Department of Education, lawmakers working to improve K-12 mental health services

SHERIDAN — Wyoming lawmakers are continuing their work to help address Wyomingites’ mental health, this time turning their attention to the state's youngest citizens.

Last week, the Wyoming Department of Education was among several state departments to offer suggestions on how the Mental Health and Vulnerable Adults Task Force could improve mental health care access.

WDE facilitates a program called Wyoming Project AWARE in several communities across the state. The program is intended to supplement mental health services in a community and make services easier to access.

To this point, the department has reviewed surface-level data related to Wyoming Project AWARE.

“What we found is Wyoming Project AWARE is working,” education program consultant Dustin Brown told the task force.

Brown added Wyoming Project AWARE has been successful because parents and students are involved throughout the process. Additionally, the project partners with mental health professionals outside a school district because a district can only supply a finite amount of resources.

Accessing mental health services in fewer than 45 days would be difficult in the school districts using the program. School districts in Campbell, Fremont, Park, Carbon, Sweetwater, Uinta, Big Horn, Goshen and Niobrara counties have used the program. The communities were selected by WDE based on how long it would take to access mental health services, with the shortest length being 45 days.

While the project is well-equipped to get a student from recognition and referral to receiving the services they need, Brown said it is weak in stabilizing a student’s situation.

Brown suggested several avenues for the Wyoming Legislature to potentially improve access to mental health services in Wyoming’s schools. His suggestions included improving counselor-to-student ratios, universal screening and additional support for students and school district staff.

According to WDE data, there are approximately 94,000 students currently enrolled in Wyoming schools. The current ratio of counselors to students is 1 to 305; the American School Counselors Association, though, recommends a ratio of 1 to 250. The ratios of school psychologists and school social workers to students are much further away from the American School Counselors Association’s recommended benchmarks. Workforce issues play at least a part in the gap between the actual and recommended ratios.

“Counselors provide that frontline defense, but the robust system is the combination of counselors, social workers and psychologists,” Brown said.

A student using Wyoming Project AWARE services could face a waiting period of as long as one month before being able to meet with a therapist, Brown said.

“That’s too long, if they’re in need, to not have other structured services in place, that many times we find actually reduces the need for mental health referral at that point,” Central Wyoming Counseling Center CEO Jim Cowser told the task force.

Improving stabilization support efforts in schools could, ultimately, help reduce the number of referrals, Cowser explained. Those supports could include additional suicide prevention training for all school district staff or more specialized trainings Cowser added doing so could also help combat hiring difficulties.

At this point, the task force has not requested any legislation be drafted; its next meeting is scheduled for June 13.

This story was published on May 28, 2024.