Free mental health counseling sessions waiting to be used

Thousands of dollars and nearly a hundred of hours in free counseling sessions remain unused at Fernbrook Family Center in Rochester.
The city of Kasson pre-paid $20,000 of its CARES Act funds to Fernbrook, with city leaders deciding mental health is an important facet of community life. Another $5,000 was allocated elsewhere, including to the fire department for a few public service announcements related to mental health care that can be seen on YouTube.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness also hosted some suicide prevention classes, as funded by the city of Kasson, called Question Persuade Refer (QPR). 
“It’s important for every city to be doing it,” said NAMI executive director Sean Kinsella. “I was super happy that Kasson decided to take some of its CARES dollars and utilize it to provide training for the entire residency of Kasson.”
“That is progressive thinking. They were the only city that decided to do that.”
Mayor Chris McKern was a strong proponent for the formation of the Kasson Community Mental Health Initiative. David Sabotta, representing Fernbrook Family Center in the local Chamber of Commerce, said he heard about a program in Rochester where dentists offer free dental appointments, and he thought Kasson should have a similar offering except within the realm of mental health care. 
“We should remove barriers for people to get this service,” said David Sabotta, clinical director for the Fernbrook Family Center in Rochester.
For the free Fernbrook sessions, you need to live in Kasson or attend a Kasson-Mantorville school. If you meet those criteria, you can call Fernbrook and say you’re interested in a mental health care consult, Sabotta said. Fernbrook therapists have time set aside to provide this service Kasson residents. 
Sabotta said the program is intended to offer brief support, or to get a foot in the door of the mental health care world to see if this is something residents can benefit from. So far, 13 people have scheduled free therapy sessions at Fernbrook. 
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“There’s no limit on severity,” Sabotta said. “Everyone benefits from mental health counseling. I haven’t found one person yet who wouldn’t benefit from talking to someone for an hour to talk through their thoughts and feelings.”
If a person requires ongoing, long-term care, Fernbrook can offer a referral. 
Sabotta said Fernbrook staff is looking at as many ways as possible to support the community, including providing educational webinars on YouTube on topics such as ‘How do we cope?’ and ‘How do we create healthy boundaries at home?’
“My hope is that people will utilize these prepaid sessions at Fernbrook and then I can go back to the city and say, ‘Hey, this program is working.’ I’d really like to be able to demonstrate the benefit of it but if people aren’t going to use it I worry that future funds will be directed elsewhere,” Sabotta said. 
When it comes to mental health care, the biggest challenge is a lack of therapists, Sabotta said.
“The state of Minnesota is one of the most underserved states in the nation,” he said. “There are just not enough therapists. It puts a real limit on our ability to serve people. It can take four to six weeks to get into a place. That’s the other thing I really like about our program, we can schedule you for the next week or the week after and get people help immediately, which is when they need it.”
“The most important thing is everyone can benefit from this,” Sabotta said. “People are struggling. We saw a dramatic increase in the numbers of people utilizing our service. For a city to recognize that and put it on the forefront says so much about the leadership of Kasson and the people of Kasson. 
“Everything we know about mental health is that the core factors are genetic predisposition and environmental stress. We know we’ve seen a lot more stress in the last year. People who were previously happy and healthy have had to deal with a lot more mental health issues.” 
Tim Ibisch, city administrator for Kasson, said if the allocated funds aren’t used, they will be returned to the city. But he said he hopes people step forward and use them. 
“We all know that the last year and a half have been tough,” Ibisch said. “But even before that, KM has had issues with young people. We want people to know there are mental health issues and they can get help if they need it, and there’s no stigma. They call Fernbrook directly. We just want people to get the help that they need.” 
To get an appointment at Fernbrook or to get more information about the Kasson Community Health Initiative, call Fernbrook at 507-446-0431.