Photo by Ryan Gladstone / St. Joseph News-Press

When Dianne Redden needed help with her 5-year-old granddaughter’s mental illness, Circle of H.O.P.E. (Home Opportunities Parents & Professionals Empowerment) was there to help. Mrs. Redden now serves on several Circle of H.O.P.E. committees and has attended a number of training sessions around the Midwest.

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Diane Redden didn’t know what to do with her granddaughter a couple of years ago. The 5-year-old girl ripped holes in her furniture with a knife. In another emotional episode, it took seven people, including a police officer, to get her on an ambulance stretcher.

“I didn’t know what to do. I freaked out,” said Mrs. Redden who has custody, along with her husband, Mike, of her granddaughter and two other small grandchildren.

Doctors couldn’t help her and the treatment centers where she took her granddaughter gave up hope.

“They told me ‘you just have to live with it,’” Mrs. Redden.

Circle of H.O.P.E (Home Opportunities Parents & Professionals Empowerment) showed Mrs. Redden how to live with it.

Circle of H.O.P.E formed two years ago after a group of community mental health and service providers banded together to receive a potential $9 million System of Care grant through the Missouri Department of Mental Health. The grant provides funding to help communities develop a coordinated network of services for children with serious mental health needs. It also provides for these agencies to develop a comprehensive plan of care by working together with youths and their families.

Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day is Thursday. And Circle of H.O.P.E. hopes to bring about awareness to the community of the mental health needs of children.

“We believe Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day is a time to promote the significance of those mental health and emotional issues for children in the community and to help the community better understand the impact it has on children,” said Andrea Aderton, Circle of H.O.P.E. project director.

Mrs. Aderton said that about 20 percent of youths have some sort of mental or emotional challenge. Circle of H.O.P.E. already has completed 35 youth mental health screenings, with about another 25 involved in services through some capacity.

At least 20 more families meet each month to offer each other support and discuss issues.

But Mrs. Aderton said those numbers could be even higher through more awareness. That’s why it’s important to educate the community on the issue of mental illness.

Charles Salanski, executive director for the Center: A Samaritan Center, a partner agency, said Circle of H.O.P.E. is unique in the fact that part of its board is made up of members who have children with mental health needs. It’s also unique in its streamlining approach to services..

“They may have to go to three, four, five different agencies ... here you have one point of entry, whether it be school district or primary physician,” he said. “Whatever point of entry they come in, the team works together to find the best way to treat the person.”

Dr. Robert Permut added that another unique component of Circle of H.O.P.E. is its family involvement. Family members help in the coordination of service needs.

“(A client) might need a minister or somebody from the faith-based community, they might need a social worker or a physician so the family begins to have a say in what support they need,” he said. “That’s one of the things that differentiates this approach from what we might call standard, sometimes disjointed kind of treatment approach.”

Mrs. Redden got involved with Circle of H.O.P.E. last fall at the urging of a friend. She now serves on several Circle of H.O.P.E. committees. And she said the program has provided tremendous help for her family.

“(Mental illness) is not just a children problem; it’s a community problem,” she said.

Alonzo Weston can be reached

at alonzow@npgco.com.