Counselors in Central Texas schools are seeing more students needing mental health care as anxiety and depression increase among adolescents, and during the summer, support outside of schools may be harder to find for some families.
On May 24, Austin Public Health held a press conference regarding its campaign Ask, Talk, Listen, urging parents to begin the conversation on mental health with their children. District 1 Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison declared children’s mental health is a public health priority for the city.
For Austin parent Nidia Heston, the conversation on children’s mental health began when her son, who was in the fifth grade at the time, began exhibiting emotional and behavioral symptoms without a known cause.
“His teachers at the school knew that something else was going on,” Heston said. “So if we know that there’s something different, or you can just feel it, listen to that voice as parents and caregivers. Know that it’s OK to reach out for help.”
After meeting with a psychologist, who diagnosed her son with bipolar disorder, Heston was able to begin a plan to care for him.
“I had been working in children’s mental health at the time helping other parents navigate their health systems—and to hear that for my own child, it kind of shook us, but at least he had a direction,” Heston said.
Many mental health professionals and experts point to the same causes of the spike in anxiety and depression in youth under age 19, including disruption caused by the pandemic, an increase of social media use and current events.
“There’s a ripple effect from the COVID-19 scenarios and the way we handled them as a society,” said Scott Spaw, clinical director at Ellie Mental Health Northwest Austin. “I think that increasing anxiety also has to do with our media and social media.”
What experts are saying
Since nearly 50% of all lifetime mental health illnesses begin by age 14, according to Austin Public Health, parents and caregivers can look for signs early on and get support for their child. Nearly 1 in 6 children in the United States has a mental health disorder, and in 2021, a mental health crisis among youth in the United States was declared a national emergency by the American Academy of Pediatrics, a national coalition of children’s health professionals.
Social isolation due to the pandemic disrupted daily routines, and the lack of social interaction led to youth experiencing loneliness, anxiety and depression, said Rebecca Opamen, clinical director and therapist for Ellie Mental Health Bee Cave.
As students returned to school, readjusting to being in a classroom and interacting daily with peers can be a cause of stress for some students, Spaw said.
“We very seldom hear anything positive about what’s going on in society,” Spaw said. “Whether it’s even accurate or not, it doesn’t even matter. It’s just the perspective that it’s constantly there, and kids tend to have a lot of access to information that has not been fully vetted.”
In 2021, 45% of Texas high school students reported feeling so sad or hopeless for more than two weeks that they stopped doing some of their usual activities, per a semiannual survey released in March from the Texas Department of State Health Services and the CDC.
Signs of an escalating mental health disorder and suicide can include giving away belongings, secluding oneself from friends and eating less. Adults can be proactive by engaging in conversations about mental health with children as adolescents often report feeling dismissed or ignored both at school and at home when asking for help, said Liz Davila, Ellie Mental Health marriage and family therapist.
“[Depression and anxiety] are the two top issues, and then I think the third one that kind of weaves through that is social media. So whether it’s self-esteem, self-awareness, cyberbullying, just all kinds of things like that,” said Tisha Kolek, Dripping Springs ISD director of counseling and health services.
Resources in school
Both Austin ISD’s and DSISD’s counseling services operate on a tiered model. Tiers one and two are systems of support provided by school counselors on campuses. These services include classroom lessons that promote social-emotional learning, academic support and postsecondary planning as well as student support groups. Through tiers three and four, a licensed mental health professional can provide an individualized approach or crisis resources.
In 2019, the Dripping Springs Education Foundation began funding licensed mental health professional positions on campuses with money raised in the community as part of a mental health initiative. In the district, three licensed professionals work with students and one works with staff in addition to the 20 counselors.
During the summer months, AISD counselors are available to offer student resources, while DSISD counseling closes for three to four weeks for summer vacation.
Accessing additional resources
Accessing mental health is not always easy as the services available to an individual often depend on the wealth of the family, Spaw said.
However, there are programs that can offer assistance. The University of Texas’ Institute for Public School Initiatives partners with virtual care provider MDLive to provide free appointments with therapists or psychiatrists to students ages 10-18 in qualifying school districts in Texas.
“A professional therapist is really just health care,” IPSI Executive Director Matt Orem said. “It should just be a right and something that we should all have access to.”
Anyone can receive training in mental health first aid, which educates on how to recognize different signs of mental health issues and how to intervene, Spaw said. Mental health first aid is offered across the county by different instructors, including Integral Care, Austin-Travis County EMS, and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
“As parents, we have the power to help. We have the power to make conversations about mental health a regular part of our day,” Heston said. “The more we talk about struggles with mental illness, the more we normalize it.”
