UMSOM Mental Health Program Provides Preventative and Interventional Care to Address Social and Emotional Needs of Baltimore City Students

Multiple-Tiered Mental Health Services Lead to Reduction of ADHD Symptoms, Emotional and Behavioral Challenges in Students

The dramatic increase in the number of incidents involving young children and adolescents experiencing emotional distress, behavioral concerns, and violence has resulted in local leaders, health professionals, and educators advocating for early intervention services and supports in schools across the country. School-based mental health programs, especially in Title I schools (schools with higher percentages of youth living in poverty), have a greater number of students who exhibit mental health concerns that are interfering with daily functioning, but who are not currently receiving any mental health support.

The University of Maryland School of Medicine’s (UMSOM) Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is committed to providing services to students in the community. In particular, the Division’s University of Maryland School Mental Health Program (SMHP) has provided a full continuum of mental health services and support to elementary, middle, and high school students throughout the Baltimore City Public School System for the past 30 years. Currently, 22 schools across the City are serviced by licensed SMHP social workers, psychologists, counselors, psychiatrists, and graduate trainees who use a person- and family-centered collaborative approach to prevention and treatment services that benefit the mental health and well-being of students and their families.

The program’s three-tiered system of services include mental health promotion of positive social, emotional, and behavioral skills for all students (Tier 1); prevention supports and early intervention for students identified through needs assessments as at-risk for mental health concerns (Tier 2); and targeted intervention for students with serious concerns that impact daily functioning (Tier 3).  Services include individual, family and group therapy, classroom presentations, prevention groups, teacher consultation, professional development for school staff, psychiatry consultation, telemental health, medication management, and school-wide activities and programs to promote social-emotional learning and well-being.  Additionally, SMHP provides prevention programs for substance misuse and support programs for healthy relationships. Coping skills and crisis intervention mediations are also available. Mental health education is also offered for teachers, families, and students. This critical program component helps educators to identify, refer, and support students with mental health concerns, and to teach and model positive social emotional learning skills. SMHP staff has provided over 4,500 teacher consultations in the last two years.

In 2021, approximately 6,000 students received Tier 1 services, 300 students participated in Tier 2 services, and 400 students utilized Tier 3 services. Of the students served by the SMHP, over 80% identified as Black. Within the last two years, SMHP has successfully conducted more than 1,000 prevention activities and over 6,000 individual, family, and group therapy sessions.

Primary mental health concerns documented by the SMHP program include attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Providing school mental health services and supports in schools promotes enhanced access to care. Of the youth who receive mental health services, it is estimated that over half of those students receive those services in schools. Not only has the SMHP seen increased access to services, but there are also positive outcomes associated with care.  Students who have received SMHP services have reported a reduction in depression symptoms, while teachers and parents have reported a reduction in ADHD symptoms, and students and parents have indicated that they have seen improvement in student emotional and behavioral functioning.

“Addressing mental health concerns in schools and enhancing social emotional learning skills helps to reduce barriers to learning and improve school climate. In fact, when school mental health is done well, there have been improvements in grades, attendance, testing scores, and a reduction in disciplinary encounters,” said Nancy Lever, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Co-Director of the National Center for School Mental Health, and Executive Director of the University of Maryland School Mental Health Program. “We offer our appreciation to our hard working and highly skilled clinicians in the SMHP.”

Under the direction of Dr. Lever, SMHP’s leadership team include Jennifer Cox, LCSW-C, Program Director; Kelly Willis, LCSW-C, Associate Director; and Nikita Parson, LCSW-C, Assistant Director. Faculty leaders include Tiffany Beason, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry; Sharon Hoover, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Co-Director of the National Center for School Mental Health, and Director of the NCTSN Center for Safe Supportive Schools; and Brittany Patterson, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, who all serve as Senior Advisors. Sarah Edwards, DO, Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at UMMC and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at UMSOM, serves as Medical Director; and Kimberly Gordon-Achebe, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Program Director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship at UMSOM, serves as the Psychiatry Training Director.