Superior to directly invest in mental health programs

Superior Mayor Jim Paine announced the city will be making direct investments into mental health programs as at an awareness event Tuesday evening.

At the event, which the Superior Police Department helped sponsor, Mayor Paine said that the first grant created by the city will be going to the Encouragement Clinic to provide therapy directly to high school students.

Mayor Paine said this group has been especially struggling during the pandemic.

“If they’re a sophomore in high school [then], their last normal year of school was in middle school and that takes a toll,” explained Paine. “We’re seen falling graduation rates as we’ve seen skyrocketing incidence of negative behavior in high schools. It’s a real crisis for teachers, for other students, for the administration and for our community and that’s why the city has to invest.”

Paine continued by saying that this will be the first of many investments into mental programs.