Our kids' mental health is suffering. And America's schools aren't ready to help.
If we do not increase and diversify school counselors, and ensure that providing mental health services is a top priority, then we will fail our youth.
The U.S. surgeon general’s public advisory about the devastating challenges to young people’s mental health is a clarion call to increase and diversify the ranks of mental health professionals in our nation’s schools.
“The challenges today’s generation of young people face are unprecedented and uniquely hard to navigate,” Surgeon General Vivek Murthy wrote in the advisory. "And the effect these challenges have had on their mental health is devastating.”
Most school counselors are cisgender white women, which means students of color and students who identify as LGBTQIA+ may struggle to feel safe or understood in the space where such feelings are paramount.
While it is not required that a counselor have similar identities as the students they work with, representation can go a long way in developing therapeutic connection.