GREENFIELD — Mental health officials, school representatives and nonprofit leaders from across Franklin County recently came together to discuss youth mental health, and brainstorm ideas on future programs and collaborations to support youth mental health services.

The event, called the Youth Partnership Summit hosted by the Community Health Center of Franklin County at its Greenfield offices at 102 Main St., attracted more than 50 attendees for youth mental health workshops and a panel discussion on Friday. The summit is funded through a multi-year grant through the United Way of Franklin & Hampshire Region as part of its Aligned Impact project.

“We had the idea to just bring people to the table, find out what’s already happening for youth mental health and wellness, and put a little bit of heat under that so that we could do more by making connections, by working together and by getting to know each other,” said Community Health Center of Franklin County CEO Allison Van der Velden. “If we don’t know who’s in the county, we don’t know who’s doing similar work, [and] we’re not going to reach out and connect the work.”

The program included two large discussions and workshops, one about the term “adultism” — the prejudice against and discrimination of young people — featuring a video by the Youth Action Board at Community Action Pioneer Valley. A panel discussion on available youth services and goals for future support of youth mental health closed out the day.

The panel discussion, led by representatives from the Center for Human Development’s Outpatient Behavioral Health Services Clinic, Heywood Healthcare, the Mary Lyon Foundation and The Brick House Community Resource Center, provided insight into the existing youth services and some of goals of these organizations.

Still, the discussion highlighted the need for more clinical youth mental health services, detailed the gap in how services are understood and navigated by families and kids, considered how schools can provide opportunities for children and teens to receive mental health care, and emphasized the need for adults in youth service organizations to create partnerships with kids and listen to their concerns.

“We know the need is there and it’s ever-changing. People are always looking for new resources,” said Christina Cutting, director of school-based services at Heywood Healthcare in Gardner.

Cutting explained Heywood Healthcare offers unique in-school collaboration opportunities for mental health care for students, including hybrid individualized therapy and employing clinicians to work at the school with students and their families — a partnership she said has made “a huge difference” for being able to connect with kids in need. Schools involved in these programs include Athol High School and Ralph C. Mahar Regional School in Orange, among others.

This theme of collaboration was something Brick House Youth Programs Director Hannah Bertrand spoke to when asked about what “dreams and schemes” they think of for the future of youth mental health. Bertrand said it’s important to remember that youth mental health doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and the way to help youth today is to recognize their economic and political realities, and have adults and other youth interact with support spaces.

“My dreaming and scheming has been a lot of, how can we build resilience through community?” Bertrand said. “How can we take this ‘It takes a village’ model and make that really actually true for the communities that we live in every day?”

Following the afternoon dedicated to brainstorming, resource sharing and collaboration to streamline services for youth mental health in the region, United Way of the Franklin & Hampshire Region’s Program Director Jenny Coeur said the summit was very interesting.

“I’m hoping that folks will take these connections,” Coeur said, “and make some new plans and events.”

Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.