DeSoto ISD Partners With Care Solace

DeISD Partners to Expand Mental Health Resources
Posted on 04/23/2021
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Committed to ensuring the mental health and wellness of its students and school community, DeSoto ISD announces its partnership with Care Solace, an external mental health care referral agency. Care Solace will offer an additional layer of support for the behavioral and mental health care needs for the district’s nearly 7,500 students, their families, and staff members.


For DeSoto ISD, Care Solace provides the network to help faculty, students and families determine when support is needed, and assists in coordinating community-based mental healthcare options. Stakeholders are connected with carefully vetted mental healthcare resources and providers, local therapists and programs in minutes using its web-based technology and vast database of providers.


“Being able to deliver support in a timely fashion is pivotal. The addition of Care Solace to our list of district resources allows us to offer better mental health care coordination for our students, staff and their families,” said Bridget Nevels, interim executive director of student services at DeSoto ISD.


The Care Solace platform will be primarily used by the counselors and campus nurses to make mental health referrals for students and their families.


This new partnership also extends mental health resources to staff members and their families who are able to directly access the platform to make anonymous referrals and utilize the around-the-clock Care Concierge team where experts will guide families through processes related to insurance, provider availability, wait times and scheduling.


DeSoto ISD Director of SEL and Guidance Kareeme Hawkins, who manages this platform for the district, sees one specific area that Care Solace will help support.


“In the past, we would make referrals and provide resources, but it was unknown if the appointments were scheduled or if the provider was a good match. Care Solace helps us to have a seamless process for identifying mental health providers in a timely fashion, scheduling the appointments and ensuring that they are properly matched and able to receive services,” said Hawkins, who manages this platform for the district. “This is a critical need for our community because it can help reduce the risks of increased stress, anxiety, substance abuse and etc.”

Since its soft launch in late February, district staff spent time connecting with smaller mental health providers in our community to make them aware of the partnership and has noted a 50-percent match of the referrals made in the last month.

“School is more than a place to learn, it’s a place where students come to feel embraced, included and supported and we want to have systems in place to support the needs of the whole child. It can be challenging to ask for help, so when our school community asks for help, it is important that we are able to deliver,” said Hawkins.  

Care Solace is a mission-oriented organization whose goal is “to calm the chaos associated with mental healthcare coordination for high school and college students.” The organization’s web-based system works alongside multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) which DeSoto ISD began using this spring.


“Creating a healthy environment for learning this school year has arguably never been

more challenging for staff and families,” said Chad Castruita, founder of Care Solace.

“We are proud to support DeSoto ISD in prioritizing the wellbeing of its school community by

providing timely access into mental health care services.”


The Care Solace service is now available at no cost to DeSoto ISD students, staff and their families. For more information about Care Solace, please visit https://home.caresolace.com/.


“Our desired outcome is to not only see an increase in mental health referrals for our students, staff and their families but to see an increase in accepted appointments. We also want to ensure that our students, staff and their families are attending appointments and are pleased with the service provider,” said Nevels. “Care Solace allows us to do just that.”


Care Solace Introductory Video English|Spanish