Families and schools must work together to tackle youth mental health crisis

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The toll of isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic has made a lasting impact on many Americans, particularly its youth. And in Texas, that rise in need for better access to mental health services, particularly among its youngest residents, has hit at a time where mental health workforce shortages are at crisis levels.

In a Texas Tribune conversation on Wednesday, experts from across the state explored the challenges facing Texas kids, and how families can best support their children as billions in tax dollars are making their way to communities. They described work being done in schools and health care and outlined how communities can create systems that work alongside one another to support every child.

The speakers acknowledged the role of the pandemic in this crisis, but clarified the importance of recognizing that it is something that had started years before the virus appeared.

“It was a problem before and it's going to continue to be a problem after,” said Dr. Sabrina Browne, a pediatric psychiatrist at Children’s Health Speciality Center Desoto.

The panelists discussed plans to help kids, parents, teachers and the whole educational and health system so it could have better tools to deal with mental health illness in kids.

“Part of that crisis is because our systems aren't equipped to support the needs of students and young people. They weren't equipped prior to the pandemic and we are still not equipped to do it. We are working really hard and we are getting there, but we are not quite there yet,” said Tegan Henke, the senior VP of community systems innovation at Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute.

The challenges facing kids

Although the pandemic had a clear effect on this issue, the specialists agreed that it added to a list of other problems such as the use of social media or the stigma regarding mental illnesses — which although they noted that it decreased, they consider that it still exists.

From 2010 to 2015 concerns for youth mental health skyrocketed, according to Laura Vogel, director of mental health services at Momentous Institute. That matches the same time period when the use of smartphones rose and participating in social media had become an everyday habit.

For Vogel, this increased use of social networks result in childrens who aren’t having as much free play and aren't interacting as much face-to-face in communities learning social skills. And, above all, leading a generation to be raised in a world that is virtually unsupervised by adults. “The pandemic was an explanation mark on that,” she assured.

“Social media is almost like taking a drug, it stimulates the part of the brain that makes you feel good. Seeing what many likes you have, how many people see your post. And if I am in a place where I am not feeling my best, this is going to help to bust my feelings. But we know that is temporary, only on the outside, doesn’t fix the things on the inside,” explained Deborah Purge, special program and training manager of mental health services for the Dallas Independent School District.

Challenges for families and schools

The panelists also spoke about the role of the family and schools, both vital partners when improving a child’s mental health.

“We are super intentional about involving the family because childrens do not exist in isolation,” said Vogel about her experience at Momentous Institute. Without parents and caregivers being a part of the team is going to be so much harder.

Parents need to bridge communication gaps by talking to their children. But both parents and teachers need to be better educated about what a mental health crisis or mental illness looks like.

Henke also advised that adults need to understand better what digital literacy and social media literacy looks like for young people.

“We need to really support parents to know how and when to monitor their young people’s use of technology,” Henke said.

However, she pointed out that the main challenge is to control what the kids do online without taking the opportunity for young people to find their own communities online. Young people, especially those who might be particularly isolated can find identity support online and through social media in a healthy way, she said.

The speakers suggested that if schools could work better with parents, as a team, when it comes to limits on cell phones and social media it would make parents feel more supported. In addition, the speakers noted that the most important role of schools is early identification of students who need extra resources.

The state’s investment 

Henke said that the Legislature has invested more money into behavioral health programs for younger Texans. Most of the mobile crisis outreach teams in the state that work with those in psychiatric crisis treat only adults. But now there is a pilot of specific youth crisis outreach teams throughout the state.

She pointed out the work of the Texas Child Health Access Through Telemedicine, or TCHATT program, which connects students to mental health resources and through medical professionals in their regions so they can access short-term mental health support.

For Browne it is important to increase those access points and meet kids where they are. For example, she said that telemedicine makes it so much easier for parents because they may not have to take long rides or take more time from work.

Finally, the speakers also talked about the importance of creating career pathways that lead to behavioral health clinicians to increase a diverse workforce, as well as taking care of the professionals and caregivers to avoid the burnouts.

"We don’t have really great career pathways that lead to behavioral health clinicians. So one of the things we really need to do to increase the behavioral workforce is creating those career pathways," Henke said.

Disclosure: Momentous Institute and UT Southwestern Medical Center have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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