06 Sep Overlooked Opportunities- Efficacy of School Based Mental Health Services for Elementary Aged Children
There is considerable evidence that there is a mental health crisis currently for our children and adolescents, with the prevalence of mental health disorders impacting children in the United States reaching numbers in the millions. The CDC reports that between the years 2016 to 2019, the number of children and adolescents aged 3-17 who met criteria for a diagnosed psychiatric disorder was represented by:
- Approximately 6 million meeting the ADHD diagnostic criteria
- Approximately 5.8 reporting anxiety
- Approximately 2.7 reporting depression
Furthermore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has only increased these numbers and despite 1 in 5 children experiencing mental health symptoms, only about 20% of these receive the mental health services they need. There are many reasons for this discrepancy between need and the utilization of behavioral health services, including lack of transportation, long wait times for linkage, negative perceptions about mental health services, and lack of adequate insurance coverage.
There are however some overlooked opportunities in providing valuable mental health interventions for school aged elementary children through offering school-based services. There historically has not been enough resources to be able to address adequate support for these needs. For example, teachers who spend the most face-to-face time with children do not receive formalized training to detect warning signs of mental health symptoms. Additionally, school counselors are overtaxed, with the average ratio of school counselors to students in New York State being 350 to 1.
Recent legislation with the American Rescue Plan affords significant funding to help infuse mental health services into schools. With $122 billion being infused into schools we need to focus efforts on designating these resources to mental health interventions in schools. Schools have the opportunity to train teachers to screen for mental health symptoms and recommend additional interventions to parents. Additionally, the APA cites that offering education on the development of coping skills for all students will help take some burden off the already overtax mental health system.
A study conducted in 2017 found that arming school personnel with skills to intervene when childhood mental health symptoms are detected, as they are naturally present in children’s lives, subsequently decreases child mental health problems. This evidence implies the need to continue to develop programming in primary schools and skills for elementary school educators to be able to contribute to the resources available to our youth. These interventions need not be complex, instead offering information about the basics of the relationship between thoughts, feeling and behaviors. Additionally the development of healthy coping skills and the ability to reach out to supports they trust when they are in crisis.