The Community Times Dispatch

Grant to provide mental health care professional on school site over three years Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina Foundation presented a $52,414 grant check to Ruffin Middle School to provide a mental health care professional designated specifically to that school, on Friday, May 16, 2008 in Hardeeville, South Carolina.

Ruffin Middle School Principal Harry Jenkins said he received a letter from Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina Foundation stating that the school had been accepted as a recipient of a grant a week prior. He said that things are being put in place to ensure that a mental health counselor will be in place at the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year.

?It?s a blessing for us to receive such support?not only in the form of an employee, but one that is going to make such a big difference,? said Jenkins. I can see that the mental state of the child certainly interferes with the academic. If we can work on the mental state, we can certainly cross over into the academic.?

Jenkins said that while this is the first time in the region, the practice has been observed in other schools across South Carolina in years past. According to the South Carolina Department of Mental Health, the first full-time school-based mental health professional was placed in 2003.