Prestera Expands School-Based Mental Health Services Across Four West Virginia Counties
This school year, Prestera Health Services is expanding its school-based behavioral health presence to reach more students and families across West Virginia. The expansion strengthens Prestera’s commitment to providing children and families with convenient access to mental health services directly in their schools, reducing barriers to care and allowing students to receive support in the environment where they spend much of their time.
The expansion includes Expanded School-Based Mental Health (ESMH) services in Wayne County, as well as significant growth in Prestera’s broader school-based services in Mason, Lincoln, and Kanawha counties.
Prestera is expanding its ESMH program in Wayne County this school year to include Spring Valley High School, Wayne High School, and Tolsia High School, adding to the ESMH services already available at Prichard Elementary and Ceredo Elementary.
The ESMH model provides three levels of support throughout the regular school year. Tier 1 universal prevention services are designed to reach the majority of students and are delivered by school personnel. Tier 2 provides targeted group and individual interventions through collaboration between the school and Prestera therapists. Tier 3 provides intensive interventions delivered by Prestera therapists for students with more significant behavioral health needs.
By expanding ESMH into additional Wayne County high schools, Prestera is extending this continuum of prevention, early intervention, and intensive behavioral health support to students across additional stages of their educational experience.
Prestera is also expanding its traditional school-based behavioral health services beyond its ESMH locations. In Mason County, services are expanding to Hannan High School. In Lincoln County, school-based services are expanding to:
Prestera’s school-based program provides services that can include on-site assessment, individual and family therapy, treatment planning, supportive interventions, and targeted case management at participating locations. The program is designed to improve students’ success in school while increasing access to behavioral health services for children and their families. The expansion builds on Prestera’s existing presence in both counties. Prestera currently identifies school-based services among the services available through its Mason County and Lincoln County locations.
Prestera is also significantly expanding its school-based program in Kanawha County, adding services at:
This expansion creates additional opportunities for students to access behavioral health professionals without having to leave their school community to receive care. Prestera already provides school-based services in Kanawha County, and additional schools expand the program’s reach across elementary, middle, and high school settings.
The expansion reflects a broader shift toward providing behavioral health care where children and families already are. School-based services can help identify concerns earlier, provide timely intervention, involve families in treatment, and connect students to additional services when greater levels of care are needed. Rather than requiring families to navigate a separate behavioral health appointment away from school, services can be integrated into the student’s existing school environment.
For Prestera, the goal is not simply to add more locations. It is to create a more accessible continuum of behavioral health support, from prevention and early intervention to therapy, family support, care coordination, and more intensive services when necessary.
With new ESMH sites in Wayne County and expanded school-based services in Mason, Lincoln, and Kanawha counties, Prestera is continuing to build a school-based behavioral health network designed to reach students earlier and make care easier to access. The expansion means more students can receive behavioral health support in the place where they learn, grow, and build relationships every day, helping schools, families, and communities work together to support student success.