03-20-23-WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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Since the start of the pandemic, our community and our country have seen a three-fold increase in the number of youth with diagnosable mental health conditions as well as an increase in the urgency and severity of mental health needs. Our youth have lived through a global pandemic during a crucial stage of their development and are more likely than previous generations to seek mental health care. These factors, combined with the sharp decline in mental health providers — especially those working with youth in nonprofits — has created an unprecedented strain on providers, individuals, and their loved ones. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association, have declared the state of child and adolescent mental health a national emergency. NYFS School-Based Therapist Carolyn Babekuhl reflects, “Over the past two and a half years, the entire world has experienced trauma from the pandemic, including our children. They lost loved ones, financial stability, and missed significant developmental milestones. These challenges are not addressed just by returning to school in-person. Although students have returned to school, they have not had the opportunity to process these losses and it is expressed through their behavior. It is apparent that we need to prioritize the mental health of our youth at this time.” At NYFS, our School-Based Mental Health services offer youth the benefits of developmentally-targeted therapy in a school setting where they have the greatest opportunity to regularly access the help they need or receive support when in crisis. In addition to heightened social and emotional concerns, we are seeing youth with significant (and often deferred) needs including high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety with panic attacks, severe depression, and thoughts or plans of suicide. We ensure that youth can access these trauma-informed and culturally- responsive services on a sliding-fee scale. At NYFS we serve three school districts in the Roseville, Mounds View, and White Bear Lake areas, offering care from elementary through high school-age students. We work in meaningful partnership with school staff, supporting the overall mental health needs of youth in the schools we serve. Sometimes this includes active mental health response to school personnel, teachers, and students following a crisis or tragedy. We are there to serve the whole school as comprehensively as we can. Even as the need strains our system’s ability to ensure care to those who most need it, we feel immense hopefulness as the narrative around youth mental health is changing. And it is the youth who are leading the way in ensuring their own healthy futures. School-Based Mental Health Program NYFS.ORG 5 Serving Youth in Schools Amidst a Mental Health Crisis “The problems we are seeing are greater in both number and intensity. There are more students who are struggling with their mental health, and because there are more needs across the whole system of care, we are filling a gap for youth who actually need a higher level of care.” — Steven Lutes, School-Based Mental Health Programs Manager