United Way supports mental health services for high school students

United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County
| USA TODAY

“According to the World Health Organization, half of all mental disorders begin before the age of 14. said Amanda Weiler, Health Impact Manager, United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County. “Most cases remain undiagnosed and untreated for many years. And sometimes not at all.”

It is not easy to be a teenager or a young man in 2024

Mental health is an important issue for teenagers. According to the CDC, in 2021, 44% of teens nationwide felt persistently sad or hopeless, the highest rate ever. locally from 2019 to 2021, calls to the Wisconsin Children’s Mental Health Team tripled. According to According to the 2023 Wisconsin Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 59% of Wisconsin high school students reported having at least one mental health problem in the past year

“The details are amazing,” Weiler said. “According to the World Health Organization, suicide is the third cause of death among young people aged 15-29. Depression, eating disorders, and substance use are common among this age group.”

We present a new initiative

In early 2022, United Way brought together mental health experts to collaborate on mental health solutions for youth in our community. Advice and guidance came from local, state and national experts, as well as those with experience.

A new initiative called Adolescent Mental Health: Empowering the Mind. The initiative aims to change the lives of high school students by focusing on prevention, equity and access to mental health services.

United Way has established multi-year partnerships with schools to provide them with the resources and technical assistance they need to build comprehensive school mental health systems and meet the mental health needs of all students.

Beginning in January 2023, United Way is partnering with two local high schools to pilot the initiative, serving nearly 1,800 students.

“During the pilot phase, we learned two important keys to the success of this initiative,” Weiler said.

“First, the needs of each school are unique. It is important that we continue to allow each school to use funding in a way that best meets the specific challenges faced by students in their school.”

Each school creates its own mental health team, which includes students and carers. This team is responsible for implementing a system that works best for their school’s unique community. Common examples include professional development opportunities for staff such as suicide prevention training or youth mental health first aid training, partnering with local mental health professionals to provide free one-on-one therapy at school for students, and conducting outreach activities mental health for students and family.

“The second lesson learned,” Weiler continued, “was to continue to connect schools with trained school-based mental health implementation instructors to guide them in supporting the individual needs of their seniors.”

Both pilot schools have made significant progress towards full implementation of the comprehensive system.

How do schools measure success?

Achieving milestones is a central theme of Teen Mental Wellness: Empowering Minds. The six milestones are based on the Wisconsin Department of Public Education’s School Mental Health Framework, which was reported by the National Center for School Mental Health, based at the University of Maryland.

Six main stages:

Assessment of needs: displaying current status and sharing all available resources with students and parents.
Cooperation: liaise with students, parents, community organizations and the school to regularly address mental health issues.
Ways of referral: the school knows when and how to sort pupils who need support into the right level of support.
Comprehensive resources: promotion and support of general mental health and early intervention, and access to care for students who require higher levels of support.
Sustainability and evaluation: these criteria define what works and how to maintain it.

A milestone is reached when schools implement the necessary components that improve their mental health system. Quantitative and qualitative data are collected to ensure that each component and step is functioning properly.

Teen Mental Wellness: Empowering Minds will expand to an additional seven high schools beginning in the 2024-2025 school year, for a total of nine participating schools.

Howard Fuller University Academy
Milwaukee Academy of Sciences
James Madison Academic Campus
Messmer High School
Pius XI Higher School
Grafton High School
Waukesha South High School
Waukesha West High School
Wauwatosa West High School

United Way will partner with these schools over the next several years as they work to implement a school-based mental health system and ensure sustainability, recruiting additional schools each of the next five years.

“We will continue to build and scale toward our goal of improving the mental health of 21,000 high school students by 2030,” Weiler said.

You can learn more about Teen Mental Wellness: Empowering Minds by visiting www.unitedwaygmwc.org.

USA TODAY Network editorial staff and news staff were not involved in the creation of this content.