still have a good job. Her reasons for being a doctor today are much different.

Becher is a rural doctor working a large patient panel for Community Care of West Virginia in Clay County. She sees multiple generations of the same families—the whole family tree, in some cases. “There is nothing else here. No hospital. No specialists. And we have a lot of social determinants of health in this area,” she says. “We don’t have a grocery store. Some people don’t have access to clean drinking water. Some patients don’t have running water at all.”

​Becher’s efforts go way beyond the exam room. She writes grants after a full day in the clinic, in her spare time, to help patients keep the lights on. She hands out $50 vouchers that they can spend in a nearby store on food. And she’s always on the hunt for solutions. “We need a living wage, appropriate food subsidies, and change at the state level on a bigger scale,” she says. “I’m going to keep doing everything I can to remind everyone I can of those needs.”

To link to the article in the magazine, click here.

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WV News) — In preparation for school re-entry this September, county school systems in North Central West Virginia are placing an emphasis on mental health wellness and social-emotional learning as students head back into schools for the first time in nearly six months.

School systems and health professionals are anticipating that mental health and social-emotional wellness will have a big role in returning to school this fall.

According to Harrison Schools Special Education Curriculum Coordinator Daryle Maher, this year’s behavior and trauma professional development and trainings for educators is more important than ever because of the trauma, and social, emotional and academic needs of students after being out of school for so long.

“Our county’s former and current superintendents have been large supporters in providing additional support and professional development regarding student behavior, mental health and wellness,” he said.

“We have known students have needed this additional support and intervention. It just seemed more prominent than normal because we’ve been out of school. But this has been in the works for a while and certainly is meaningful.”

In addition to training school staff on student and employee mental health and response to trauma, the county also plans to add additional mental health clinics to Robert C. Byrd High School, Washington Irving Middle School and Nutter Fort and Wilsonburg elementary schools.

These additions will join Liberty High School, Mountaineer Middle School, Adamston and North View elementary schools as the only schools in the county with mental health school-based clinics.

“We are hoping that we can keep up with the mental health needs,” said Dr. Kevin Junkins of Community Care of West Virginia. “None of us know what’s going to happen when we open back up and students return and that’s the big thing — none of us know what tomorrow is going to hold in the pandemic. People are really anxious about it and there’s a lot of uncertainty in it.”

Junkins said it is the hope of Community Care to provide support for the students who need it, but his concern is identifying students who may be under the radar and having anxiety.

“Right now, anxiety is the normal — there are people that had no problems before the pandemic, but now meet the criteria for an anxiety disorder,” he said. “I think it’s going to be very important that we’re flexible, we reduce stigma in the schools and we let the children know that we’re there and if they are struggling or having a hard time, it’s OK to talk to us and let us know.”

For many years, Doddridge County Schools has engaged with students to create an atmosphere where they feel safe and nurtured, according to Superintendent Adam Cheeseman.
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“Our emphasis on the Holistic Child is now more important than ever before,” he said. “Our Holistic Child Department has worked over the summer to stay in contact with students, fostering the relationships they developed last year and our teachers have received additional training over the summer regarding mental health services.”

To read the article from the source, click here.

CCWV psychiatrist, Dr. Kevin Junkins, was recently interviewed for an article in the State Journal about the PAX Good Behavior Game and intervention in schools to combat the opioid and substance use crisis.

Community Care of West Virginia, or CCWV, is pushing back against the opioid crisis in the communities it serves as it continues to implement the PAX system in four county school systems: Braxton, Clay, Lewis and Upshur.

“The PAX Good Behavior Game is an evidence-based prevention strategy and a type of psychological intervention that has been implemented in schools since 1969,” said Dr. Kevin Junkins, CCWV child and adolescent psychiatrist. “The study followed 1,000 students from Baltimore city schools since 1985 for 30 years, some having the game in school and others not. The data showed a reduction in mental and behavioral disorders, teen pregnancy, substance abuse and suicide attempts.”

PAX can easily be implemented into classrooms without interruption or change to curriculum, Junkins said.

The integration draws attention and reinforces positive behaviors while holding students accountable and teaching self-regulation, he said.
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“Good behavior creates a nourishing environment in the classroom, and a lot of children that we are working with are growing up as victims of the opioid crisis need that” he said. “West Virginia is doing a better job of treating individuals after they start, but what we need to do like we have in every other epidemic is work on prevention. We have a strategy that is proven, and I think it’s important that we start utilizing this in our schools statewide.”
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To read the entire article, click here.