The biggest challenge currently facing mental health providers is the lack of trained providers to meet the growing needs of children and adolescents, experts say.
“There is growing recognition that mental health is just as important as physical health in the development of young people, but this is happening at just a time when mental health services are under extreme pressure,” said the clinical psychologist Robin Gurwitch, PhD, professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Psychiatry. Behavioral Sciences at Duke University Medical Center.
Schools, for example, are an essential means of reaching and helping children, but a 2022 Pew Research Center survey found that only about half of U.S. public schools offer mental health assessments and even fewer offer treatment services. Psychologists are now stepping up their efforts to better equip schools to promote the well-being of students there.
Much of this work involves changing policies at the school or district level to provide more support for all students. For example, school connectedness – the extent to which young people feel that adults and peers at school care about them and are invested in their success – is a key factor in mental health. Youth who felt connected in middle and high school have fewer problems with substance use, mental health, suicidality, and risky sexual behavior as adults (Steiner, RJ et al., Pediatrics, Flight. 144, no. 1, 2019).
Thanks to his What Works in Schools Program, the CDC funds school districts to make changes that research shows promote school connectivity. These include improving classroom management, implementing service-learning programs for students in their communities, bringing community mentors into schools, and making schools safer and more supportive of LGBTQ+ students.
Psychologists also develop training programs to help teachers and other school staff create supportive classrooms and help students in distress. Classroom Wise (Well-Being Information and Strategies for Educators), developed by the Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network and the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH) at the University of Maryland, is a free, flexible online course and library of resources that are based on psychological research. on social-emotional learning, behavioral regulation, mental health literacy, trauma, etc. (Factual Components of the Class Wise (PDF, 205 KB), NCSMH, 2021).
“We use evidence-based practices for child and adolescent mental health, but we make these strategies easily accessible for teachers to implement in the classroom,” said clinical psychologist Nancy Lever, PhD, co-director of NCSMH, who contributed to the development of Classroom. Wise.
The course integrates the voices of students and educators and teaches concrete strategies such as how to create rules and routines that make classrooms feel safe and how to model emotional self-regulation. The strategies can be used by anyone interacting with students, from teachers and administrators to school nurses, coaches and bus drivers.
“What we need is to strengthen the capacities of all the systems that are part of children’s lives: in families, in schools, in the education of all those who interact with children,” he said. said psychologist Ann Masten, PhD, professor of child development at the University of Minnesota.
Other training efforts focus on the students themselves. Since preteens and teens tend to seek support from their peers before turning to adults, the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) created conversation cards to equip children with the basic skills needed to talk about suicide. The guidance, available in English and Spanish, explains how to ask questions about suicidal thoughts, how to listen without judgment, and when to seek advice from an adult (Talking about suicide with friends and peers, NCTSN, 2021).
While training members of the school population to identify and address mental health issues can help reduce pressure on mental health professionals, there will always be a subset of students who need support. more specialized support.
Telehealth, almost ubiquitous these days, is one of the best ways to do this. In South Carolina, psychologist Regan Stewart, PhD, and her colleagues launched the project Telehealth Awareness Program at the Medical University of South Carolina in 2015. Today, almost every school in the state has telehealth equipment (Wi-Fi and tablets or laptops that children can use at school or at home) and have access to providers (graduate students in psychology and social work). and clinicians trained in trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy). Students who need services, free through a grant or covered by Medicaid, meet one-on-one with their clinician during the school day or after hours (American psychologist, Flight. 75, no. 8, 2020).
“We have learned a lot about using technology during the pandemic,” said Mr. Ethier. “At this point, it’s all about having sufficient resources so that more school districts can access these sources of care.”
