School district working to address student mental health

Nikky Hoffmaster with her familyNikky Hoffmaster’s younger son was in third grade when she began to feel overwhelmed.

“I was actually calling social services to try to put him in foster care, because I thought that I was going to lose my mind if I had to deal with it for one more day,” she said.

Her son, who has bipolar disorder, was having trouble adjusting to a new school in the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD). When he left the McFarland School District the support system that existed there did not follow him.

Hoffmaster received calls almost daily about his disruptive behavior, which continued once he came home. And because she had to pick him up early from school so often, she experienced tension at work.

On top of those challenges, she was taking him to psychiatrist appointments, measuring medication levels, and dealing with a daycare that didn't know how to handle him either.

“I was tired, frustrated, and lost,” she wrote in an email. “Everyday seemed to be a new opportunity for more problems that I had no solutions for.”

Her situation is not unique. A 2010 study by the district found that more than 16 percent of the student population in the Madison school district struggles with mental health.

But now a group is working to find the solutions that eluded Hoffmaster when her son was younger.

She is one member of the MMSD Mental Health Task Force. In part, the group has been working for the past year to understand the barriers that prevent children from accessing mental health services that could improve their academics and qualities of life.

To treat mental health concerns, parents and school support staff must navigate a series of hurdles with a slightly different landscape for each family. The primary challenges include the time they can devote to coordinating appointments and the availability of insurance and transportation.

At this point, it is difficult for schools to provide students with individual therapy on a weekly basis. The job requirements for support staff like psychologists, counselors, and nurses go far beyond helping students connect with mental health services outside school.

The services exist, Hoffmaster said, but the difficulty is ensuring that the many parties involved communicate effectively.

According to Kathy Halley, a psychologist on the task force, roughly one in five children nationally has a diagnosable mental health condition. The causes include a mix of biology, the environments they come from, and early childhood trauma.

There is an overall upward trend in the number of kids with mental health conditions, with anxiety and depression among the most common, said Sara Parrell, a school nurse on the task force.

But the figure of about 16 percent for Madison students has stayed the same for quite some time said Scott Strong, the co-chair of the task force. Problems like tighter resources make addressing mental health issues more challenging, he said.

“I’m not sure the need is growing as much as just some of the environmental factors are making it more difficult for kids to get what they need in the schools,” he said. “And some of it has to do with distractions and factors of poverty and other issues.”

Poor mental health is linked to poor academic achievement, according to the task force’s preliminary recommendations document. Anxiety affects the ability to retain information, to focus, and to sleep, Halley said.

School nurses also see kids with physical manifestations of anxiety like headaches and stomachaches, said Parrell, who has worked in the district for 20 years.

Students with mental health challenges are also more likely to be suspended, referred for discipline, or to miss school than their peers. This culminates in time lost in the classroom, which makes it more difficult to succeed academically, according to the recommendations document.

When Hoffmaster reached out for help, she was put in contact with Community Partnerships, an organization in Madison whose mission is to support children with mental health needs. From there, she said, she began to understand the resources and services available. Even after years, though, she has yet to master the system.

But with the work of the task force, the system might become more manageable. The task force has recommended 23 key goals and highlighted seven it deems most pressing.

One proposal would add mental health clinics to middle and high schools. According to the task force’s recommendations, this would make it easier to screen for mental health concerns, identify a problem and intervene.

Hoffmaster liked the idea of including clinics in schools.

“It would help immensely to be able to set up an appointment and be able to have the child right there so they could walk down the hall,” she said.

But for today, transitions remain exhausting. Now as a freshman in the district, Hoffmaster and her son are again working with the new support system.

But with the work of the task force, she is hopeful there will be easier paths in the future.

“I really feel like this is going to be something where parents will finally have a voice,” she said. “I just really hope we’re able to come up with some way for them to not feel embarrassed about using it and to have a system that finally works for the families instead of the families having to jump through hoops to get the help that they need.”