RICHMOND, Va. -- Virginia students are in crisis, and one mental health expert compared efforts to address the issue as "drinking from the firehose."
"It has just felt like a crisis since the pandemic honestly," said child psychologist Dr. Sandra Henderson.
Last year, 40% of high school students in Virginia felt so sad or hopeless every day for at least two weeks straight that they stopped their usual activities, a state-issued school climate survey found. Thirteen percent of high school students surveyed said they seriously considered suicide.
Results from a 2023 survey among middle school students were only slightly lower, with 34% reporting they felt sad and hopeless for at least two weeks in a row and eleven percent considering suicide.
"There's a kind of a hum, or a thread of anxiety, that kind of weaves its way through almost all of them," Henderson said. "Just feeling unsettled, feeling uncomfortable, feeling on high alert that just seems to be pervasive right now with kids and teenagers."
Henderson has noticed many of her recent referrals have come from school mental health professionals who identified a child in need of additional external support.
"They're our first line of defense actually in the schools. Counselors or social workers or school psychologists are often the first to flag something going on in a child's life," she said.
But they're overwhelmed, she said.
"There's just not enough [help] available for the need that's out there, and we're all feeling it as providers," Henderson said. "People are just barely barely making it. I mean, every counselor that has been added is full-time busy, non-stop."
According to a November 2023 report from the Behavioral Health Commission, 45% of Virginia students who need higher-tiered levels of support don’t have access to it in school.
The unavailability of services is partly linked to a shortage of providers and limited funding, oftentimes in communities with children who face the greatest challenges, according to the report.
During the pandemic, a majority of school divisions used their federal stimulus dollars to boost behavioral health services.
For example, Richmond Public Schools used millions in one-time COVID-19 relief dollars to maintain or hire more than a dozen counselors, psychologists, student support specialists, and family liaisons, according to School Board records.
Henrico Public Schools used pandemic funding to add 31 counselors and two social workers to the district, which cost the division nearly $3 million annually, a spokesperson said.
Statewide, the Behavioral Health Commission report revealed 64% of school districts spent a total of $123 million COVID dollars on mental health services
But that money runs out next year leaving 40% of divisions concerned they could lose some of their services, a looming deadline that Richmond Public Schools spokesperson Alyssa Schwenk said "every school division in America is well aware of."
"As we head into budgeting season this year, we'll be making thoughtful and student-centered decisions about how to approach the end of stimulus funding. This will include looking at how we can leverage operational funds and new grant funding," Schwenk said.
The Behavioral Health Commission recommended, in an effort to mitigate any "backsliding" of services, state legislators identify additional funding sources for school districts.
Dr. Henderson said she hoped state leaders would make up for any potential gaps in school-based mental health services.
"It's completely illogical to take away what is in place right now," Henderson said. "It would just be a plea to please help."
Sen. Barbara Favola (D - Northern Virginia) said members of the bipartisan commission plan to move forward with a proposal to increase funding for a pilot program through the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services which has helped bring mental health professionals to school divisions and connect districts to external community partners in the mental health care continuum.
Last year, the pilot program worked with six school divisions including Richmond, Hopewell, and Hanover. Favola said she'd like to see the number of participating districts expand.
When Governor Glen Youngkin (R - Virginia) announced his proposed budget on Wednesday morning, he mentioned spending more money to overhaul Virginia's mental health care system, in part by expanding crisis services and tackling substance abuse challenges.
Macaulay Porter, spokesperson for Youngkin's office said, "Over the biennium, the governor proposed $23 million to expand access to school-based mental health services for children, including telehealth."
Porter added his introduced budget would provide funding for tele-behavioral health for students in grades 6-12 with their parents' permission.
The governor's plan includes $15 million each year in grants that school divisions can use to contract community-based mental health services and technical assistance for the implementation of services and billing insurance providers for services.
The Behavioral Health Commission said while the governor's proposed measures were significant, they are unlikely to fully meet the mental health needs of children in public schools while also offsetting the loss of federal pandemic relief for the following reasons:
- The BHC found that 45 percent of students who need more intensive mental health services (e.g., small group interventions, individual psychotherapy) are unable to access these services in schools, even with the benefit of pandemic relief funds.
- Pandemic funding totaled more than $120M over the past 4 years, and although it is not possible to know exactly how much schools would need to maintain current service levels, a simple annual average suggests approximately $30 million per year.
- The funding included in the Governor's budget for grants to schools contemplates contracting with community-based providers specifically, and could not be used for school personnel to provide services. Yet, many schools report relying on school staff, at least in part, to deliver mental health programming, especially for prevention programs and in areas where there is a shortage of external providers.
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