Rotary Club of St. Croix Launches Initiative to Boost Youth Mental Health through Scholarships

The Rotary Club of St. Croix Harborside, under the leadership of President Sandra Gerard Leung, has taken a monumental step forward in enhancing mental health care for the youth by offering twenty scholarships for Pediatric Primary Care Practitioners (PPCPs). These scholarships are dedicated to funding specialized training at the prestigious Boston Children’s Hospital, focusing on the course titled “Building Bridges of Understanding: Behavioral Health Education for Pediatric Primary Care.”

President Gerard Leung elaborated on the course’s goals, stating it is meticulously crafted to provide an in-depth understanding of how to identify, assess, and manage common mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder within primary care environments. The ultimate objective of this initiative is to empower PPCPs with the knowledge and skills needed to effectively recognize and diagnose mental health conditions in children and adolescents.

This initiative is supported through a grant awarded by the 2023 District 7020 Conference Committee and represents a collaborative effort with the Mental Health Initiatives Rotary Action Group and the Rotary Club of Naples, Florida, aiming to foster better health outcomes within the community.

Bob Anthony, the chair of the Mental Health Initiatives Rotary Action Group, underscored the significant impact this training could have, with the potential for each trained PPCP to positively affect the care of over a thousand youths each year. The comprehensive training and the resources provided, such as toolkits, are designed to assist both parents and practitioners in managing and addressing common mental health symptoms more swiftly and effectively.

Dr. Salvatore Anzalone, the Pediatric Medical Director at Healthcare Network, who has championed similar initiatives in Florida, praised the program for its potential to enable non-psychiatrist medical professionals to provide competent mental health care. Dr. Anzalone highlighted the critical importance of early intervention, noting, “It’s satisfying knowing that if not for your efforts, that child would not have gotten care.”

Addressing a disturbing statistic that, on average, it takes ten years from the first appearance of symptoms until a diagnosis of mental illness is made in children—with only half receiving a diagnosis—the Rotary Harborside’s initiative aims to drastically cut down this delay.

For those interested in learning more about this transformative initiative, please contact 340-771-4420 or send an email to lizgiggins@gmail.com.