The latest 2023 Kids Count data book painted a dire picture that should be an immediate call for action to help Maine youth with their mental health issues.  

According to the report, nearly 36% of Maine’s roughly 55,000 high school students reported feeling sad or hopeless, representing a 4% increase from just before the pandemic. Incidents of self-harm are up, the number of students who seriously considered suicide increased and around 2,500 Maine youths were in the emergency room for suicide attempts or ideation in 2022 alone. 

And another report earlier this year from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated nearly three in five teen girls felt persistently sad or hopeless in 2021, nearly double that of boys. We’ve seen study after study, report after report, and countless data points all pointing to the same conclusion: The pandemic had a significantly adverse impact on Maine youth. 

These numbers won’t come as a shock to any parent or educator.

Educators report that since the pandemic, students’ social, emotional and academic functioning is delayed by about approximately two years. Students are more easily frustrated and have difficulty regulating their moods and behaviors. Teachers recognize that students need to be emotionally available for learning to occur. Children experience increased stress, anxiety and depression due to family issues, trauma, social media and world events. Through direct school-based behavioral health services, students are able to process their feelings and learn coping and regulation skills.   

School-based clinicians join with guidance counselors and school social workers to form a continuum of care to support students’ mental health needs. Each role has its own specific purpose. School-based therapy services are often provided by an outside contracted behavioral health agency like Sweetser. These are clinical outpatient therapy services provided within the school setting to ensure accessibility to those who might not be able to access services in the community.

Clinicians work with individual students and their families in their schools, homes and within the community, collaborating in partnership with school staff year-round. This allows clinicians to see students in the context of their families, social relationships and educational programs providing a more comprehensive view of their needs. Sweetser served a total of over 2,300 students last year in schools, from Kittery to Bangor.  

School-based clinicians are on the front lines of this mental health crisis. By providing mental health services directly in the school setting, clinicians can be more responsive to each student’s needs in the moment and partner with school staff.

Each day is different and rarely goes as planned. For example, one week I rearranged my schedule to do a suicide risk assessment on a fifth-grader, coordinating with the school and parents to develop a safety plan. I supported another student who came to school crying most days distressed by court custody battles, working with the lawyer and the advocate for her needs. Later, I met with a high school student to problem solve his suspension for a physical altercation at school in which he was responding to feeling bullied, then worked with the mother to coordinate a meeting with the school. 

Over the past 20 years of providing mental health services in schools, I have seen those I have supported with these challenges walking across the stage at graduation, working in the community, becoming better partners and parents to the next generation. Some have even joined me, becoming colleagues to help others. 

Offering school-based mental health services is prevention at its best.

The hope is to avoid youth needing higher levels of care; in psychiatric residential treatment facilities or in emergency rooms, as a danger to themselves or those around them. It’s clear that reaching kids early on and providing them with the support structure needed to treat their behavioral health needs, would reduce the financial strain on the criminal justice system. Between 50% and 75% of youth who end up in the juvenile justice system could be diagnosed with a mental health disorder.

What Maine’s youth need is treatment, support and hope. We need to do more. We just need to give schools the tools to do it.