Federal funding cuts for mental health services leave students without support
One in seven adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 has a mental disorder, accounting for 15 percent of all people who experience issues with mental health, according to the World Health Organization. Leaving these adolescents struggling with mental health unaddressed can lead to consequences in their adult lives. Adverse childhood experiences often leave children with lasting mental health issues that have been associated with additional mental health disorders, lower levels of education and higher risk of addiction in adulthood. Acts created to fund the addressing of concerns for student mental health were created in 2022, when the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was passed in the aftermath of a school shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, in which an adolescent gunman killed 19 elementary school students.
According to National Public Radio, the 1 billion dollars was distributed in the form of five-year grants among about 260 school districts in each state. However, as of earlier this year, the Trump administration notified impacted school districts of its decision to stop paying out these federal grants, stating in letters that the programs funded by the grants “violate the letter or purpose of Federal civil rights law.”
CVUSD’s Experience
The Conejo Valley Unified School District [CVUSD] is among the 260 school districts that are affected by the budget cuts in mental health support. The United States Department of Education stated plans to withhold all future funding of the 11.3 million dollar five-year grant that the CVUSD was awarded in 2022 in a letter received on April 29, two days before the beginning of National Mental Health Awareness Month. The CVUSD sent an email to students and families on May 5, informing them of the U.S. Department of Education’s decision and sharing how the district will respond, stating in the email that they will “review budgets and funding sources to evaluate ways funds could be shifted to support available Mental Health Services for students in the 2025-26 school year and beyond.”
Victor Hayek, Deputy Superintendent and Chief Business Official at the CVUSD, stated that an appeal letter has been submitted, and as of May 27, the district is awaiting an update on the appeal process before proceeding to the next steps.
NPHS Wellness Center
The federal grant from the Department of Education’s School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program allowed the expansion of school-based mental health services with the objectives of professional staff training, funding CVUSD’s Wellness Centers and the addition of 17 mental health clinicians to support mental health services in the district. At NPHS, the Wellness Center has worked to expand its services and supplies to reach more students.
Tracey McTigue, mental health clinician, has been working in and running the NPHS Wellness Center for three years and has seen the expansion of the center with the aid of the mental health funding grant. McTigue oversees the Wellness Center in providing students with services such as individual and group therapy sessions, as well as walk-in services. “You’re on campus because you’re here to learn, so we want to be able to help you guys to be able to be in class and be able to learn,” McTigue said.
The Wellness Center extends mental health resources to students during school hours, allowing students who are not able to afford other resources or who do not have time outside of school to get the help they may need. Harper Wilson, senior and president of the NPHS Wellness Club, has been involved in the club and Wellness Center since her sophomore year. Wilson utilizes the services the Wellness Center provides while also running the club and facilitating its activities. Wilson critiqued the Department of Education’s decision to cut the funding. “It has an environmental impact on the thoughts of mental health, like how people view the Wellness Center. If it’s clear that the government doesn’t support mental health services, I think it’ll likely change the attitudes of people around the school, and it might create more stigma around getting help,” Wilson said.
In light of the mental health grant funding being cut, McTigue and the Wellness Center are looking at ways to self-fund the services that the grant previously provided, with support from students and parents in the CVUSD community. Although taking into account the eventual event of the federal grant running out, plans for self-funding were already being discussed, knowing that one day the grant would run out. “The idea is, if we didn’t have those plans in place, we don’t know what could have happened to the program,” McTigue said.
Mental health and addiction
The way mental health affects a person’s overall well-being is often demonstrated in its role in addiction. According to the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, of the 44 million U.S. adults with a substance use disorder, 19.4 million also have a mental illness.
Robert Miller, a Thousand Oaks resident and family member of an NPHS student, has experienced cycles of substance use throughout his life and is currently a part of Alcoholics Anonymous [AA]. Miller’s experience with drugs began at 11-years-old, but he was 13-years-old when he began to actively seek out drugs, following his parents’ divorce. “Divorce was not prevalent, and it was just a different time. I just felt like an outsider. […] Sometimes I would get high, but most of the time, it was just, honestly, just to feel normal,” Miller said.
Miller believes that the progress that has been made with supporting adolescents through difficult life events is being reversed. “There’s a lot more public understanding of addiction [and] a lot more community resources available. None of that stuff was really around when I was a kid and I’m in my 50s now. […] It’d be impossible to get off drugs or alcohol if you didn’t have the resources [schools have right now] if they cut [the funding],” Miller said.
Not only do Wellness Centers work to make mental health resources accessible and affordable, Miller believes that having help available right on campus also helps to limit the negative attitudes toward those who struggle with mental health that were prevalent during his time in high school. “I think [the stigma has] been minimized a thousand times over because when I was [a high schooler], even if I went to my school counselor or something, and I said, ‘I have some problems,’ they didn’t want to hear about it,” Miller said.
Conclusion
Mental health disorders have been ever-present in high school students, and these disorders can lead to devastating outcomes in their lives, whether they occur while still in their teenage years or continue in adulthood. In recent years, on-site mental health aid for schools was introduced with copious funding from the U.S. Department of Education, but the halt of such funding set back the advancement of on-site wellness aid. This decision has impacted hundreds of schools across the country and will likely subsequently change students’ views of mental health disorders. Out-of-school health and wellness centers are also available for teens who are struggling with mental health disorders. Services such as Alateen are available for teenagers who have been impacted by alcohol addiction in the lives of people around them. The 988 mental health lifeline is available for anyone struggling with mental health problems or suicidal thoughts.
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Tracey McTigue has been running the NPHS Wellness Center for three years and aids the services that are provided for students. “The idea is there’s this aspect of psychological first aid when it comes to students who are walking in because someone might be having a hard time, and they want to come in and talk to someone or take a mental health break,” McTigue said.
