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YCUSD takes steps to integrate mental health supports
Appeal-Democrat - 3/29/2023
Mar. 29—After months of students advocating for on-campus mental health resources, the Yuba City Unified School District Board of Trustees announced during a meeting on Tuesday that it will work toward integrating behavioral health specialists at its school sites.
Yuba City High School juniors Avery Key and Kiera Galyean along with senior Isabelle Reid started petitioning the district to provide mental health care at its facilities earlier this year in response to an "upsurge in student behaviors that indicate widespread mental health struggles."
According to Key, these behaviors include student violence, low grades and attendance and an overall sense of hopelessness. Through a voluntary survey of 470 Yuba City High School students, 30% reportedly showed symptoms of untreated mental illness. In order to alleviate these issues, Key, Galyean, Reid and other Yuba City Unified students started a petition to secure fully licensed, on-site therapists for students seeking support.
A recent study from the Journal of the American Medical Association further emphasizes the severity of the situation. Hospitalizations for teen mental health crises are on the rise with many more being hospitalized for attempting suicide.
According to the study, between 2009 and 2019, pediatric mental health hospitalizations at acute care facilities rose by nearly 26%. By 2019, two-thirds of those children and adolescents were coming into the hospital after having attempted suicide or harmed themselves.
As of Tuesday's meeting, Key said their petition garnered over 1,000 signatures from students and staff members throughout the district. The district office was packed with students, parents and teachers showing support for the mental health initiative.
Yuba City Unified currently offers several referral programs for mental health resources such as its partnership with Care Solace, which allows students and parents to book appointments to treat mental health or substance abuse issues. Key has previously said that school counselors are primarily relied on for on-campus student support, but academic counselors are not equipped to support students facing significant challenges in their mental or behavioral health.
During the meeting, Reid shared her sister's experience with depression as a former student of Yuba City High School. Reid said that her sister was often turned over to her counselors who could only offer to let her sit in a quiet room or send her home when she was having a mental health crisis.
"Our school counselors are not trained for the issues students are facing. What my sister experienced is a current reality for many many students at YCHS. I think if my sister had access to a school therapist that was licensed and trained to help her cope with her thoughts and her feelings and her depression, then she could have had a way better mental state in high school and a way more successful student than she was," she said.
Because of the lack of appropriate mental health care, Reid said that many students turn to their peers for support who are also unequipped to fully support teens facing mental health challenges.
Other school districts in the area have started their own mental health support programs in response to students expressing a growing need for resources. In September 2022, Wheatland Union High School in Wheatland renovated its library to include the Zen Den, an on-campus space for students to destress and speak with a team of 10 mental health professionals.
The Zen Den is one of the most recent mental health resources that Wheatland Union High School has implemented. Over the past five years, the school has been building its team of mental health professionals, which currently staffs four therapists and six counselors, the Appeal previously reported.
Marysville Joint Unified School District has also recently implemented its first mental wellness center at Lindhurst High School in Olivehurst. The Blazer Support Center serves as an on-campus resource for students, teachers and parents to access mental health services and other ways to enhance wellness.
This program utilizes a team of full-time and part-time therapists and part-time social workers to meet the needs of its students and their families, the Appeal previously reported. The Blazer Support Center also helps connect students and families to community resources they may qualify for such as Cal-Fresh and Medicaid.
Prior to Tuesday's meeting, Superintendent Doreen Osumi met with Key and Galyean to discuss the implementation of licensed, on-campus therapists at certain school sites. Osumi said that the board has been in contact with a separate school district that successfully integrated a wellness center with licensed, clinical social workers.
"We are in the process of gathering information. ... We'll be providing an approach to the board in terms of an action plan for the board to consider the implementation of such a program," she said.
In preparation, Osumi said that district staff members will perform a site visit in April and May to better understand organizing a mental health center.
"There is a recommendation that this is not something we can just throw together. It takes time and thought in terms of the types of services and areas that we would be addressing. ... If the board chooses to implement this, you wouldn't want to start it to have it fall apart because of funding," she said.
Osumi said that the process of gathering information and implementing these mental health resources could take up to a year. Information regarding this mental health initiative will be presented to the board at a later date.
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline or go to www.SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
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