While Gov. Tony Evers declared this as the “year of mental health” in his budget address last month, one psychotherapist says the budget leaves an important component — mental health practitioners.
Melissa Olsen is one of the owners of the Psychotherapy Center of Waunakee. Under a model she and the center’s co-founder have developed, the therapists work with local school districts to treat students they refer.
Olsen asked a number of questions about Gov. Evers’ budget during a recent listening session with state Rep. Alex Joers and Sen. Dianne Hesselbein, both Democrats from Middleton.
Olsen and fellow therapist John Weiss began the practice in February of 2020. The center includes school-based mental health practitioners who are in 12 different districts in Dane County and others beyond. The number of children has risen from 15% of the center’s caseload initially to 50% in December, Weiss told the newspaper then.
Olsen said the center uses a model from Minnesota, which she called “one of the leading states when it comes to funding mental health.
“They are probably one of the Midwest role models when it comes to funding mental health. However, Wisconsin is probably one of the ones at the bottom here,” Olsen said.
She and other providers have noticed that mental health grants broken out from the budget all go to school districts.
“The schools then have to have a community partner, but they can’t use the grant for direct services,” Olsen said. “When you think about it, it’s not helping the kids.”
The grants go to professional development rather than one-to-one mental health treatment for students, she said.
School districts like Waunakee, DeForest and Lodi pay no fee to work with the Psychotherapy Center of Waunakee. The services are typically funded through the parents’ or guardians’ insurance. In cases where families lack insurance, are in a high-deductible plan, or out-of-network, the Psychotherapy Center of Waunakee provides its services at no cost.
“We see so many kids pro-bono because the funds are tied up because they can’t go to us. And we’re considered for-profit,” Olsen said.
While the community and state may hear about the funds going into mental health, Olsen said that’s not the case.
“We need to figure it out,” she said. “We’re on the floor. We’re doing the hard work.”
Joers said he recently met with UW-Madison students who also asked for additional mental resources going to college campuses.
“Their public health offices have waitlists a mile long of just students to get those services,” Joers said. “This is why we host these [listening sessions], so we know what our constituents are asking us to ask for.”
Olsen said when they began the practice, the only partner school district was DeForest. Now, with Stoughton signing on, the practice has between 12 and 13 districts it works with; the number of therapists has grown to 14 with another two hired that day, Olsen said.
“It’s all going to schools. In the last week alone, we had 42 referrals,” she added. “And we’re not closing our doors; we’re going to keep hiring.”
Olsen and Weiss have stepped back from both managing the clinic and their full-time practice and are slowing down with their client work, Olsen said.
“We are dedicating time to go to the Capital and talk and have these meetings,” Olsen said. Hesselbein said the two will look into the issue.
“We will try to dig a little deeper to figure this thing out,” she said. “That’s why these [listening sessions] are so important.”
Joers and Hesselbein began the session by providing some key points to the budget and explaining the process.
The governor introduced his budget Feb. 15. Joers said the budget invests in areas they’ve heard are of significant concern to constituents.
The budget now goes to the Legislature, specifically the Joint Finance Committee comprising mainly Republicans but also some Democrats “advocating for issues that are important to constituents in our district,” Joers said.
The JFC will then host public hearings then make amendments before it goes back to the Assembly and Senate then finally to the Governor to be signed into law, vetoed, or partially vetoed.
The biennial budget begins July 1.
Some of the major items include a 10% tax decrease for middle class taxpayers. It also invests in public schools and health care access.
Hesselbein called the $2.6 proposed investment in public schools “historic,” adding “everybody’s pretty excited about it.”
She added that Republican colleagues are also saying they want a public investment in public schools.
Joers added that the budget increases reimbursement rates for special education.
“As our districts have been struggling with operational costs and having to go to referendum, I know that an increase in the special education reimbursement rate will be definitely helpful for schools as they’re looking into their operational costs into the future,” Joers said.
