Younger Students Experiencing Mental Health Needs During Pandemic

The Putnam County School system is seeing younger and younger students experiencing mental health issues.

Director of Schools Corby King said having a $250 million dollar investment from the state into student mental health services will help expand what the system already does. King said this issue predates the pandemic, but has been heightened during it.

“We are fortunate in this community to have a community that recognizes the need to provide those services,” King said. “We have some great local partners that we use in our school system to help address mental health needs, but it’s still a huge concern for us.”

King said that younger students are having feelings of anxiety, depression and their own difficulties with home life. King said that administration and staff are learning more about the current effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences on students during their training.

“Things that are difficult at home you hear a lot about,” King said. “ACEs, the Adverse Childhood Experiences and training and our administrators going through that. This is a need that’s been growing for a long time and being able to use these funds to help meet that need is a huge plus for our system and it’s something that we’ll continue to do.”

Services supported by the funds include: direct clinical services in schools, mental health awareness and promotion, suicide prevention and postvention strategies, trauma-informed programs and violence and bullying prevention.