The Syracuse City School District will receive a $4 million federal grant to expand mental health services for students and families. The grant from the U.S. Department of Education will fund a partnership between the district and SUNY Oswego to attract and hire more school psychologists.
Central New York Rep. John Mannion (D-Geddes) said something needs to be done to help families cope with a shortage of mental health professionals right now.
"If you have or a family member has a mental health issue and you try to access mental health services, it's incredibly challenging and that's why embedding these trained professionals in our schools are so essential but we need them," Mannion said. "We need more of them."
Laura Kelley, the district’s head of student support services, said more mental health professionals in the district will help in a number of ways.
"Evaluations. Families often wait for months and months and months to be seen to be able to receive an evaluation to get an idea about what their child might need in terms of services," Kelley said. "Direct services are also possible as a result of those evaluations. Family and individual counseling, group counseling, medication management. Those are types of services that are offered also crisis intervention and triage as needed as well."
Kelley said the key to the program is getting potential school psychologists in the building before they graduate.
"So this grant allows us over time over the next several years to actually be able to not just fill spots with interns, but retain those interns, keep them," she said. "They commit to work in the Syracuse City School District for several years after their internship is complete so that we fill that shortage gap. So this is a long-range plan."
Mannion says he has two other mental health proposals in the legislative pipeline. One would boost recruitment and set staffing ratios. Another would encourage colleges and universities to develop mental health and suicide prevention plans.
