We’re in business to provide services that our community needs … so we want to make sure that we don’t miss anybody and that they know that these services are available and hopefully help families.
McALLEN — After three years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic people are now enduring the effects it had on both physical and mental well-being.
For Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez and Hope Family Health Center, prioritizing the well-being of student mental health post-COVID-19 has become a top priority.
Cortez partnered with the Hope Family Health Center to provide funds for its post-COVID-19 initiative that will focus on the recovery efforts for students.
According to Roxanne Ramirez, executive director at Hope Family Health Center, 16 school districts in Hidalgo County will be participating in the initiative.
“Fifty individuals are being trained in the EMDR modality, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy,” Ramirez said. “It’s a different modality that’s going to equip them to go back and help students and to make healing possible.”
EMDR therapy is a practice that focuses on changing the emotions, thoughts and behaviors correlated with distressing experiences. The therapy will allow the brain to resume its “natural healing process,” according to a press release.
Each counselor will receive a two-part training that is funded by Cortez, who invested $60,000 in the initiative. The counselors will receive a three-day training in April that will later be followed by another three-day training in September.
According to Cortez, many school districts in the area have seen a decline in student performance since the start of the pandemic, much of which they attribute to mental health.
“We’re in business to provide services that our community needs … so we want to make sure that we don’t miss anybody and that they know that these services are available and hopefully help families,” Cortez said.
