It might sound surprising, but Alabama schools were just starting a new venture to help students find mental health resources when COVID hit: Mental health service coordinators.
, The Dallas Morning News, The Fresno Bee, The Post & Courier and the Seattle Times as well as The Christian Science Monitor, The Hechinger Report, and the Solutions Journalism Network.
Schools around the country are trying to staff up counselors and therapists, but experts say Alabama’s creation of a bridge role could be a model. Mental health service coordinators set up mental health awareness events, hold small group sessions with students and connect families with professional mental health services.
During the 2021-22 school year, 114 school districts received a grant and Warfield cobbled together enough money to add a dozen more. Her office conducts all of the training, but districts must foot the cost for coordinators to attend. During the 2018-19 school year, 11% of Alabama students were chronically absent, meaning they missed 18 or more days. Some student populations, including those who were economically disadvantaged, disabled, Black and American Indian, had rates higher than 12%. Some individual schools had absentee rates up to 48%.
She said adding a mental health services coordinator was a natural progression so the district could ease connections between families and mental health resources. “Our kids go through a lot,” Escambia County Schools mental health services coordinator Marlo Young said. “One of my main goals was making sure that even when our community mental health centers may not have someone [available], our students have a safe person that they can talk to.
Young holds programs in the schools, bringing in mental health organizations to talk with students about bullying and suicide prevention. She’s there if a crisis arises, helping coordinate care and resources to ensure a student gets the help they need. She also helps teachers talk through a situation.
No school district meets the National Association for School Social Workers’ recommendation to employ one social worker in every school building with a ratio of no more than 250 students per school social worker.
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