ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The school year has officially begun, and a main point of focus for many districts will be the mental health of their young charges.
Recently, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) shared some updates regarding those efforts throughout the U.S., saying data released earlier this month highlight improvements in mental health among some U.S. teens, including decreases in the percentage of students feeling persistently sad or hopeless. However, the report also highlights concerning increases in the percentage of teens reporting experiences of school-based violence and absenteeism due to safety concerns, according to a release from the CDC.
“This data provides a detailed analysis of the health behaviors and experiences of high school students across the nation, comparing 2021 and 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey data. The 2021 data are drawn from a year when schooling was still substantially disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the CDC release noted. “The report also provides 10-year data trends by sex, race and ethnicity, and sexual and gender identity. As students head back to school, these data are critical to highlighting the challenges faced by millions of young people so that communities can better address their health and safety.”
"One of our main priorities at CDC is improving Americans' mental health," Debra Houry, M.D., M.P.H., CDC's chief medical officer and deputy director for program and science noted in the CDC release. "The data released today show improvements to a number of metrics that measure young people's mental well-being – progress we can build on. However, this work is far from complete. Every child should feel safe and supported, and CDC will continue its work to turn this data into action until we reach that goal."
According to the CDC data, key improvements to youth mental health from 2021 to 2023 included:
• Decreases in the percentage of students overall who experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness (from 42 percent to 40 percent).
• Decreases in the percentage of female students who experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness (from 57 percent to 53 percent) and who seriously considered attempting suicide (30 percent to 27 percent).
• Decreases in the percentage of Hispanic students who felt persistently sad or hopeless (from 46 percent to 42 percent), who experienced poor mental health (30 percent to 26 percent), who seriously considered attempting suicide (22 percent to 18 percent) and who made a suicide plan (19 percent to 16 percent).
• Decreases in the percentage of Black students who attempted suicide (from 14 percent to 10 percent) and who were injured in a suicide attempt (4 percent to 2 percent).
Despite these positive signs, according to the CDC data, there are increases in the percentage of students reporting violence and safety concerns at school or on the way to school:
• Increases in the percentage of students who were threatened or injured with a weapon at school (7 percent to 9 percent).
• Increases in the percentage of students who were bullied at school (15 percent to 19 percent).
• Increases in the percentage of students who missed school because of safety concerns either at school or on the way to school (9 percent to 13 percent).
“This data also underscores significant health disparities, particularly among female and LGBTQ+ high school students, who report higher rates of violence, poor mental health and suicidal thoughts and behaviors than their peers,” the CDC release noted. “In 2023, nearly three in 10 LGBTQ+ students were bullied at school, and two in 10 attempted suicide.”
"This data shows how we've made some progress in tackling these issues in recent years, which proves that they are not insurmountable. However, there's still much work ahead," CDC Division of Adolescent and School Health Director Kathleen Ethier, Ph.D., noted in the CDC release noted "Considering the vital role schools play in promoting health and well-being, it is critical to address school-based violence and safety concerns."
Efforts throughout USD 480 have been discussed at length, including a presentation from Sam Goetschius with Genesis Family Health at an August 2023 USD 480 board meeting.
“Something that’s extremely important to note is we DO want parents/guardians to remain involved – they decide what services their children receive and their consent is required for care, so it’s the same as any outpatient setting,” Goetschius noted at the August 2023 meeting. “The only difference is the parents don’t have to take off from work to take their child in because the therapist is already there. Available services are not provided without permission except as allowed by state minor consent law, there are a few laws in place that do allow certain services to be rendered at the child’s discretion without the parents’ permission, such as substance abuse services. At 14 years old, that child can make that decision and if they don’t want their parent(s) involved, that’s their prerogative. It doesn’t replace the required school health services, but rather enhances and complements what’s already in place. It also doesn’t replace parents/guardians, school nurses or counselors, pediatricians or any other existing service. This is meant to be an adjunctive service to what’s already in place. The point there is we want to be able to provide services that either aren’t easily accessible or there are too many barriers to children receiving the help they need.”
Goetschius also included many benefits of having school-based services in his presentation at that meeting.
“A big thing is transportation, and what we do is we come to the student where they are so there’s no worry about how the student is going to get to their appointment.” Goetschius noted at the August 2023 meeting. “Along with that is time, the student’s parent(s)/guardian(s) have to take time off work to take their student to their appointment and have to go to the school, pick them up, take them to the appointment, wait for the appointment to finish, take them back to school and then go back to work. The student loses that school time, and the parent(s)/guardian(s) also lose work time. This helps eliminate that so there’s no time lost. There is also occasionally a problem with the language barrier, but our therapists are bilingual, and we also have language line services, so we can help interpretation for multiple languages to meet that need. There are also financial barriers, and with this program there is no out-of-pocket costs for anyone who needs service – that is not to say it’s completely free, but we collect insurance information and bill the insurance, but all out-of-pocket costs and deductibles and things of that nature are written off by us. These programs have been shown to improve social competency and behavioral and emotional functioning, and there’s been a lot of research done on the medical side of everything as well with this, but we want to focus on the mental health aspect.”
