Providing mental health services within schools: A post‐pandemic imperative

Abstract

Recent research suggests a mental health crisis for our youth of startling proportions, likely related to the stressors of the pandemic. Rates of suicidal thinking and behavior are up by 25% or more from similar periods in 2019 (Hill et al., 2020). And although emergency department (ED) visits were down in the first few months of the pandemic, the rate of children and adolescents boarding in the ED, waiting for a mental health bed, has also increased by 25%–31% (Lee et al., 2020).