The Mayor and the City Council Upend Teen Mental Health Spending, Part Two

Update:

I meant to include this link to King County's "2024-2029 Public Health Strategic Plan. " Page 21 has a host of both county and state helplines including those for teens. Consider printing out that page and asking your school if it can be posted somewhere if it isn't already. 

end of update

As I mentioned in Part 1, I see two major overarching issues to trying to help teens with their mental health. 

One is what ARE the best things to do to support teens AT SCHOOL. I emphasize that because whether it's district, city, county or state, kids do live a home life that probably has quite a lot to do with how they feel mentally. Naturally, the district does want to know if a student has a difficult home life and can try to support them but no district can do it all.

There is NO one change that will truly help. Even if you added two mental health counselors at every high school, you will still miss kids who need help. 

Within that question of what to do, we get to "what do we know or what do we NEED to know."

The Mayor's office sent me several useful links and I thank them for their prompt answers and follow-up. 

There had been a report referenced in one of the news stories and here it is. It does attempt to answer my first question.

A Student-Led Approach to Mental Health Services

"Our youth deserve safe, supportive environments to learn, grow, and reach adulthood, and it will take an all-of-society effort to support the mental health and well-being of our youth." 

                                                                                                            Mayor Harrell

From the Executive Summary (partial):

Students in Seattle and around the country are struggling with significant mental health challenges,
and the scale and urgency of this crisis requires action. The City of Seattle is uniquely positioned to
leverage and adapt existing youth programming, convene partners across sectors, and support
community-level solutions.

To guide these new investments, the City’s Innovation & Performance team worked in partnership
with Seattle Public Schools students, parents, staff, providers, and advocacy groups to develop a
comprehensive student mental health strategy. Our goals were to understand the current youth
mental health needs and system gaps in Seattle; identify interventions that are evidence-based,
scalable, and effective; and develop a community-informed student mental health strategy.

The City will work with our partners to identify the most sustainable and effective approaches to
support student mental health needs as we pilot them. We cannot solve for student mental health
alone, and it will take an all-of-society effort including schools, non-profit organizations,
philanthropic partners, state and local governments, and medical providers. As the City refines its
role, our vision is to support a more coordinated system where families and students have easy
access to care and treatment, and upstream investments support overall well-being.

Among their findings:

- Kids don't know what resources are out there. 

That CERTAINLY can be remedied and fast. But when you have a district mired in debt, trying to decide on closing schools, well, I wonder where information on resources for student mental health falls on the list.

- Stigma is a barrier for kids.

Know what to do? Put out info on how Simone Biles and other famous sports figures talk about their mental health issues. 

Know what's coming up? October 10th is World Mental Health Day. The district and the city could join forces to have a summit at Seattle schools with information and resources. 

- Students want more enrichment programs

The City is pushing an idea about nature programs. This is because talk therapy is not as culturally relevant/accepted by some groups. If the City and the District joined forces, they could use city parks to take more kids out and talk about the environment.

- At-risk students need proactive support. They want to use a screener in high school to try to find these students. Okay, but it has to be a better one than Check Yourself.

- Therapy access has got to be easier.  One barrier here is the lack of enough mental health specialists.

The City also has their Reach Out Seattle initiative, a youth mental health initiative focused on creating a healthier future for Seattle kids. There are many good resources on just this one page. But students need better ways to know what is out there and how to access it.

 

How do we find kids at risk?

That likely points to some kind of screening device. The district and county are already doing this in middle school with the Check Yourself screener which I continue to warn against its use.

If middle schoolers think it's invasive, I can't wait for savvy high school students to weigh in when they get a look at it.

Since screeners are optional to take, that also means that the district very well could miss some kids. 

So you have a screener but can it account for the many issues for today's kids, some of which harken back decades but have their own special flavor toay?

Self - body issues, gender issues, grades, sports, relationships at at school including teachers, suicide ideation, gangs

Bullying but now there's cyberbullying and phone bullying. 

Boyfriend and girlfriend issues except now there's using intimate photos against each other.  

A myriad of home life issues - poverty, violence at home, helicopter parents, high achiever syndrome, verbal abuse, taking care of siblings after school, sick parent, etc. 

Worry over what the future will be for them - environmental concerns, financial concerns, worry about the state of the world, etc. 

Again, no one program, no one screener can cover all of this. 

Two, so what WOULD be the best use of the funding?

I note that this is issue that allows electeds to say they don't want to waste money. Well, their elected job is to figure out that spending.  I would be quite surprised if the City handed over $12.5M to the district and said, "Here you go."

I can say that I doubt there will be more mental health specialists hired. Personnel are extremely expensive and where is the money to sustain new hiring? 

So what else besides what the Reach Out Seattle report says?

Maybe young GenZ teams  (from City Year?) who can come into schools and talk to kids about resources. Because teens do not believe adults can understand or know their true stress. 

There is one item on the list of ways you to help youth on the Reach Out Seattle page that struck a chord with me.

Hope.  

Kids and young adults should feel hopeful and not hopeless.  

We, as a society, have got to get on this train and help these kids to believe in their future. 

I do applaud the City for being willing to be proactive. But ALL members of the City Council should be supporting this initiative and not bad-mouthing it. 

I agree that in many ways, the easiest place to give these students access/understanding of services is at school. But these kids are also citizens of the city and county and that they ALL should play a part in this effort.  

Truly, my biggest worry is that SPS doesn't have the bandwidth or track record to get this right.