The Joe Burrow Foundation announced the launch of a new training and consulting program in partnership with Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, to help Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Health’s school-based health centers support students’ mental health needs.
Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Health will be the first health center to implement The Burrow Blueprint. The initiative will launch across its seven school-based health centers located within the East Baton Rouge Parish School System.
Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Health, Health Care Centers in Schools (HCCS) clinics offer same-day access to medical and behavioral health services. In the 2024–2025 school year, HCCS provided more than 12,000 student visits, 6,836 for medical care, and 5,180 for behavioral health services, including individual and group counseling. Services include well-child checks, immunizations, sick visits, management of chronic conditions, counseling, crisis intervention, and health education. The program also includes a Mobile Health Unit that reaches students in neighborhoods and school communities with limited access to care.
School-based health center teams, in collaboration with school staff, play a critical role in supporting students’ overall health needs and providing timely care. The new Burrow Blueprint program is designed to give school-based primary care teams the tools they need to confidently address student mental health needs through education and training on primary care mental health diagnosis and evidenced based treatments, peer-to-peer support, and connection to child and adolescent psychiatry specialists for consultation.
“In our hometown of Athens, Ohio, access to mental health resources was extremely limited. This is common across the United States, as more than half of rural counties have zero psychiatrists,” said Robin Burrow, secretary and treasurer of The Joe Burrow Foundation. “We know primary care providers are the first point of contact for families dealing with a mental health concern, but they might not always feel like they have the expertise to treat mental health issues. The goal of the Burrow Blueprint is about building capacity, fostering connections and improving outcomes in the mental health space.”
Nationwide Children’s has been offering primary care mental health through its School Health Services in its 20 school-based health centers for nearly 10 years. As a result of its work in this space, 97% of students with behavioral health concerns seen at a school-based health center were managed by primary care providers and did not have to be seen by a behavioral health specialist during the 2023-2024 school year.
As part of The Burrow Blueprint, Nationwide Children’s will provide technical assistance and online training modules for the providers located in Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Health school-based health centers.
The Burrow Blueprint’s education and training modules will cover topics such as integrated care and treatment of commons conditions like anxiety, depression, and ADHD. In addition, providers will have peer-to-peer check-ins and will establish connections with psychiatric experts for consultations and, if necessary, follow-up care.
“Our model empowers school-based primary care teams to confidently address student mental health needs in their local communities,” said Mary Kay Irwin, EdD, senior director, school health services at Nationwide Children’s. “By supporting primary care providers in this way, we've reduced psychiatry wait time by almost four months. When this type of service is provided in schools, it allows students to stay in school and attain better academic achievement.”
Listening to the unique needs of each community is a critical component of the Burrow Blueprint. Participants in the program provide feedback to team members at Nationwide Children’s on their community’s needs and consult on the development of the programmatic components.
“We are honored to be the first partner to implement The Burrow Blueprint,” said Jonathan Brouk, president, Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Health. “This initiative reflects our mission to bring healing and hope to those we serve, especially children and families in need. By expanding mental health resources into our school-based clinics, we’re helping remove barriers to care and meeting students where they are. We’re grateful to The Joe Burrow Foundation and Nationwide Children’s Hospital for their partnership in this important work.”
The Burrow Blueprint will officially launch at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Health’s Health Care Centers in Schools in August and is expected to expand to additional school-based health centers nationwide this fall.