How Erie public schools are addressing students' mental health needs for 2023-24

Erie School District students will have in-house access to a mental health specialist when they return to class, no matter which school they attend.

These specialists, who are either licensed social workers or licensed professional counselors, have been available at some of the Erie public schools since 2006 but this is the first time one has been embedded at every school.

Having these specialists at each school helps students deal with the pressures and trauma in their lives, said Amy Durie, who supervises the mental health specialists. She said trauma isn't limited to violence and the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Our children don't experience a single traumatic event," Durie said. "Often their lives have ongoing traumatic situations, such as concerns about getting enough food and having a place to stay."

The effect of dealing with trauma on a consistent basis can be too much for some students, said Durie and Scherry Prater, the district's director of student services.

They pointed to a recent Centers for Disease Control & Prevention study that showed the percentage of teen girls who felt persistently sad or hopeless increased from 36% in 2011 to 57% in 2021. Also, nearly one in three of them seriously considered attempting suicide, a 60% increase over 10 years.

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The CDC study also showed an increase among teen boys who felt persistently sad or hopeless, from 21% in 2011 to 29% in 2021.

"Erie is not different from the rest of the country. We have seen an increase as well," Durie said.

The benefit of having an in-school mental health specialist

Having a mental health specialist at each school is important because they can respond more quickly to an incident and have more time to learn about students, Prater said.

"When you're sharing someone, it can be exhausting for the specialist to constantly go between two schools," Prater said. "Also, schools might have to wait when a crisis occurs for the specialist to arrive."

Money for the increased number of mental health specialists in recent years has come federal COVID-19 pandemic aid funding, which is scheduled to end September 2024.

School district board members voted to raise taxes, in part to fund these and other positions, by 4.45% for the 2022-23 school year and 2.46% for the 2023-24 school year.

"We have seen that having these specialists has a significant effect on attendance, the students' ability to come to school and to function," Prater said. "Not to have these specialists would be devastating, academically."

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Adding mental health specialists isn't the only way the district is attempting to help students with stress and depression.

A pilot program is being rolled out at Erie High School for a peer support group specifically for students with symptoms of depression.

The school district is also working with Highmark Caring Place, 510 Cranberry St., to train the mental health specialists so they can facilitate grief support groups at the schools.

"We have had a number of students who have lost caregivers, specifically through the pandemic and drug overdoses," Durie said. "We also are able to send families to the Caring Place."

It will also be the second year the school district is able to conduct standardized mental health screenings for students with funding from the Garrett Lee Youth Suicide Prevention Grant.

Elementary schools in the district will begin using Respectful Ways, a trauma-informed method of social and emotional learning.

"It's a specific curriculum that helps students to develop more positive, enhanced skill sets," Durie said.

Contact David Bruce at dbruce@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNBruce.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie public schools increase mental health programs for students