Many School Mental Health Professionals Feel Invisible. Here’s Why.
Monday, November 07, 2022
In August 2022, the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists heard another request to change the title Licensed Specialist in School Psychology to the title School Psychologist, as the role is known in 48 other states. It may sound like a local issue, but the need for a name change points to a broader issue.
School mental health professionals are too often overlooked, overworked, and ignored. Some feel nearly invisible.
Ashley Arnold, MA, LSSP, NCSP, assessment consultant manager at WPS and Texas delegate to the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), spoke to the board not long after the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. In the aftermath of the shooting, CBS News published an article with this headline: “Half of all Texas school districts have no mental health services. Uvalde was one of them.” The article, which has since been corrected, completely overlooked LSSPs.
“Given the tragic event of the murder of 19 children and two staff,” Arnold told the board, “this false news article is a punch in the gut to those LSSPs that were providing services and holding the hands of those grieving family members.”
She continued, “How would you feel, knowing that you did the best you could in the days following one of the worst professional days of your career, only to read, as you are trying to prepare for a new school year, that you didn’t exist? That the services you provided didn’t happen?”
Here’s a brief look at the problem of invisibility among school-based mental health workers—and what we can do to start fixing it.
Many school mental health professionals work in relative isolation.
School psychologists, counselors, and social workers often work in spaces that are separated from more visible areas of the school.
“It’s easy to feel isolated because you may be the sole mental health provider, and you’re working in what feels like a closet. When you don’t have physical proximity, you’re not seen as part of the faculty,” Arnold says.
On top of their physical isolation, some providers work in districts where they cover more than one school, which cuts down on the time providers can spend building relationships in each school. And the nationwide shortage of mental health service providers means there are fewer colleagues to meet and connect with.
A recent report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which analyzed data from the 2022 National School Pulse Panel, showed that 61% of schools said insufficient staff coverage was the biggest barrier to providing good mental health care in schools. At the start of this school year, 19% of schools reported vacancies in mental health positions (Panchal et al., 2022).
The isolation problem can be even more pronounced for professionals in underrepresented groups. A 2020 NASP survey showed that 85% of school psychologists are White—a topic recently covered by National Public Radio, NASP, and the Black School Psychologists Network.
Few people outside of school staff have any concept of the important role of school mental health professionals.
The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) State of the Profession 2020 report showed that a very small percentage of people outside schools understand what a school counselor does or why they are needed. Counselors estimated the percentages to be
- 5% of school board members;
- 4% of parents and families;
- 2% of policy makers; and
- 1% of the general public (ASCA, 2021).
Even within schools, administrators are often surprised to learn what mental health professionals can do. Arnold told the state board, “Every year, I have principals say to me, ‘My LSSP can do that?’”
School mental health professionals often experience the erasure of the work they are trained to do—and find themselves doing other work instead.
Amid widespread teacher and staff shortages, school mental health professionals are more likely than ever to be saddled with duties that are unrelated to providing mental health services. The ASCA report showed that 39% of school counselors feel being assigned “inappropriate duties” is a significant day-to-day challenge (ASCA, 2021).
In a report that explored the mental health crisis in schools, the American Civil Liberties Union recommended that school districts “ensure that school-based mental health providers are able to focus on mental health duties; i.e., that counselors are in fact counseling, rather than primarily spending their time with tasks that have nothing to do with their training [such as] achievement test proctoring, clerical tasks, schedules, etc.” (Whitaker et al., 2019).
These problems are largely systemic. They require big paradigm shifts and policy changes. What can individual mental health professionals do?
Advocate.
“Advocacy is my passion,” Arnold says. “At times, it can feel like you’re the lone voice calling for change. But there is a sense of community among advocates.”
The experience can also be empowering. “Advocacy is like a marathon. You come out strong, and then you encounter some days where it’s hard and you feel defeated. But, eventually, it pays off. Once you experience success, you’re motivated to keep going.”
Talk about your working conditions.
With staff shortages reaching unprecedented levels, more school boards and administrators are starting to listen. This may be the ideal time to make your needs known.
NASP has created a list of respect-oriented retention strategies that call for more clerical assistance, assessment and intervention materials, office space, and technology support. NASP is also pressing for more networking opportunities at state conferences and more professional development specifically geared toward school mental health providers (NASP, n.d.).
Build supportive networks.
Perhaps there is a silver lining in the COVID-19 crisis. The sheer scale of the need for services sparked a period of greater collaboration among many school mental health professionals. Some schools have developed mental health teams of school counselors, psychologists, and social workers who collaborate with families and community mental health professionals (Reaves et al., 2022).
In a recent study about post-COVID changes, school social workers told researchers that they had been reaching out to colleagues outside their schools, working with community partners. One participant said, “I’m just thrilled to be able to be in so many different networks. I don’t feel like I’m alone on an island” (Phillippo et al., 2022).
Arnold also recommends joining professional organizations, which can enhance your sense of community, especially if you’re the sole mental health professional for an entire district.
“I’ve been at conferences and met people from across the state. It helps to connect with colleagues. Going to conferences can become like a family reunion. You’re with your people,” she says.
When Arnold stepped to the podium to call—once again—for a name change, she had little idea that her advocacy was about to pay off. Let’s hope it’s the first of many much-needed changes for school mental health professionals.
Research and Resources:
American School Counselors Association. (2021, December). ASCA research report: State of the profession 2020. https://www.schoolcounselor.org/getmedia/bb23299b-678d-4bce-8863-cfcb55f7df87/2020-State-of-the-Profession.pdf
Arnold, Ashley. (2022). Personal interview.
National Association of School Psychologists. (n.d.). Retention strategies. https://www.nasponline.org/resources-and-publications/resources-and-podcasts/school-psychology/shortages-in-school-psychology-resource-guide/retention-strategies
Panchal, N., Cox, C., & Rudowitz, R. (2022, September 6). The landscape of school-based mental health services. https://www.kff.org/other/issue-brief/the-landscape-of-school-based-mental-health-services/
Phillippo, K., Lucio, R., Shayman, E., & Kelly, M. (2022). “Why wasn’t I doing this before?” Changed school social work practice in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Qualitative Social Work, 14733250221076061. https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250221076061
Reaves, S., Bohnenkamp, J., Mayworm, A., Sullivan, M., Connors, E., Lever, N., Kelly, M. S., Bruns, E. J., & Hoover, S. (2022). Associations between school mental health team membership and impact on service provision. School Mental Health, 14, 672–684. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-021-09493-z
Whitaker, A., Torres-Guillen, S., Morton, M., Jordan, H., Coyle, S., Mann, A., & Sun, W.-L. (2019, March 4). Cops and no counselors: How the lack of school mental health staff is harming students. https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/030419-acluschooldisciplinereport.pdf