Reducing barriers to mental health care is the goal of a future bill to be proposed in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, specifically getting the services directly to kids in schools.
“The children’s mental health is in a crisis state,” said Christine Michaels, the CEO of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Keystone Pennsylvania, also known as NAMI.
She said while access to care has improved, it’s still lacking. In fact, the organization said across Pennsylvania, 98,000 kids between the ages of 12 and 17 are diagnosed with depression, but 57 percent of them are not able to receive care.
“The primary need is to be able to get the care at the time that you’re in need of it,” Michaels said.
She feels one way to achieve this is by bringing more services to the place where kids spend most of their days — in school.
“If you can bring mental health into the schools, then you can get to the kids faster,” Michaels said.
It’s what Democratic State Rep. Manuel Guzman Jr., who represents Berks County, is trying to do. He plans to introduce legislation for Pennsylvania to join the Interstate Compact for School Psychologists. It would allow licensed school psychologists to obtain specific credentials to practice within the states that are members of the compact. Currently, there are seven, including Alabama, Colorado, Delaware and West Virginia.
“It would make a difference,” Michaels said.
In a memo, Guzman said the National Association of School Psychologists recommends one for every 500 students, but the national average is nearly double that, and the problem is there’s a critical worker shortage, making it difficult for families to get appointments.
A spokesperson for Guzman told KDKA-TV they plan to share the official bill in the coming weeks.
Michaels hopes it moves forward.
“Any time we can increase the number of children that are getting seen and getting treated and evaluated, that’s great,” Michaels said.