Youth are struggling with mental health concerns now more than ever. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, in the United States 1 in 6 youths ages 6–17 experience a mental health disorder each year and 37,000 Iowans ages 12–17 have depression. Currently, suicide is the second-leading cause of death among those ages 10–14.
These numbers are alarming, and are causing worry especially among parents. Many are asking what they can do, and who is there to help. Various University of Iowa leaders are stepping up to help, including those within the Scanlan Center for School Mental Health.
The following is an excerpt from the Iowa Magazine article:
Allison Bruhn, UI professor of special education, spent three years teaching seventh- and eighth-grade science in Tennessee before earning a doctorate in special education and joining the UI faculty in 2011. She says she was surprised by the number of students in her classroom who had severe mental health and behavioral issues, making it difficult for them to learn.
“Many came from really traumatic home environments and a lot of poverty, and I didn’t feel prepared to help them. I decided to go back to school and learn more about how to serve them so I could have a bigger impact,” she says.
Now, as executive director of the UI Scanlan Center for School Mental Health, Bruhn serves students and educators across Iowa. A partnership formed in 2021 between the UI College of Education and the Iowa Department of Education, the center offers postcrisis services, short-term individual counseling via telehealth and in-person appointments, and training for pre-K–12 educators.
There likely will never be enough counselors in schools, Bruhn says. The recommended caseload for school counselors in Iowa is 250 students to one counselor, but the actual number is more than 400 to 1. She hopes that the Scanlan Center can help alleviate some demands on educators by providing them with tools and training.
“The number of expectations we have for teachers makes it such a difficult job,” she says. “If we’re going to prioritize kids’ mental health and make social-emotional learning part of our curriculum—and I think the pandemic has made people realize how important that is—then we need to provide to schools the resources and systems that allow them to do that.”