Health systems across the country are partnering with school districts to connect children with behavioral health services — and seeing major results. From embedding behavioral health specialists directly into schools to building infrastructure in school districts, these three systems are developing innovative ways to bring mental health into the classroom.
At Corpus Christi, Texas-based Driscoll Children’s Hospital, the system embeds licensed mental health specialists into schools, Mary Peterson, MD, executive vice president and COO, told Becker’s.
The system collaborated with donors to build a pilot program, placing five specialists in elementary schools and one high school. It focused on aligning the donor and school district goals, hiring licensed professional counselors and licensed clinical social workers, and building relationships with the community.
As part of the pilot, the system provided 8,302 mental health sessions to students across two school districts — including 7,630 individual sessions, 649 group sessions, 369 parent sessions and 63 crisis interventions.
The program led to a 54% improvement in emotional and behavioral screening scores among elementary students and an 86% improvement in depression severity among middle and high school students.
“Most children are spending a majority of their day in school, and we know that we have a large shortage of mental health providers,” Dr. Peterson said. “Even if families wanted to get help in a timely manner, there are a lot of barriers — availability, financial.”
At New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health, the system has developed a network of behavioral health centers located near clusters of school districts. These centers serve as regional hubs and offer same- or next-day assessments, care navigation and crisis intervention.
In the past six months, the program has grown from 55 to more than 70 school districts — reaching roughly 275,000 students — with the goal of making immediate psychiatric care as accessible as a school counselor’s referral.
The model focuses on building resilience for teachers, parents and students through education, screening for early recognition and providing immediate access to services, and connecting students to continued mental health support.
“When you break it down to the specific districts … the numbers have significantly decreased — an average of 60% consistently … through the openings of the centers and the new districts joining,” Vera Feuer, MD, child and adolescent psychiatrist and program director for Northwell’s School Mental Health partnerships said, referring to a decrease in emergency department visits for students with psychiatric-related concerns. “Despite the national significant increase, our ER volume from those districts stayed the same or decreased a little bit.”
Northwell has also provided 30 to 50 hours of continuing education and certification training for school counselors, psychologists and teachers.
At Nashville-based Centerstone, Amy Hill, PhD, executive vice president of school-based programming, told Becker’s the organization is scaling an evidence-based, three-tier school mental health model.
Tier one is the whole student body, tier two is focused on small group settings and tier three provides one-on-one interventions. Dr. Hill said Centerstone puts an emphasis on tier one and supporting the mental health and well-being for all youth and adults in the building.
Centerstone embeds full-time providers in the schools. Dr. Hill said research shows even if the system built a clinic next door to a school, no-show rates would skyrocket by 50%. The program is centered on embedding providers on-site in schools, partnering with districts on referrals and responsiveness, and tracking outcomes to demonstrate impact.
In its Missouri operation alone, there were 1,000 referrals for attendance, nearly 1,500 for subject failure and 2,000 for homeless and transient youth. Seventy-two percent of students with initially elevated GAD-7 scores saw a decrease in anxiety symptoms, and 80% with an initial PHQ-9 score of 10 or greater saw a decrease in depressive symptoms. The average GAD-7 score for children above the threshold declined from 14.1 to 10.1, alongside a 94% satisfaction rate.
The organization also hired administrative assistants to serve as liaisons between the school and families, aiming to reduce the typical six-month gap between request and treatment. Placing staff in schools allows them to intervene in real time during the school day.
“If there’s a teenager crying in the bathroom, and she’s a client of ours, we can respond in that moment and help get her de-escalated and back into class,” Dr. Hill said. “The goal really is to get kids in class and able to learn.”
