Innovative USC initiative aims to help K-12 schools address student mental health crisis

South Carolina schools grappling with unprecedented demand for youth mental health services will soon get an assist from the University of South Carolina.

An innovative program designed by USC psychology faculty will give teachers, school counselors and other school staff access to a cadre of trained child mental health experts and behavioral health resources intended to help them better support student mental health in their schools.

Launching Monday, the School Behavioral Health Academy will offer online certificate programs in school behavioral health, provide individualized mental health coaching and foster the creation of a school mental health community where teachers and staff from across the state can interact and share best practices.

“Over the course of the next several months, this community is going to start building with the hope that districts can find out how to make it work in their district given their unique circumstances with the support of expert coaches and also peers on the system,” said Sam McQuillin, a USC psychology professor and co-director of the initiative.

The goal, he said, is to build a professional learning community where districts with strong mental health support systems can offer guidance to districts where supports are less well-established.

While leaders in many districts are acutely focused on addressing the learning loss students experienced as a result of COVID-19-related school shutdowns, fewer are attuned to the mental health and behavioral challenges wrought by the pandemic, said Mark Weist, co-director of the School Behavioral Health Academy.

“Kids have had a tremendous academic slide … so administrators are, many of them, pressing on academics, as they should be,” Weist said. “But we really need balance. We need school system leaders that are on board with that balance and recognizing the significant needs that students are presenting in relation to their mental health, which represent barriers to learning.”

The School Behavioral Health Academy project is supported by a $3.2 million grant from the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, which earlier this year audited the state’s school-based behavioral health program and is spearheading plans to enhance and expand it.

The audit found South Carolina had only one mental health counselor for every 1,300 public school students — well below the industry “gold standard” — and was offering counseling services in less than half of the state’s public schools.

Health and Human Services Director Robby Kerr said in a statement Wednesday that its partnership with the University of South Carolina would help the agency achieve its goal of “drastically improving” the ratio of counselors to students in South Carolina schools.

“The resources announced today will help to better support schools as they integrate mental health services into their day to-day operations and, along with SCDHHS’ efforts to incentivize more counselors to provide mental-health services in South Carolina schools, support increased access to these vital services for children across the state,” he said.

Kerr’s agency, which sets Medicaid rates and is the primary payer for school-based counseling in the state, recently raised reimbursement rates for school-based counseling providers to encourage more districts to hire or contract with mental health counselors.

State Medicaid previously had paid district-employed and private providers less than half what it paid Department of Mental Health clinicians for identical school counseling services.

As a result, districts historically have relied on DMH counselors, who are in increasingly short supply and often have massive caseloads across multiple schools that can prevent them from being available to students on demand when crises arise.

By increasing reimbursement rates for non-DMH providers, districts now have more financial flexibility to hire their own mental health counselors at competitive salaries or contract with private counselors to provide in-school therapy.

Since the rate change went into effect July 1, the number of districts reporting plans to directly hire a counselor has more than doubled from 14 to 30, HHS spokesman Jeff Leieritz said.

Health and Human Services hopes that by funding the School Behavioral Health Academy it can better equip teachers and staff to respond to mental health issues and give districts the tools to integrate mental health counseling into their school communities, he said.

“It came from a desire on our end to not just say, alright schools, you have more flexibility … go figure it out,” Leieritz said. “We wanted to provide resources that would help districts and down to the school level make this a part of their day-to-day.”

‘Everyone plays a part’

One of the chronic problems the project seeks to address is the lack of collaboration and coordination between school mental health professionals and school staff.

Often, McQuillin said, information is lost because the adults who interact with children don’t communicate with one another.

“The school professionals know a lot about the kids in certain ways that the counselor might not and the counselor might know some specific things like traumatic experiences or particular challenges to working individually with a child that school providers might not be aware of or might not know how to manage,” he said. “One of the things we hope to see change is that counselors are not working in isolation with children, that they’re part of a broader team that’s supporting student needs.”

To further that goal, McQuillin and Weist are encouraging all school employees to enroll in the School Behavioral Health Academy and incentivizing districts to use the platform.

The academy’s free course offerings, which are all online and self-paced, range from a broad overview of the youth mental health crisis to more niche courses primarily designed for trained mental health clinicians.

The goal is to distill best practices for all staff members who interact with children, regardless of their specific role at the school.

“Everyone plays a part in responding to the child and adolescent mental health crisis,” said Weist, a USC psychology professor. “From our counselors and teachers to our community mentors and bus drivers.”

The academy’s courses, which take roughly eight hours to complete, are intended to be interactive and engaging. Master’s-level coaches with school-based mental health experience will be available to answer questions and help participants apply concepts to address unique challenges in their districts.

The project also is intended to facilitate peer support, so that employees in districts across the state can work together to share knowledge and address joint challenges.

“You can almost think of it as like a repository for learning opportunities,” McQuillin said. “The rubber is gonna meet the road when you’re engaged in that professional community asking questions, problem solving with others and then getting professional coaching for your individual district.”

The state Department of Education has not been involved in developing the program’s curriculum, but is nonetheless excited about the opportunities it presents, said Suzanne Snyder, the agency’s mental health program manager.

Snyder this week sent district administrators and school mental health coordinators a memo announcing the initiative and explaining its benefits.

“This is an opportunity for all school staff to be trained in mental health around trauma-informed crisis intervention that is hopefully really going to help students and staff at the schools,” she said.