How A Hospital And A School District Teamed Up To Help Kids In Emotional Crisis

provided by NPR

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/05/26/1000400903/n-y-hospital-schools-aim-to-improve-kids-access-to-mental-health-provider

In 2019, the Rockville Centre school district in Long Island, N.Y., was shaken by a string of student deaths, including the suicides of a recent graduate and a current student.

"When you get these losses, one after the other, you almost can't get traction on normalcy," says Noreen Leahy, an assistant superintendent at the school district. "You can't get traction on kids functioning on a day-to-day basis in a school setting."

To Leahy, the student suicides were a symptom of a children's mental health crisis that had been brewing for years. She had observed a concerning uptick in depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation among students. Her school district had a team of mental health professionals, but Leahy says they couldn't provide the kind of long-term care many students needed.

"Remember, psychologists and social workers and counselors in school districts are there to make sure kids are learning," says Leahy. "We're not hospital wards. We don't do psychotherapy. So it's very limited what we can do for these students."

She says she saw an urgent need to connect students to mental health care quickly and easily, and the 2019 tragedy drove her to find a way to make that happen.

Her vision ultimately led to the formation of a unique partnership between several Long Island Island school districts and the nearby children's hospital, Cohen Children's Medical Center, which is part of the Northwell Health system. That partnership provides prompt access to mental health care services for students and includes ongoing support for school staff for dealing with kids' mental health, creating a mental health safety net for children and families in the area that didn't exist before.

The heart of it is a new behavioral health center focused on serving kids in the community, which the hospital opened in January 2020. Students are evaluated by the center's child psychiatrist and mental health counselor, who start and continue treatment till a child can be connected to long-term care in the community.

Mental health experts point to this school-hospital partnership as an effective model — one that meets a growing and urgent need to help children get mental health treatment and avoid unnecessary hospitalization.

"It's a real step forward," says Glenn Thomas, a clinical psychologist at Nationwide Children's hospital in Columbus, Ohio. "So many kids and families slip through the cracks because of a lack of resources."

'I just wish there was a place to send these kids'

The concerning rise in mental health issues noticed by school administrators mirrors national trends. Roughly 1 in 5 U.S. children meet criteria for a mental health disorder, and the rate of suicide attempts among youth has risen over the past decade, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

continued here ...https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/05/26/1000400903/n-y-hospital-schools-aim-to-improve-kids-access-to-mental-health-provider

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