Pond pivots to meet mental health needs

For years, students and faculty in the College of Allied Health and Nursing have helped families get the health care they needed at Health Commons at Pond, a free and charitable school-based clinic located in Bloomington, Minnesota. Typical services include vaccinations and immunizations, vision, hearing and dental screenings, routine checkups, illness visits and sports physicals. One area in which they hadn’t offered services was mental health—until now.

“The pandemic wreaked havoc on all of us, especially on the children,” says Dr. Pat Beierwaltes, an associate professor in the School of Nursing and pediatric nurse practitioner. “We saw a huge number of children coming in with mental health needs, depressive symptoms and anxiety.”

Mental health services offered at Pond, which are now provided by nursing in conjunction with the department of Social Work, allows students to gain real-world experience while working with faculty clinicians.

“Now that we are screening every child for adverse childhood events (ACEs) and every family for social determinants of health, the numbers that we have identified in need of mental health services continues to climb,” says Beierwaltes.

Between nurse practitioners who have an interest in children with behavioral health issues and licensed clinical social workers, patients can be seen independently or be referred if there’s warranted intervention beyond their scope.

Matthew Frank, a Master of Social Work alumni, completed his practicum at Pond and said the opportunity was a great experience.

“I was honored to be a small part of the Clinic,” Frank said. “I believe the mental health services helped the students by providing extra support to explore thoughts, feelings and concerns they may be experiencing at that time.” traditionuntilCOVID for—hasbeenapopularservice Butresidents.thepickup—ratherthanwerethejunkdrop-offeventsthatheldinthepandemicyears—arealsomorecostlyand burdensomeforthecitystreet

Factory subdueworkers gunman

In addition to mental health and nursing services, students and faculty have also been able to provide services such as health and wellness events and speechlanguage pathology at Pond.

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