It is estimated that half of children with mental health disorders are unable to access needed care. Emerging evidence shows that school-based mental health programs are effective at promoting earlier identification of and intervention for mental health needs and increasing access to needed mental health services. But, the COVID-19 pandemic is challenging these efforts to deliver these services to students in schools.
Research conducted by the Center of Excellence for Children’s Behavioral Health shows that educators and behavioral health providers that had been supporting students in schools rapidly transitioned to using virtual platforms to deliver mental health services and supports to students via telehealth during the pandemic.
A series of focus groups and interviews to synthesize experiences of educators from public schools in the Metro Atlanta area and behavioral health providers supporting schools and students across the state of Georgia during the pandemic revealed some common themes, including:
- Families’ basic needs come first
- Educators and mental health providers are juggling personal, professional lives
- Virtual connection increases engagement with parents
- Unprecedented times afford educators, behavioral health providers opportunity to innovate
“These quick transitions to virtual platforms and other adaptations across provider types, resulted in continuity of mental health services,” says Dimple Desai, a senior research associate at GHPC and lead of the center’s work with the school-based mental health. “Delivering services outside of the school environment enabled providers to be innovative in their programming with children and in communication channels with families and schools.
Read more the Innovation and Resilience series post about Supporting Mental Health in Schools During the COVID-19 Pandemic.