A $5.5 million federal grant is allowing the Syracuse City School District to team up with Upstate Medical University to get children more access to mental health treatment. A new program will connect medical experts with school-based clinicians in a first-ever school mental health initiative.
SCSD's mental health director Teresa Bowers said there are currently 300 students on a district waitlist hoping to get mental health services. That number is probably low because of a shortage of professionals available to help. Getting Upstate experts on the job can make a big difference.
"Our students experience a lot coming through the doors every day and we know that the significant impact on their learning," Bowers said. "So having access to these services is really going to help them be able to walk through the door and be able to access learning in ways that they have not been able to do so before."
The program will start in a handful of schools, and as Upstate begins to train more clinicians, it will expand according to Upstate President Mantosh Dwan.
"We will start with three schools and again all of these will have permanent staff and then we hope to extend to nine satellites so there'll be a number of schools where there be permanent staff with very ready access to telehealth as well as any other thing they need," Dwan said.
SUNY Chancellor John King said the right intervention for a child coping with depression or other mental health issues, can be life-changing.
"For too many young people, they don't get access to those resources because of poverty, because of the wait list that they might face, because there aren't enough providers who are diverse, and so we're trying to tackle that," King said. "This program alone won't solve that problem for the entirety of the city, but it will make a difference in the lives of many young people."
The program will begin in 2025.
