If you or anyone you know is suffering from self-harm or suicide thoughts, you can get help by calling the Secret National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK.
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, teenage mental health had already deteriorated. According to experts, isolation, sadness and anxiety caused by school closures, deaths and loss of family income have further dramatically reduced children’s mental health over the next two years.
The state is responding to a flood of federal pandemic bailouts (about $ 190 billion in education and health grants over the next four years).
Last year, 38 states provided nearly 100 laws to support the mental health of schools from kindergarten to high school, according to the National Academy of Health Policy, a policy research group based in Portland, Maine. Was enacted. Dozens of additional school mental health bills have been enacted this year in at least 22 states, according to the group.
Tramaine EL-Amin, Client Experience Officer at the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, a non-profit organization that represents mental health providers, said:
“The pandemic has put the spotlight on the mental health of our children,” she said. “It’s something we need to pay attention to, and there’s no doubt that we need to act fairly quickly so that things don’t get worse.”
Broadly speaking, the new state law aims to upgrade schools’ mental health resources and create a comprehensive plan to prevent teenage suicide and promote children’s mental health.
Many central themes of the new pandemic-inspired law are mental health training.
Currently, in at least 16 states, from Alaska to Massachusetts to the District of Columbia, how teachers and other school staff from kindergarten to high school perceive the mental distress of their students and what when they see it. You need to take a training course on what to do.
California, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Rhode Island, Utah, and Washington recommend taking mental health training courses to help high school students help their friends, family, and classmates. Enacted a law.
Nancy Lever, co-director of the National School of Mental Health Center at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said:
“But we are also trained to understand that parents and other school staff interacting with students are aware of the mental health crisis and how trauma affects their children’s mental health and learning. You need to make sure you’re there, “she said.
The state meets the student’s recommended ratio of schools to mental health professionals such as counselors, psychologists and social workers, in addition to legislation aimed at training teachers, bus drivers, guards and school lunch staff. We also provide funding to help with.
In some states, new legislation is funding mental health screening and data collection tools that schools can use to develop long-term mental health strategies and measure their progress. Other laws require the school board to develop evidence-based plans to protect the mental health of students from kindergarten to high school.
“This is not a new area, but it is important to plan for schools to promote the mental health of all students and staff while at the same time identifying and caring for people at risk. Area. “
The key to school success is building sustainability so that the program can continue when funding ends, she added.
Mental health plunge
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the already expanding crisis in adolescent mental health. Last year, a group of pediatricians, pediatric psychiatrists, and children’s hospitals declared a pediatric mental health emergency.
According to a national survey conducted by the Federal Department of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services in 2019, the percentage of young people aged 12 to 17 who reported having experienced a major depressive episode in the past year was almost 2 in the last 10 years. It has doubled and has increased since the age of nine. % Or 2.2 million children in 2004, 16% or 3.8 million children in 2019.
By 2021, more than a quarter of U.S. parents had seen a mental health specialist during adolescence, according to a study released last month by the University of Michigan’s CSMott Children’s Hospital, 59 in the past year. % Was being examined.
According to the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is currently the second leading cause of death among children aged 10 to 14 years.
In 2020, girls aged 12 to 17 years visited an emergency room suspected of suicide attempt increased by 51% compared to 2019, according to CDC data.
This month, the Federal Health Department reported that in early 2021, more than four out of ten high school students surveyed said they “continued sadness and despair” the previous year. Most teens.
“These data reflect calls for help,” Dr. Debra Houry, Deputy Director of the CDC, said in a news release. “The COVID-19 pandemic has created traumatic stressors that can further impair student mental health. Our research shows that surrounding young people with appropriate support can address these trends. It means that we can reverse it and help young people now and in the future. “
However, mental health experts say schools, which are often the only place where troubled adolescents can seek help, are not ready to deal with the growing adolescent mental health crisis. increase.
Historically, most states have not met the national minimum standards for the number of students served by mental health professionals, including school psychologists, counselors, and social workers.
Only Idaho and the District of Columbia meet the recommended ratio of one school psychologist for every 500 students. Schools in Georgia at the bottom of the list employ only one psychologist for every 6,390 students, according to the American Schools Mental Health Report Card issued in February by a coalition of mental health organizations. not.
No state meets the nationally recommended ratio of one social worker for every 250 students. The latest is the hiring of one social worker in 15,433 students in West Virginia. And only New Hampshire and Vermont meet the criteria of one counselor for every 250 students.
Mental health first aid
According to the National Mental Health Council, which manages the course, the number of schools from kindergarten to high school enrolled in one of the most commonly used mental health training programs called Mental Health First Aid. It increased by 17.5% from the end of last year. ..
“All states in this country have somehow adopted youth mental health first aid in some schools,” said EL-Amin of the Council. “This year’s surge in legislative activity has helped disseminate information.”
The approximately 32-hour training program developed and tested in Australia was adopted in the United States in 2008 in collaboration with the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Health and the Missouri Department of Mental Health.
Evidence-based curriculum with 25,000 instructors has been used to train 2.7 million Americans in various professions. Delivered directly online, this course recognizes signs of mental health and drug use problems, addresses people at risk rather than crouching, and encourages them to consult with a mental health professional. increase.
In the United States, approximately one million people have completed a special version of the course designed for teachers, parents and others who interact with adolescents. More than half work in schools from kindergarten to high school.
The course is tailored to help teens help each other, with more than 125,000 students from 700 schools and youth groups completing the course since 2020.
According to EL-Amin, course graduates can use what they have learned to help someone within an average of three months.
Emma Bap, who took a first aid course at Bellows Free Academy High School in St Albans City, Vermont last year, said the program “has increased confidence in reaching out to those who appear to be struggling and can probably save them.” I told the council. life. ”
Mental health training courses usually provide scripts on what to say and what not to say to teens who may be thinking of ending their lives. Training also emphasizes that teens need to report potential suicide concerns about friends and classmates to teachers or other adults.
Separate training programs for adults and adolescents highlight that suicide is preventable and detail how to intervene in potential suicide.
But training alone is not enough to prevent suicide and ensure that children with mental illness receive the care they need, says suicide prevention expert Julie Goldstein Grummet. I am saying.
Grumet, vice president of policy research groups at the Boston-based Center for Education Development, said:
She added that there is a need to develop and maintain strong, trusted mental health community partners to support students at risk.
“Training is great and important, but it needs to be built into a comprehensive approach that isn’t’one-of-a-kind’,” says Grumet. “The school should not say” trained “but” it has transformed the whole culture around suicide prevention and mental health. ” “
