Mental health issues are on the rise among children, and Missouri is debating how to meet the growing needs of children.
Missouri Department of Mental Health Director Valerie Huhn told the State Board of Education that for the past three years, the U.S. Surgeon General has issued recommendations on children’s mental health instead of on drugs, tobacco and exercise.
“This feels different. Mental health is like breaking an arm for a child,” Huhn said. “We’re never going to let them walk around with a broken arm. We need to start addressing the things that are affecting their mental health and making sure we’re talking about mental health. Yes, we’re literally talking about this as a generational issue, but to be honest, it could be a two-generational issue, and I don’t want to say that because we’re still talking about it. I think that’s really, really important.”
Huhn said multiple studies have shown that rates of depression and anxiety in children jumped by more than 50% between 2010 and 2019.
The advisory states that nearly a third of teens report using social media almost constantly, a number that has doubled since 2015. It also says that children who spend more than three hours a day on social media are twice as likely to face mental health problems, including depression. And anxiety.
Huhn said children need healthier social interactions that encourage connections between people.
“Among people between the ages of 15 and 24, the amount of time spent in person with friends has declined by nearly 70% over the past 20 years, from approximately 150 minutes per day in 2003 to approximately 150 minutes per day in 2020. 40 minutes, otherwise in-person,” she said.
Board member Kim Bailey, a mental health professional for the city of Raymore, said there needs to be a training component for teachers to educate students about the importance of in-person interactions.
“We’re seeing a significant increase in higher-order mental illness. I feel that if we had more healthy social connections, this number would go down,” Bailey said.
Pamela Westbrooks Hodge, a board member from the St. Louis region, said she was glad to hear there is discussion at the federal level about regulating children’s social media use.
“I haven’t heard a similar conversation at the state level,” she said. “So when you’re talking about solutions and we’re talking about curbing and preventing this, what role does policy play in helping parents regulate this? I mean, we know parents have to make their kids wear seat belts, but it’s also the law that they have to wear seat belts.”
The state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Department of Mental Health will work together to address children’s mental health needs. Missouri State Board of Education Chairman Charlie Shields, a St. Joseph resident, said things have to change if they want a different outcome.
“We support nutrition services for children experiencing homelessness. Schools have washing machines,” Shields said. “We have had school nurses for 100 years. We don’t tell parents to take their kids to school. All of these services are designed to help parents. We talk about mental health, behavioral health, values. It’s a third rail that we can’t touch and we have to get through it.”
Another conversation centered around the need for additional mental health professionals. Dr. Kula Stearns of the Missouri Department of Mental Health said not all of these jobs require someone to be licensed or have a master’s or doctoral degree.
“Missouri ranks 39th in the nation in the number of mental health workers per capita,” he said. “If you look at a map of the United States, it shows you where the areas that we think have the right mental health workforce are, and that’s about five states. And we’re 39 years old. So, Even with a big push, we can’t get enough master’s level LPC, LCSW, PhD level people to solve this problem. So one of the things we’re trying to do is. , educating parents, because honestly, this is the best way to really improve the situation: give them better skills and better information so they can be your first line of mind. Medical workers.”
The U.S. Surgeon General’s recommendations for parents and caregivers are:
•Create a technology-free zone and encourage children to develop in-person friendships.
•Model responsible social media behavior.
• Collaborate with other parents to establish common norms and practices and support programs and policies regarding healthy social media use.
The U.S. Surgeon General’s recommendations to the government include:
• Establish a dedicated leadership position to work cross-functionally, convene stakeholders, and drive connectivity policies.
• Investigate and support research into the causes of social disconnection.
• Develop age-appropriate health and safety standards for technology platforms. Standards may include designing technology that is developmentally appropriate and safe for children. Protect children and youth from accessing harmful content, such as content that promotes eating disorders, violence, drug use, sexual exploitation, suicide, or discusses methods of suicide.
• Develop tools to protect activities essential to healthy development, such as sleep. Regularly assess and reduce risks to children and young people.
• Support the integration of screening and treatment into primary care. For example, continue to expand pediatric mental health care access programs. The program provides telephone consultation, training, technical assistance and care coordination to primary care providers to support the diagnosis, treatment and referral of children with mental health and substance use needs.
•Provide resources and technical assistance to strengthen school-based mental health programs.
• Expand and support the mental health workforce. Examples of opportunities include investing in training and employment for a wider range of specialties (peer support, community health workers, family counselors, care coordinators, etc.) and accelerating training and loan repayment initiatives.
– In schools, the government should invest in building a pipeline of school counselors, nurses, social workers, and school psychologists.
• Expand and strengthen suicide prevention and mental health crisis services.
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