North Syracuse schools focus on mental health with new school year
By Sarah Hall
Editor
It’s tough being a kid these days.
“Over the last 10 years, the U.S has seen large increases in the numbers of students with anxiety, depression and complex trauma,” said Lisa Goldberg, director of instructional support for diverse learning for the North Syracuse Central School District. “We see the same trends among our students.”
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, some 20 percent of American adults has a mental illness. About half of chronic mental health problems have already manifested by age 14. In the case of anxiety disorders, half have begun by the age of 8. In a given year, 22 percent of kids ages 13 to 22 experience a serious mental disorder.
In order to address the problem, New York passed a law — the first in the nation — requiring schools to include mental health education as part of their curriculum. Schools at all levels, from elementary to high school, need to include mental health education in their health curriculum according to the law, which went into effect July 1.
While education is important, several schools in the area have gone beyond the classroom and brought in outside help. Cicero-North Syracuse High School is the latest to add an in-school clinic run by Liberty Resources to better serve their students fighting depression, anxiety or another condition that may require more help than the school itself can provide.
“Our social workers, school psychologists, school counselors and ADA-PEP counselors work exceptionally hard at meeting the needs of our students. In some cases, students require longer term work with a clinician,” Goldberg said. “Many students and their families do not have access, time or transportation to see a mental health professional in the community. Having a satellite clinic in our school provides students and their families with easy access to a mental health professional.”
The Baldwinsville Central School District was the first to introduce the in-house clinics in early 2018. Liverpool began a partnership with the agency later in the school year. North Syracuse has already added an office at the Roxboro Road complex last year; this year the same setup will come to the high school and the junior high.
Among the services Liberty Resources offers are:
• Individual therapy
• Family counseling at school, at home or at a clinic
• Psychiatric evaluation and medication management
• Crisis consultation and intervention
Appointments take place during the school day. Liberty’s services are billed through a family’s health insurance, and Medicaid is accepted. Each clinic can take on about 25 to 30 families.
“Mental health [is] so important in that it affects them academically, it affects them socially, and we want to be able to better serve these students and help them in any way we can,” said C-NS Executive Principal Bill LaClair. “I just think it’s so important to have somebody right here, somebody that we can even go to that is communicating with our counselors and our social workers. It’s just going to be a good team approach to tackle this problem.”
LaClair said he also thinks it’s critical to have the service at all levels.
“If you have them in three buildings—middle school, junior high and high school — now these kids are getting a consistent service throughout, instead of going to one building and not having it there,” he said. “It just provides that consistency for the child.”
LaClair emphasized that awareness is key.
“I think that educating not only the students, but the staff and families and bringing more awareness about this and what kids are dealing with is how can we all help them,” he said.
