PRESCOTT - The idea was simple: identify one at-risk child needing medical care, mental or physical, and match him or her with health care professionals willing to donate their services.
After the April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech massacre of 32 people by a mentally ill student, Prescott resident and former broadcast journalist John Vallentine sought a way to help students before the unthinkable happened.
He approached local attorney Chris Kottke with the idea to help children before something catastrophic happened - such teen suicides, school massacres or child abuse.
That was the beginning of SAVE-Prescott - Students Against Violence Everyday.
More than two years later, SAVE participants have provided more than $500,000 in services to more than 100 Prescott Unified School District students and their families - all at no charge to them.
The original idea to provide mental health services to at-risk students changed to a more holistic approach.
"In the early stages, I threw my name in as SAVE's attorney. The focus was on mental health, although we knew it would leech into something else," Kottke said.
SAVE founders and board of trustees realized that other, more tangible issues might be contributing to a student's mental health problems.
Kottke said, in one case, a family had no hot water at their residence. SAVE officials found a plumber who immediately installed a new hot water heater - at no charge to the family.
Something as simple as a hot water heater made a difference in the life of a student and his or her family.
Children do not seem to compartmentalize things as adults do - they cannot set their troubles aside, even while at school. "The core of SAVE is to make sure we reach that student that is staring out the window," Kottke said.
If a classroom teacher notices that one of his or her students is troubled, the teacher calls the school's SAVE coordinator, usually the nurse, who in turn calls the district's SAVE-Prescott program coordinator.
SAVE district coordinator Julie Kottke matches the students with a health care provider willing to donate his or her services.
SAVE promised never to assign more than one child at a time to each professional, and professionals always have the option of declining to help at any particular time.
The only requirements for a student to receive help are that they must be a PUSD student, have no insurance and are not eligible for Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS).
"All I need is two documents - a waiver and the doctor's consent form," Julie Kottke said.
Professional therapist Simone Whitehead has treated three SAVE clients. She decided to participate in SAVE because "I have always enjoyed working with teens. Teenage clients have a variety of issues they are trying to deal with."
Whitehead said SAVE does not exert "any expectation or pressure of any kind ... to accept a client. There is very little administrative interaction between me and SAVE. They just call and ask if I can take a student and then fax me the information."
Whitehead said therapy gives children and young adults a chance to explore new ways to think about things and helps them learn new coping strategies.
Dr. Marylyn Clark, an addiction specialist and member of the SAVE board, helps recruit health care providers. She explains the SAVE program, its aims and goals, and "they usually come on board."
Clark said working with SAVE is "one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. One of the things that is important to remember about SAVE is that it is able to get to the kids who, without any help, have a likelihood of being the kids who get into violence."
One thing Clark noticed about Prescott is that people are either "very, very poor or very, very wealthy. There is little in between. If we can help kids break a cycle of violence, they don't have to follow in their family's footsteps."
As a doctor liaison on the SAVE board, ophthalmologist Dr. Scott Markham also is involved in recruiting new providers. "From a young physician's perspective, I know they don't have a lot of time. But, if we ask them to see one child they can usually fit him or her into their schedule, and see them for free. It also gives the doctors a chance to give back to the community," Markham said.
Participating in SAVE is contagious. Markham said, "Doctors will say if this person is involved, maybe I should be also. The only thing I have ever had to say to a health care provider is 'would you mind helping a kid' and they are on board."
Kottke and Markham said the "donation of The Daily Courier Publisher Kit Atwell and Managing Editor Tim Wiederaenders of space and time is not lost on the board."
Once a month, the Courier publishes a list of SAVE participants in the Sunday newspaper to thank them, and Wiederaenders serves as the board's president.
And, the community appreciates the services.
"I cannot tell you how thrilled parents are when they learn their children will receive help. They are so grateful," Julie Kottke said, adding that SAVE does not receive any government money, "so we don't ask about nationality, only if they are a PUSD student."
Dr. Ryan Brown said, "It's the one-to-one, individual treatment, this child has this need. Can we give it to them? Yeah."
Brown likes the fact that no red tape is involved for the SAVE students he sees in his dental practice.
"We just treat them like they are our own kids," Brown said. "These are kids that didn't create the problems, but they are ones they have to live with. There are only so many people that can fix them, and we are one of them."
Brown has a message for other health care professionals: "We never know when we'll be in need, or our kids. Life happens; things happen where we need help. SAVE fits into the model of our practice. Each person is an individual and receives individual attention."
Markham said, "It is all about kids. We don't want people's money, although we will accept it. We want their time. We need people who care."
In the beginning, people asked if SAVE would expand to neighboring communities. The response was "no," that in order for it to work, SAVE-Prescott had to limit itself to PUSD students. Currently, SAVE-Prescott is the only program of its kind in Arizona and the nation. However, SAVE trustees are anxious to "spread the message," Kottke said.
Markham said, "We have a cookie cutter plan on how to start a SAVE program and we would be glad to share."
More information about SAVE-Prescott is at www.saveprescott.org.
Posted: Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Article comment by:
No Cream to Skim
There is no cream to skim as the program operates off of donations of time and materials. This is what makes this program so unique.
Posted: Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Article comment by:
A long time Prescott resident
As a parent of a two PUSD students,and a health care provider in this community, I think this program is great and applaud John Valentine and those who were responsible for getting it done!! Thanks!
Posted: Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
In addition to dozens of long term counseling plans, several children have received surguries through this program. Anyone who has paid for medical care lately knows the value of this care. The detractors here are not only careless in their "math" but ignorant concerning the value of these services and the fact that no money ever changes hands with ANY person in the program. Please tell me what is there to "skim?"
Posted: Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Article comment by:
Check the Naysayers
$500,000 divided by 100 is $5,000, not $50,000...if you're going to rag on the reporter or this community for trying to do somthing good for young people, at least get a calculator out before you start your base line position...also, why don't you put yourself in the shoes of a middle schooler who has been unwilling or unable to take a shower for days or weeks becasue he had no hot water in his house...you think the middle schoolers were kind to him during that time frame? You think he felt good about himself? In that kid's life, a simple hot water heater could do wonders for the self esteem...who knows what positive things can come from that...
Posted: Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
At $50,000 per person, it would seem there's a lot of cream to skim off the top!
Posted: Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Article comment by:
Do the math
Something about this story doesn't add up. The headline states that $500,000 worth of medical care was given to roughly 100 students. Simple division shows that nearly $50,000 would have been spent on each child -- highly unlikely.
I thought perhaps the headline was inaccurate, but the figure is repeated again in the story. And since when does a plumber perform "health care."
While the efforts of SAVE are laudable, perhaps some numbers were fudged a bit to make this story "newsworthy." The Courier would have done better to explain what SAVE really does, and how that magic half-million-dollar figure was arrived at.
