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Ichabod Crane schools to get county mental health clinic
Jeanette Wolfberg is reporting in The Columbia Paper the Columbia County Board of Supervisors Human Services Committee has voted to recommend a new satellite mental health clinic be established in the Ichabod Crane School District, even though a similar clinic already exists in the Valatie Medical Arts building located near the school. The school administrators are seeing “students in distress,” said Michael Cole, director of human services for the county. Cole said the help that school counselors can provide to these students is limited because they are trained in areas other than mental health services. He also mentioned another advantage of offering services at the school, saying, “We are seeing less stigmatizing” of students who use special services discretely in the school rather than traveling off school grounds. In addition, the school “is a safe environment,” with many people considering it safer than the offsite facility. The county agency already runs satellite mental health clinics in other schools in the county. Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.