Highland Rivers CEO testifies at House School Security Study Committee hearing

Highland Rivers Health CEO Melanie Dallas with Representative Rick Jasperse after testifying at a recent hearing of the House Study Committee on School Security, which Jasperse chairs. Dallas, a licensed professional counselor that spent more than two decades as a child and adolescent therapist, testified about the neurobiology of the developing child and adolescent brain, and the many factors that can affect a child's risk of violence. The study committee was created by the Georgia General Assembly to examine factors that can impact school safety, including student mental health. Highland Rivers provides mental health treatment and recovery services in a 12-county region of northwest Georgia and has several programs specifically for children and adolescents including teen clubhouse programs for mental health and substance use, outpatient counseling and school-based programs in more than two dozen local schools through the Georgia APEX project.