Alan J. Borsuk

Deb Kerr remembers — and it wasn’t so long ago — when Brown Deer schools dealt with one or two kids a year who had suicidal thoughts or who had dangerous addiction problems. Now, she says, it’s more like five or six a month.

And the number of students who need significant help with mental health issues? Whose depressions or anxieties are beyond the normal range? Or who are losing it in school and lashing out at staff members or other students or just shutting down?

“Every day there is an issue,” said Kerr, the Brown Deer superintendent.

There’s no reason to think Brown Deer is different from other school districts when it comes to mental health issues. Some problems are probably more frequent in high poverty areas or places where severe home-life issues are more common.

But mental health is a matter that crosses all boundaries. I’d be surprised if anybody who works in a school told me that staff members weren’t seeing serious issues, and more often than in the past.

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There doesn’t appear to be much in the way of precise numbers, but experts in the field say there has been an increase nationwide in mental health needs of kids. Possibly, a factor may be that we’re paying more attention and doing more about problems.

The statement is frequently made that one in five school-age children have mental health issues that go beyond normal, and 80% do not get professional help. The state Department of Public Instruction recently cited estimates that 95,200 of Wisconsin’s 1.4 million children had “serious mental health needs.” That’s a 7% rate.

As with other social issues, some people would ask why mental health problems are something a school needs to deal with. Isn’t this for parents and professionals?

Well, yeah, and it’s good when that happens. But sometimes the home is a source of problems and not solutions, and professional care is not easily available. School is where kids spend big chunks of time, which makes them places where problems show up and need to be addressed.

And, even when there are caring parents, it’s best when everyone involved with a child, including teachers and school staff, works together.

Kerr uses the word “insurmountable” to describe the overall problem of meeting student needs with existing resources.

She backtracks a bit. Maybe “insurmountable” is too strong a word. Like most school districts, Brown Deer has increased its efforts and in adults in a range of roles in the schools are doing good work. People involved in community mental health agencies are helpful and dozens of parents have joined a new effort to work with the school in supporting children.

But, Kerr says, more is needed.

Budget provides relief

At least to some degree, it may be coming. Demonstrating the widespread support for doing more on children’s mental health, Republican Gov. Scott Walker included in his proposed budget for the next two years a $6 million plan initially proposed by state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers, who is generally aligned with Democrats.

The plan includes money, mostly for the 2018-'19 school year, that would support school staff positions to aid kids, collaboration with mental health agencies, and increased training of teachers in how to spot and respond to kids with mental health concerns.

As legislative work on the budget heads toward its decisive stages, there appears to be no opposition to the plan.

Efforts across the board — from the state Department of Public Instruction, in big districts including Milwaukee, and in smaller districts around the state such as Hortonville — have increased in recent times.

Christie Gause-Bemis, who works on DPI efforts in this area, said that when she was in school (she’s 46 now), mental health needs weren’t discussed much. Now, she said, people are more open. That often is including teens themselves. “Sometimes the kids are way ahead of us on this,” she said. “They’re ahead of us in knowing they need help.”

Collaboration between schools and mental health professionals is a valuable part of successful efforts.

A leading role in such collaboration is being played by Rogers Behavioral Health, based in Oconomowoc and working across the Milwaukee area and beyond.

Rogers executive Paul Mueller said the system has 220 inpatient beds, half of them for children and adolescents, and there are normally waiting lists for both those beds and for services in half-day and full-day treatment programs Rogers offers for kids. Even as Rogers expands its effort, it keeps operating pretty much at capacity when it comes to children and adolescents.

Jerry Halverson, medical director of the Rogers campus in Oconomowoc, said it’s important that issues that show up in teenage years get addressed. Those are years when suicide risk is higher than at many other points in life, he said, and problems left unaddressed can show up in more severe forms in later years.

“It’s really a crucial time to identify those illnesses,” he said. “From a psychiatric perspective, you’re either paying for it now or paying for it later.”

Sue McKenzie, director of Rogers InHealth, based in Brown Deer, and a leader of efforts to reduce the stigma attached to mental illness among kids, said there are a lot of issues that Wisconsin should address — funding, availability of services, attracting and retaining the best people to work in the field.

In the big picture, she said, things are getting better when it comes to schools, kids and mental health. But, she said, “is it enough? Obviously, you can hope for more.”

Alan J. Borsuk issenior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette Law School. Reach him at alan.borsuk@marquette.edu.