Darcey Meridith has spent decades supporting children and families in Wayne County, and in this episode she pulls back the curtain on what’s really happening inside our schools, homes, and community systems. On this episode of the WWN podcast, she traces her path from Earlham College to leading Children and Family Services at Centerstone, then breaks down the pressures kids face today, from trauma to technology to the lingering effects of COVID. Darcey also talks with host Kate Jetmore about why school-based mental health care is so critical, where access is falling short, and how Wayne County’s collaborative approach is quietly making a difference. Enjoy!
Transcript
Darcey Meridith: I’m Darcey Meridith, and I’m the Vice President of Children and Family Services at Centerstone of Indiana.
Kate Jetmore: From Civic Spark Media and the Western Wayne News in Wayne County, Indiana, I’m Kate Jetmore. As a native of Richmond, Indiana, I’m excited to be sitting down with some of our neighbors and listening to the stories that define our community.
My guest today is Darcey Meridith, who’s a licensed clinical social worker residing in Richmond, Indiana. Originally from West Lafayette, she graduated from Earlham College in 1990 with a degree in Human Development and Social Relations.
After working as an admissions counselor at Earlham, she went on to earn a Master’s degree in Social Work from Indiana University. Following graduate school, she became employed at Centerstone Indiana, where she currently serves as the Vice President for Children and Family Services.
Welcome, Darcy. I’m so glad you could join me on the show today.
Darcey Meridith: Thank you. Thanks for having me, Kate.
Kate Jetmore: Yeah, let’s start with your story. What was it that led you to social work, and would you consider social work a calling?
Darcey Meridith: Yeah. Well, as a student at Earlham, I didn’t declare a major for a long time, but I took a lot of classes in psychology and sociology and anthropology, and I realized eventually that all the courses I was taking fell under the Human Development and Social Relations major.
So it seemed like a natural fit to go with HDSR as my major. And then really in a couple of those classes, one in particular, we read a book called The Family Crucible, and it’s by Gus Napier and Carl Whitaker.
And it really hit home. It was about a family. It was based on a conglomerate of real families that these guys had worked with and they wrote a fictional story about a family going through family counseling and it started with the daughter having problems. They brought her to counseling, it ended up being family counseling, and eventually marriage counseling, and just the whole dynamics. I mean that book really put me on the path to wanting to go into the field of counseling.
And then as I talked to people in the field, social work was kind of recommended because it’s so broad. It’s interdisciplinary, similar to HDSR, and you can do a lot of things with a social work degree. So that’s why I chose a Masters in Social Work in particular.
Kate Jetmore: That’s fascinating. Actually, while you were talking about that book I jotted down the title, because I might need to get it for myself.
Darcey Meridith: I mean, it’s 40 years old probably.
Kate Jetmore: Yeah, but it still sounds fascinating. I mean, what you said about, well, it starts with the daughter. I mean, I think that’s probably more common than people realize a lot of the time. Because, you know, you see sort of the problem, this is the person with the problem, and then you realize they’re part of a greater system, right?
Darcey Meridith: Yes, yes, family systems theory.
Kate Jetmore: Well, tell us a little bit about some of the kinds of social work and community services that you’ve been involved in providing over the years.
I know you very specifically mention that social work is a broad field, and there are many different ways that you can engage. So tell us a little bit about your path.
Darcey Meridith: OK, well, I originally thought I wanted to go into social work to do marriage counseling, couples counseling. But my first, my Master’s internship was at what was formerly Dunn Center, and is now Centerstone.
So I did my internship there, in the kids’ services department and that’s how I got into children’s services. But you also involve the family in children’s services, so I was working with families. I started as… Well, after my internship I got hired on as a therapist. So I was a therapist there and eventually became a team leader, so I was supervising some other folks, mostly case managers who were working on life skills with parents and kids.
And then that evolved into working in a day treatment program, which is an intensive therapy program for kids like several hours, five days a week. So it’s intensive group therapy for kids.
From there, I began to manage that program, and then I moved over to foster care to run a foster care program. We were not a licensed child placement agency at the time, but we did foster parent training and support. So I really, I worked in foster care for about 12 years of my career, which was the bulk of it.
During that time, I also, just as a side note, became an adoptive mom myself. So I have a real passion for foster care and adoption. And that really kind of became my passion, and just supporting people who are willing to be foster parents and also the reunification process, kids going back home, if possible. That’s the best-case scenario.
And then an opening came up for being over all of children’s services at Centerstone.
In the meantime, we had merged. Dunn Center had merged with a larger mental health center called Centerstone. And so I became the director and then the vice president for that program.
So we, I still oversee the foster care program. We also provide a lot of community-based services, school-based services. You know, we do therapy, life skills, group, and that’s under my program. And then of course, the agency provides additional services outside of that. But we serve about 25 counties throughout the state. So it’s a pretty big scope.
Kate Jetmore: It really is. It really is. And when you say you serve 25 counties, does that mean that you do some traveling? Are you going to these different counties?
Darcey Meridith: Yeah. Well, I certainly used to more often before COVID. During COVID, we all went remote. Like, I no longer have an office in any building, I work from home. But I do, as you know, quarantine ended, I’ve started, we’ve started getting together in central locations for meetings.
And I have gone out to offices, I have not been out to see all of my offices on a regular basis since then, but I need to get back to that. But yeah, there is a lot of travel.
Kate Jetmore: Yeah. Wow. Things really changed, didn’t they? Once we realized we could do so many things remotely. Well, Darcey, both nationally and I would even say internationally, it seems like we’re in a time of really acute need around social services and mental health services. And I think that families, schools and children are all seeing a new level and a new kind of challenges.
So what can you share from your role in social services when it comes to different dynamics and trends that you’ve seen in recent years?
Darcey Meridith: Well obviously, COVID has played a part. It’s contributed to some things. So I’ll get to that. But outside of that, one in five kids have mental health issues.
And a lot of that is related to trauma. And with trauma, what comes to mind usually is abuse or neglect.
That’s not the only kind of trauma there is. Trauma can come from poverty, food insecurity, homelessness, parents with mental health issues, substance abuse issues.
So we’ve made a big push to be more trauma-informed and also help educators even be aware of trauma that a kid might be dealing with at home or has dealt with, because that impacts how they’re able to function in school and with their peers and in their communities.
So that’s a long-standing issue with kids over time. But then COVID also had a big impact on kids’ mental health, kids being isolated, not being around their friends or teachers. The isolation led to less physical activity, less physical exercise. Education struggled when kids went home and tried to do everything remotely.
The quarantine, I think, contributed to depression and anxiety, whether it was the kids themselves or the parents, which impacts the kids.
They’re also, when you come to, like, abuse and neglect, a lot of people who report that are teachers or clergy, people who see kids and families. And when they were isolated, reports of abuse and neglect went down. But I think it was because, not that it wasn’t happening, but nobody was there to witness and report it.
So that certainly contributed. Then some other things that are much more recent are cell phones and social media. And those have a big impact on kids, on their mental health, self-esteem, and also their education.
There have been… Well, because kids’ brains aren’t fully developed, they have a harder time managing all this information coming at them at once. And so, having a phone in front of you 24/7 and scrolling really impacts your ability to retain information. And so it does affect kids’ schoolwork.
There’s actually been some recent studies about places that have banned phones. I read one study where you could have your phone, but you couldn’t have it on. Or you could have it in your bag, but you couldn’t have it out. And then one where you couldn’t have it in the classroom at all.
And at each level, students did better. They retained more information and they did better on tests when the phone was completely out of the room. If the phone was even out, there was a difference between it being out or in your bag. So just having it present was a distraction to people.
And then, of course, social media. I’m sure you’ve read a lot about social media, how it can impact kids’ self-esteem, it can contribute to cyberbullying, it can contribute to depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation.
One other study I just read about banning cell phones from schools led to a surprising increase, maybe not surprising, but an increase in kids checking out library books.
Like, it increased exponentially because they didn’t have their phones, they couldn’t scroll during lunch breaks or in the hall, and they started checking out library books.
So that was kind of an unintended consequence, but a positive one.
Kate Jetmore: Yeah, how interesting. My son, when he was in 10th grade, he went to a different school, he had a year away from his usual school, and at that school, cell phones were allowed. And so, of course, he loved that. You know, everyone had their cell phones out.
He had his out. He had all this freedom to do whatever he wanted to. And, of course, I had my opinions about that. But that was the policy at the school. And so, you know, we all went with it.
Well, when he came back to his usual school, and by that time he was in 11th grade, there were no cell phones allowed in the classroom. That had been the policy before he left. And it was the policy that he came back to. And, you know, it was the same school system, but a different school.
And so there were some new kids. He was navigating some new friendships and stuff. And he had a little bit of a hard time when he reentered the system. And I asked him, you know, well, you did this last year. Last year, you went to a brand-new school.
So let’s think this through. How did you navigate it last year?
And he said, Mom, everyone had their phones. So it wasn’t an issue because we were all just looking at our phones. And that’s why it’s so awkward this year, because I’m not allowed to have my phone and I don’t know what to do.
Which is exactly what our kids need. They need to be in that environment where they have to figure it out, you know, all that inter-relational, you know, mucking around until we figure it out, right?
Darcey Meridith: Right, right. Yeah. And it’s interesting, because I’m not anti-cell phone.
Obviously, there are a lot of good benefits. And in some ways, kids that are really isolated, it helps them stay connected. So there are some positive, even social positive aspects of it.
But as far as education, especially, it is a distraction and the distraction from interacting with your peers, and also just, you know, retaining the information that’s coming at you.
Kate Jetmore: Exactly. Well, Darcy, you shared quite a few different things that you’ve done over the course of your career, and also that I think you’re currently doing in your job.
Which of these issues are you sort of most concerned with or most focused on at the moment?
Darcey Meridith: Well, we have a really large school-based services program and I think it’s especially great when we can go into schools and provide mental health services in the school, because that’s where kids are and that’s also where they’re having a lot of their problems.
Now, it’s really important to involve the parents still because parents are a very important part of treatment. But when kids are struggling in school or having a meltdown or whatever and they can call us in and we can help the child deescalate right there on the spot, then they can return to the classroom and be able to learn.
And it also helps the whole class not be disrupted.
So I think our school-based services doing mental health work in school is excellent, because that’s also where teachers have a lot of insight into kids, and they can help make referrals, or we can also help support the teachers and the faculty with issues about mental health.
Kate Jetmore: What are the current challenges that you see when it comes to bringing in services for the populations that will benefit from them most in Wayne County?
Darcey Meridith: Access to services is an issue. One, we have a mental health professional shortage. We have a shortage of therapists. I wouldn’t say in the state. I would say probably in the country, maybe in the world.
But so Indiana Council, the Indiana Council of Community Mental Health Centers is a consortium of all the mental health centers in Indiana, and they actually go into schools, whether high schools or colleges, to kind of help recruit people who might be interested, just starting young to recruit people into the field.
Now with COVID, we got used to doing teletherapy, and in many ways that’s a great resource, because if we have a shortage in some rural county, we can access therapists from somewhere else who can do teletherapy, which is great.
Now, the issue with that, though, is with young kids, it can be kind of hard, harder. That’s where screen time comes in handy a little bit because kids are growing up with screens, they’re used to doing things on screens, But as far as engaging in therapy or doing life skills where you want to, you know, we often use games when we’re working with kids, playing a game where they learn to follow directions and take turns and deal with disappointment or losing. That’s harder to do via tele.
So we learned a lot about bringing services to people during COVID, we would actually, at some points, take an iPad, set it on the porch, go back to the car, they’d pick up the iPad, and we’d do teletherapy from the driveway as a way to connect, because we couldn’t see them face-to-face.
So that was really helpful, and it’s helped us, you know, post-COVID to be able to use teletherapy, but it’s still hard with younger kids, and it’s hard to do family therapy because it’s hard to get everybody on screen at once.
Kate Jetmore: Right, and the other thing that comes to me is confidentiality. I mean, sometimes kids need to share things about their parents or about their family situation. That’s something they need to talk to in private about with their therapist. And if they’re on a screen and their mom’s right in the kitchen listening, they might be more reticent.
Darcey Meridith: Yes, that’s definitely an issue, too. But I will say, as far as access to care, we now have, you know, we have 988, which is a national number for mental health issues or suicide.
It’s like a 911, but for mental health. And that’s been great.
We also have, a lot of community mental health centers have a Stride center, which is like a 24/7 drop-in place, which helps instead of people going to the emergency room when they’re having a crisis. If it’s a mental health crisis, they can come to the Stride center. And we have mobile crisis units that can go out into the communities. And so even when law enforcement sometimes gets involved with someone in the community who’s having a hard time, rather than take them to jail or to the emergency room, they can come to a Stride center and get mental health help right there. And then they can get connected with services that way. So while access is an issue, we’ve done a lot to improve that in Indiana, at least. So that’s been an issue that we face, but now we’re remedying that.
Kate Jetmore: Mm-hmm. What conversations do you wish Wayne County leaders were having more of around social services, mental health, and related topics in the community?
Darcey Meridith: OK well, I will say Wayne County, over the years, has become really excellent at coming together as a community. The Mental Health Center here has a good relationship with probation, with the courts, with DCS, with the schools. So we have a lot of great folks in all of those agencies who work well together.
We also have something called Systems of Care, which is a program that brings all resources together. They have monthly meetings where they can come together and talk about issues or sharing resources. So that’s a great program that has developed in Wayne County.
I think that continuing those conversations is good. I mean, our probation and DCS and schools have come so far in that, rather than wanting to punish kids or families who are struggling or acting out or getting into trouble with the law. They’re really focused on getting them help and getting them services that they need rather than, you know, locking them up.
So we’ve just really come a long way and we have great relationships with those folks. So I think just continuing those conversations and continuing to make people aware of them and what all the resources are.
Kate Jetmore: Yeah, I mean, wow, that’s really encouraging, that really inspires hope, what you’ve just shared.
As we wrap up, Darcey, I’m wondering if you would like to share with our listeners what some of those resources are.
If there’s anyone out there who’s thinking, I need help, my child needs help, or we just need a little more support, and some of the things that Darcey’s talking about, I think, would be great. Where can they access, you know, how can they reach you or how can they access some of those resources?
Darcey Meridith: OK well, we have several mental health providers in Wayne County. So Centerstone is a big one. We have Meridian Services, which is also a community mental health center.
If kids are in schools, usually the teachers or administrators will know how to connect families with mental health providers, so asking there.
There’s you know, there are a lot of resources like Birth to Five and Head Start and just for all, you know, different ages.
So Birth to Five is a great resource for families with babies even to get the resources that they need, whether they’re about developmental issues or just, you know, access to WIC, Women, Infants and Children, have resources for formula and diapers and things like that.
Churches are also a great resource that can help, but also get you connected with other providers in the community.
Kate Jetmore: OK, well Darcey, I want to thank you so much for taking the time for this conversation. It was great learning more about you and about your work, and I want to wish you and your family all the best.
Darcey Meridith: Thank you so much, Kate. Thanks for having me.
If you or a loved one are having thoughts of suicide or self-harm, call 988 or visit 988lifeline.org to access free and confidential emotional support resources.