A 14-year-old boy who excels in sports suddenly loses interest and withdraws into class. A 10-year-old girl who excelled in math and science suddenly begins to fail tests. A teacher asks why: “It’s nothing,” they say, and yet the problems persist. Because we are living through a one-generation crisis. The kids are not okay.
Maybe these kids had anxiety or depression before COVID-19 hit us, and it’s gotten worse. Perhaps school closures, insecurity and fear during the pandemic have created new health problems. As a healthcare leader and mother, people often ask me, How can I help my children? I tell them Michigan has an invaluable resource for just this kind of support: school health centers. But Michigan is nowhere near enough.
School-based health centers operate in a school building and are staffed by clinicians from a local health system. The clinics provide primary care that is provided by a nurse or doctor; many of them are staffed by therapists who provide mental health support, without the need for insurance or an appointment.
Today, there are health centers in schools in about half of Michigan’s counties. The organization I lead has a waiting list of 150 school districts desperate for one. Imagine how many kids are waiting for those schools. Waiting for someone to help them.
Locating primary health care and mental health treatment within a school is beneficial for many reasons: parents do not have to take time off to take their children to appointments, children miss less class time, and having an on-site doctor at their school leads to familiarity with a trusted authority figure. Superintendents with these centers in their district report fewer behavioral problems, less absenteeism in class, and better academic performance.
Additional funding from the state allocated $5 million last year to establish 20 new school centers in the state. There were still 100 on our waiting list. We had to reject 100 schools because there was not enough money. Here’s our plea to lawmakers: $25 million could establish 100 additional centers across the state to help thousands of Michigan children. One-time financing is ointment on the wound, but will not close it. Children need continuous support they can count on.
More of an opinion
Thousands of children of a vulnerable age are currently feeling the pull of anxiety, depression or general stress. As adults, this feeling is familiar to many of us. For their developing brains, that’s not the case. Early diagnosis and treatment can be the difference between a trajectory that prepares them for success in life or allows them to drop out. If we can’t help them at this critical point, what does Michigan’s future look like?
Our decision-makers in the legislature have many big questions ahead of them. I believe ours is the biggest: will you please give our youngest and most vulnerable residents access to mental health services within their schools?
Debbie Brinson is CEO of Honor Community Health and Executive Director of the School-Community Health Alliance of Michigan.