A new telehealth assessment program is starting at Park View High School in Sterling in the next several weeks.

The program comes in response to an outbreak of fentanyl-related overdoses involving eight Park View students inside and outside the approximately 1,400-student school in October. The program will be run by The Williams Center for Wellness & Recovery, a Leesburg-based drug and mental health treatment center which serves adults and children, according to a news release.

The center opened in September 2022 and partners with Loudoun County Public Schools, the release said. Its clients include those insured by Medicaid.

Bridgett Whitehead, a Williams Center program director and a licensed professional counselor, will run the program. It includes several licensed counselors and resident professional counselors working with Park View staff. Whitehead, who has worked in the mental health field since the late 1990s, said in an interview that the program will be particularly helpful for students whose parents don’t have time to take their children to in-person appointments because of jobs, or because they lack transportation.

Whitehead and her staff have worked with 60 to 70 students around the school division since the center opened. She said many have drug and mental health problems, known as co-occurring disorders.

Assessments take about an hour and include learning about the student’s mental and physical health as well as their behavioral, family and social history. Counselors also discuss what types of medications a student may be prescribed and whether they are receiving services through county departments.

“It’s an extensive, comprehensive assessment that looks at all the different areas of their life, including housing, sibling order and nutritional issues,” Whitehead said. “It’s the whole gamut.”

Besides assessing students’ conditions, Whitehead said the program is designed to help them better manage their emotions, improve their interpersonal relationships, and be better educated on the effects of drug abuse and mental illness. The program also includes educating their parents and developing clinical recommendations on the best treatment for the students.

Recommendations are made based on guidelines from the American Society of Addiction Medicine, a medical society with about 7,500 members, according to its website. Recommendations can include drug withdrawal management services, individual or group therapy, family counseling, intensive outpatient treatment and psychiatric services.

With juvenile opioid overdoses increasing in Loudoun — the county Sheriff’s Office responded to at least 41 in the last two years compared to eight between 2019 and 2021 — Whitehead said treatment options like the telehealth program are vital.

“We are in a real crisis as it relates to co-occurring disorders with our youth,” she said. “We’re trying to be innovative in accommodating the different challenges as best we can. Working with different partners like LCPS, I’m hoping that will make a difference.”

Williams Center CEO Rod Williams said the group’s providers understand “the disease of substance use and abuse” and the lack of available treatment. In 2020, just 13% of people with drug addiction received treatment, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

”The system we deployed into the schools will help create greater access quicker,” Williams said in an interview. “We want to be able to respond urgently.”

In the release, Jennifer Evans, the LCPS director of student medical services, said the school division is proud to partner with the Williams Center and the Loudoun Medical Group, of which the Williams Center is a member.

”Our collective goal is to deploy resources faster to avoid further overdoses and to reduce barriers to care such as transportation, particularly for those that need early intervention services now.” Evans said.