ZEELAND, MI (WHTC-AM/FM) –When classes resume in earnest along the Lakeshore in August, an effort to prevent youths from taking their own lives will also resume in earnest.
Spectrum Health had set up its “Blue Envelope” program in order to address this increased need for the general public, and the School Blue Envelope effort was created by Spectrum and Zeeland Community Hospital through a countywide task force looking to replicate this program in a school environment. On June 24, 2021, the School Blue Envelope program won a $5,000 grant from the Michigan Health and Hospital Association as a winner of the 2021 Ludwig Community Benefit Award, one of three such awards given statewide.
Jodie Reimink, a community programs specialist with ZCH, says that this is an “all hands on deck” effort.
“The thinking is that everyone has a role in order to help keep patients and their colleagues’ safe,” she said on “WHTC Wellspring” in a recent appearance. “There’s training provided to all staff in exactly how to keep them safe.”
Spectrum Health officials say that the School Blue Envelope program “may have potentially saved 510 lives to date through training more than 950 school employees to have critical conversations with youth in crisis, impacting over 12,000 students.” The program will include 14 middle and high schools in Allegan, Ottawa and Kent counties this fall.
Comments