Teachers get to know their students well and are often the first ones to notice signs a student is having trouble either academically or emotionally. Yet all too often student referrals for mental health evaluations don’t occur due to logistical problems, a lack of access to care, or the stigma of mental health issues. So for those kids needing mental health professionals, school may be an ideal location to access those services.
School-based mental health programs help both the individual child and the greater school community. Evidence shows these coordinated programs can improve the overall school climate and cut classroom disruptions. A new brief released by the Center of Excellence for Children’s Behavioral Health at the Georgia Health Policy Center details the benefits and barriers to developing such programs, as well as some considerations for designing a financially sustainable school-based mental health (SBMH) program.
In Georgia, there is a great need to provide better mental health services to children. More than eight percent of Georgia’s children have emotional, behavioral, or developmental challenges and over 110,000 kids in the state are living with serious mental health conditions. Unfortunately, though, according to Mental Health America, nearly half (47 percent) of the kids who need services do not receive them.
Inadequate insurance coverage, compounded by provider shortages, particularly in rural areas of the state, make accessing mental health services difficult. SBMH programs are emerging as an ideal solution to address many of these issues.
“For youth, not all are involved with juvenile justice or child welfare, but all are enrolled in schools,” says Chad Jones, director of community programs at View Point Health, an Apex grantee. “Georgia behavioral health providers are charged with providing easy access to high quality care. So Georgia Apex Project creates a direct partnership with the schools, and has allowed us to provide quicker, streamlined care.”
The Georgia Apex Project—an initiative from the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities—is a pilot to test SBMH services in Georgia. As part of efforts to identify the best way to implement these programs, the Apex Project contracted with the Center of Excellence for Children’s Behavioral Health at Georgia State University to conduct a literature review and environmental scan of SBMH activities in Georgia and nationally. Interviews occurred with SBMH program implementers (May and June) in Baltimore, Philadelphia, South Carolina, and Montana. The Center of Excellence’s findings will inform SBMH program design, particularly in the areas of financing mechanisms and program sustainability.
Click here to read the brief or the full report.