The COVID-19 pandemic has sent the behavioral health needs of underserved school children soaring. With the onset of the pandemic, children faced school shutdowns, sudden shifts to remote learning, educational loss, social isolation, fear, and trauma related to the loss of a parent or primary caregiver. The resulting spike in anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation has created behavioral health needs that far exceed the current capacity of schools and health care providers. School-based health centers, located in public schools in underserved neighborhoods, are ideally situated to address this gap—offering a broad array of medical, dental, behavioral, and preventive health services.
Please join NYHealth for a webinar with Scott Bloom, LCSW, former Director of School Mental Health Services for the New York City Department of Education, and Lisa Perry, Manager of the New York School-Based Health Foundation’s Behavioral Health Program. Panelists will discuss different approaches for addressing behavioral health in schools, as well as successes and challenges that school-based health centers are experiencing as they strive to meet this new wave of need among New York’s underserved children and their families.
The 60-minute webinar will feature a short discussion followed by audience Q&A.