Field Trip: Are Schools Prepared for the Mental Health Crisis?

Field Trip: Are Schools Prepared for the Mental Health Crisis?

EPISODE 59 | 10/7/2020

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Over the past 10 years, anxiety disorders among adolescents has risen 17%. Serious depression has gone up 80%. Suicide attempts are startlingly common.¹ That’s the bad news.

The good news is that there is an increasing awareness of the need for student mental health care, a greater focus on the whole child. Schools are taking more steps to provide this kind of care — and more and more, they’re becoming the primary providers of care for those students. But that’s a herculean task, and it raises the question: are schools ready?

In this episode of Field Trip, ten experts in roles ranging from school counselors to superintendents share how they see it:

• Are schools prepared to be the primary providers of student mental health care?
• What are schools doing well in this area? Where is there room to grow?
• What do schools need to be better prepared?
• What will the mental health care landscape look like in 5 or 10 years?
• And more…

More About Mental Health in Schools

• 3-Step System to Identify Social, Emotional & Behavioral Issues Sooner. This 3-step approach (with examples) can help your school build a system that empowers educators, counselors, and other specialists to collect and interpret behavioral data to find students who most need intervention.
• 10 Best Practices for Improving and Expanding Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Supports. Ten key, interconnected best practices to help you and your team effectively and comprehensively create a system to meet the social, emotional, and behavioral needs of students.
• 5 Strategies to Build Your and Students’ Resilience. How can those on the front lines of education help students, families, and each other navigate this uncertain time?
• Student Mental Health in Crisis: Are Schools Ready? Go beyond the podcast and see this interview in written and video form.
• Mental & Behavioral Health Management: Identify patterns, determine trends, simplify documentation and collaborate with staff and parents about mental health issues in schools.

¹ Are Districts the Nation’s Adolescent Mental Health Care Providers? (Rep.). (2020). Retrieved https://eab.com/research/district-leadership/whitepaper/are-districts-the-nations-adolescent-mental-health-care-providers/