Some of the youngest students in Clark County will have access to mental health services.

It comes through a partnership between Southern Behavioral and the Clark County School District.

We're starting to see more and more at a younger age, more disruptive behavior or, you know, things that are are concerning to a family or a teacher at a younger age than what we've seen historically.

But, you know, you just see the trends in that and more.

More is needed because they don't know what to do with it.

They're not used to it.

They don't know when when a kid's starting to talk about hurting themselves or someone else or, you know, someone is becoming aggressive and they don't know how to manage that behavior.

It's it's kind of scary for the teacher who doesn't know how to handle it.

And I think the more school systems that we talk to, the more we're learning that elementary is actually where the need is.

It's where it's so unfamiliar because the behaviors that you see in front of you isn't always a great indication on the face value of what the kids are experiencing.

This program is really going to fill that gap for students that need something that's a bit more intensive than what we are currently offering.

And really the goal being to equip them with the skills and the strategies that they need in order to be successful in their typical classroom.

As we talk more and more with the schools about how we meet their need in their community without without obviously taking the hospital to them, the best case would be that we could take our intensive services to them.

And so that's how the partnership started develop, started to develop more and more from that.

From that conversation on how do we get kids the treatment they need in the environment that's convenient for families so they'll actually get more from it and be able to stay enrolled in it a little longer than what they might be if it's only, you know, an hour away from them.

The classroom is housed at Concord, but it's a district program, so it will serve any student in Clark County.

Really targeting early elementary is our target, but we would consider up through fifth grade.

The goal would be to have them in the program for around 6 to 8 weeks.

But of course, with the partnership with Sun, we will continue to monitor, do frequent assessments to determine what is the appropriate length of stay in the programs.

Mental health impacts so many aspects of our daily functioning.

And yes, children are in school buildings for extended periods of time, nine months out of the year, 8 hours out of the day.

So the more that we can reduce those barriers for students and families to be able to access those mental health supports, I think the better off that we're all going to be And collectively as a community, we're going to yield really positive impacts.

This allows students to receive the care that they need in a place that is familiar and comfortable.

And it reduces a big transition because for a student to leave school and have to report to an outpatient facility, that's a stressor in itself.

So it reduces some of that level of of stress.

This sort behavioral center at Concrete Elementary will be open during school hours Monday through Friday.