LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Many experts agree America is in the midst of a youth mental health crisis. A new report looks at how the nation’s schools are addressing the crisis.
America’s School Mental Health Report Card is part of the Hopeful Futures Campaign formed by 17 national organizations. The report card uses a scoring guide to look at state policies supporting school mental health.
While the report shows Arkansas isn’t meeting the mark in some areas, education officials said they are constantly working to make sure students’ needs are met.
Dr. Betsy Kindall, who works for the Arkansas Department of Education, said the state is seeing more severe behavior and additional referrals for mental health issues.
Kindall is the project coordinator for Arkansas AWARE. The federally-funded project helps districts with school-based mental health programming.
“Right now, Arkansas has 30,000 kids that are getting mental health services, and most of those services happen at school,” Kindall said.
Kindall said it’s important to meet kids where they are. That is also the goal of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), which is part of the Hopeful Futures Campaign.
“We have to do something for our children. We're very concerned,” NAMI Arkansas Executive Director Dr. Buster Lackey said. “And why not start in the school districts?”
America’s School Mental Health Report Card shows Arkansas falls short of recommendations in several policy areas.
“I think we have a long ways to go,” Kindall said. “However, I do think that the report is not a really good representation of everything, all the good things we have going on in our state.”
When it comes to the ratio of students to school mental health professionals, Arkansas fails, according to the report.
It suggests the state invests in “significantly improving the ratios of school psychologists, school social workers, and counselors in K-12.”
According to Kindall, there’s an obstacle getting in the way.
“Arkansas has a clinician shortage, like many states across our country,” she said.
She said that’s one reason the state is working to train all school staff – not just teachers and administrators – on how to identify and help struggling students.
“Just because a student needs some assistance doesn't necessarily mean that they always need a mental health clinician,” she said.
State law currently requires all public school personnel to complete two hours of teen suicide prevention training. Arkansas AWARE also offers Mental Health First Aid training.
“We provide the trainers. We provide the materials, anything and everything that's needed to get that training done,” Kindall said.
Mental Health First Aid is not required right now, but school counselors and resource officers must complete the training starting in 2023.
“We've really tried to hone in on training for staff because we feel that our educators have to be in a really good place to go into that classroom and support the kids or recognize even their needs.,” Kindall said.
Arkansas AWARE also offers free Mental Health First Aid training for faith-based organizations and community groups.