Education Matters: Mental Health Support at Forty Carrots

By Ryan G. Van Cleave 

In 1993, Forty Carrots was created through the shared vision of Betsy Kane-Hartnett and Diane Weiss, who wanted to strengthen and enrich the lives of local families through education, outreach and support. Today, Forty Carrots is doing exactly that by providing one of the best preschool experiences in our community. But Forty Carrots does much more than just deliver first-rate education to some 90 preschoolers. They also impact the lives of 4,500+ more people per year through their parenting education programs and mental health services.

Why don’t more people, then, know about these other vital ways in which Forty Carrots helps the community? That’s largely due to the stigma around mental health, it seems. Chief Executive Officer Michelle Kapreilian notes that “while many people find no problem in having a once-a-year physical, they’re far more resistant to taking care of their mental health in the same manner. Many wrongly believe that having any mental health concern is a sign of weakness.” Nothing could be further from the truth, and that’s part of the message Forty Carrots is committed to delivering.

Though Forty Carrots is primarily focused on serving the needs of children 8 and under, their mental health services are for the entire family since healthy familial relationships are vital to a child’s well-being. Kapreilian notes that their goal is to help these children become adults who are responsible, capable, caring people who are able to effectively navigate the complex world ahead of them. That happens by not looking at a negative behavior and trying to fix it, but by uncovering WHY it happens and then working together on overcoming the root cause.

Carla Figueiredo-Johanns, the Clinical Supervisor of the Child & Family Therapy Services, says that the majority of the mental health work with children is preventative. While they have a busy clinic on Tuttle Avenue, they send out their seven full-time therapists to title 1 schools—Tuttle, Brentwood, and Fruitville Elementaries. At the first two sites, at-risk students receive individual counseling sessions. At Fruitville, they hold small group session of similarly-aged at-risk kids and offer support while helping the students work on developing their own coping skills. “Whether we meet at our clinic or at schools,” says Figueiredo-Johanns, “our main focus is to bring families together. Strong parental and family support are key for making a difference. The children have to hear the same messages at home that they do from us.”

One of the most common misconceptions about mental health and children, she reports, is that people think “Oh, they’re just kids—they’ll get over it.” Yes, they can get past early childhood trauma—and studies show that at least 1 in 5 kids are exposed to serious trauma in childhood—but that only happens with supportive adults who can help them process it in a manner that makes them feel safe and secure. “If you don’t have that ability to process it in healthy ways, then it tends to emerge in really negative ways when they’re older,” she explains. “The latest research in mental health shows that emergency room visits for children ages 5 to 18 who attempted suicide or had thoughts of suicide nearly doubled over a nine-year period in the US.” In 2015 alone, that translated into 1.12 million visits. Add in that nearly 50% of these involved kids ages 5-10 and you start to realize the scope of this issue that every community—including a supportive, affluent one like Sarasota—is facing.

Kapreilian adds that those numbers aren’t strongly correlated to a child’s socioeconomic situation. Families of all types can run into mental health challenges, and that’s why Forty Carrots does all it can to help educate people. 93% of their clients receive free services, thanks to support from donors and organizational partners. Others receive services on a sliding scale, according to their ability to pay.

Something Figueiredo-Johanns is proud of is when she receives phone calls from families who took part in Partners in Play baby classes, and now their child is eight or ten and has an issue. “It feels good that they’re reaching out to us so many years later, because we’ve been there for them in the past. They’re putting their faith in us.”

Another indicator of the many successes Forty Carrots demonstrates is through those who work there. Take Kapreilian, for example. She’s been Chief Executive Officer for seven years, but prior to that, she was a longtime volunteer and a mom there. “There are tons of us who’ve been around since the start,” she notes. “This is a very special, inclusive place. I love it here.” If that weren’t the case, the turnover rate of employees and volunteers would be dramatically higher since there are so many other local social service organizations to choose from.

As a result, the demand for their services is so high—and climbing—that they’re planning major expansions in the near future. Kapreilian hopes they’re able to double the mental health and parenting education services they offer over the next five years. While Forty Carrots currently utilizes 30 different area locations to deliver their services, they need more vans to get between them, and they’re looking for an additional building to house more of these, as well.

Forty Carrots gets it—they believe that every single child deserves the right to a childhood that’s emotionally and physically safe, and that’s filled with nurturing relationships and positive learning experiences. Thanks to the efforts of the dedicated people at Forty Carrots, more and more of our children will grow up this way, and that will lead to our community being rich with capable, caring, and respectful young people. Who doesn’t get excited about a future like that?

For more information about Forty Carrots, please visit fortycarrots.com or call 941.365.7716.