Winchendon Project receives grant

By Mike Gleason
Published On Tuesday, March 30, 2010

WINCHENDON — The Winchendon Project will continue its work providing mental health services to local students, thanks in part to a grant of $376,940 provided by the Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts.

The grant will fund the project’s third phase, which is currently being put in place in the schools.
At a recent meeting of the town’s School Committee, Chairman Michael Barbaro thanked representations from the foundation.

“I’m blown away by your financial commitment to the community,” he said. “Your continued support for our community is invaluable.”

The project’s collaboration with the schools began in January 2008.

Susan Buchholz, the program coordinator for the project, said Monday that the goal of the project overall is to lower risk factors and increase protective factors for students.

“If students have risk factors in their lives, they are more likely to engage in risky behaviors,” she said. “If they have protective factors in their lives, they are more likely to avoid such behaviors.”

Ms. Buchholz said early access to alcohol is a risk factor for the youth of Winchendon, as those who begin drinking at a younger age are more likely to become alcoholics. She said a factor that protects children and teens from such behavior is having the ability to talk with someone regarding the decisions.

Ms. Buchholz said phase three of the project began in January.

“As part of the project, we conduct an annual survey of the youth and adults in the community,” she said. “It’s our way of gathering information.”

One of the things revealed was that students and parents gauged alcohol use as higher than it actually was.

“That’s not unusual — it’s pretty common for people to think that everyone else is drinking more than they do,” she said. “The problem is, when kids feel everyone else is drinking, they’re more likely to do so themselves.”

Ms. Buchholz said the project was countering such perceptions with a “social norming” campaign.

She said, though the campaign began in response to last year’s survey, she is not expecting a large swing in this year’s results.

“The campaign can take a year or longer,” she said. “We may see some results, but I’m not anticipating a huge change.”

Ms. Buchholz said the lessons learned in Winchendon could be applied across the state.

“We’ve presented to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education,” she said. “We’ve also given a presentation to the Department of Health, about the lessons learned in integrating mental health services into the school.”

She said the program must provide services to the students while ensuring the services do not interfere with instruction.