Why the bhworks student mental health software system works for them:
Last August, several Minnesota schools agreed to pilot a youth suicide prevention project using
federal grant funds awarded to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) from the Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
The Minnesota Department of Education and MDH identified schools and their school-linked
behavioral health systems within a 12-county priority focus area and tribal communities to implement
a system to help screen, assess, and treat K-12 students at risk for suicide.
A student mental health software system called bhworks from mdlogix was deployed. The technology
platform is already in use in schools across the country, including statewide in Michigan and a
majority of Pennsylvania.
Below two Luverne Public School health leaders describe how bhworks improved their student
behavioral and mental health work in seven months.
“We were using paper and pencil, and the more students we started servicing, the harder it was to
communicate,” said Luverne Social Worker Stacy Schepel, LCSW. “bhworks is an easy-to-navigate
platform and has given us the momentum to become more efficient.
“The software enables us to fine-tune our tier level support. It’s all synced. We can now give specific
data we generated instead of a generalization.”
Amy Cook, Luverne grades 6-12 school counselor described being skeptical at first and not wanting
to take on some new technology. She noted, “It’s been easier to use than I expected. I definitely
changed my tune. We are more effective now that we are getting consents electronically, and using
the case notes allows us to see how often we see kids.”
Stacy added, “Progress is being made in just months. We can see it in the documentation from
services of care received to discharge.
“Using bhworks has upped our game. We are more professional,” Stacy continued. “We can now
immediately refer to our organized case notes and our timeline between referral to service is quicker.”